Brands Need Fresh Ideas – Anyone Can Be Creative When We Unlock The Creativity Code

Brands face an uncertain future. Increased competition with ultra-unique value propositions prepared to risk it all to disrupt are appearing more and more. This is forcing legacy brands to reinvent, reclassify, and redesign to ensure they stay relevant. 

But this is no easy task. Imagine a legacy brand with 50 years of leadership in an industry, perfecting operations, increasing margins, and showing growth year after year, only to see that challenged. A few small clients start shifting their behaviors here and there, until one day, one of your large clients moves their business. The ability for legacy brands to let go of everything that has gotten them to where they are today and try something new is tough, especially when those people have not had to think differently before.

This is happening more and more, and as brands understand the power of unlocking gaps in markets and positioning themselves, it puts pressure on legacy brands to be nimble and effectively switch gears.

I’m Not Creative
I have facilitated many workshops for brands and leaders, designed to challenge ideas so, as a team, we can achieve a unique solution to a challenge. One of the most common phrases I hear from participants is, “I’m not creative; I leave that to those guys over there.” Whenever I hear this, I instantly challenge them by telling a story. I was told at school that I was not creative enough to go into marketing. This feedback forced me to be intentional about my ideas and the process I took to come up with them. Twenty-five years later, I have had a career defining creative solutions for business, brand, and people. The teacher was probably correct—I wasn’t creative then—but over time, I taught myself how to be creative, and if I can do it, anyone can.

Defining Creativity
I have been in marketing for 25 years as ‘a creative,’ and this may be imposter syndrome talking, but at the beginning of my career, I didn’t consider myself truly ‘creative.’ To unpack this further, I consider ‘a creative’ to be someone who works in the creative side of marketing or engages in a creative activity— a designer, writer, videographer, or artist, for example—but that doesn’t mean that they are ‘creative.’ Being creative is the ability to solve challenges in a truly unique way, not just in marketing, but in business, brand, and people. Creativity is a much broader skill than just the ability to execute a painting.

I don’t want to diminish the need and ability of creative teams across the world, and there is definitely unique thinking needed in those situations. However, I want to use this as an opportunity to clarify the two because I believe anyone and everyone can be creative. Not only that, but today, more than ever, everyone NEEDS to be creative to work for and build thriving brands. 

Teaching Creativity
Creativity is just something you are born with, right? I don’t think so, and today, we need to be able to teach creativity to ensure the companies we work for and lead are continually successful. Ingenuity is going to matter more and more as competition increases. So how do you teach it? What is the process? Here are some tips on how to train your brain to think creatively. 

Tip One: Mindset
The biggest challenge I see in leadership is the desire to think differently and challenge the status quo. Most people don’t think they are even capable of coming up with unique ideas, so you have to create a culture where ideas are encouraged, acted on, and celebrated. Individuals must be given a clearly articulated challenge and expectation for the outcome and encouraged to take ownership of it. I started to get better at generating ideas when I told myself that I would not stop until an idea was found. That mindset and ownership of the problem is where we need to start. Without it, there is no point in moving forward.

Tip Two: Understand What Success Looks Like
A clearly articulated challenge and expectation for the outcome. This sounds simple, but it isn’t. What are the challenges at hand, and what does the solution need to do to rectify them? Alignment around this is key, and it can take more time to achieve this than the solution itself. I used to have a CEO who demanded clarification at the beginning of every meeting on what success would look like at the end of our time together—the same idea applies. Without that, how will you ever know when you have landed on the solution?

Tip Three: Research
Whatever challenges you are looking to solve, you can’t get a full and complete picture until you have looked at every angle. To push this further, looking at different industries may offer unique ways to approach your challenge. Research is a way to expand what you know, giving you fresh ground to explore.

Tip Four: Focus
I have managed many teams over the years, and one of the most frequent complaints was a lack of time to truly come up with great ideas. It is important to distinguish between a lack of time and a lack of focus. A lack of time would indicate you were given 28 seconds to define a solution, but in most cases, days and weeks were given, which tells the story of a lack of focus. Empowering people to allow themselves to focus on a challenge is key. I have seen brands defined in a day, industry-changing ideas created in an hour of focus between people. 

Tip Five: Let Go of Perfection
Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress. Ideas are often left on the table because, in our minds, we can’t complete them. We have a seed of a thought and keep quiet because it’s not fully thought through. Train your brain to ‘speak to think.’ In fact, say it out loud and encourage those around you to add to the idea. 

Tip Six: Collaboration
Present your ideas to people and ask for feedback. Does it make sense when you say it out loud? Talking helps you see things differently and opens up lanes for different thinking. Find people who think critically and are open to saying what they think. The faster you engage people, the faster ideas come.

These are just six ways that I have found to help generate ideas. There are many more opportunities to teach everyone to be game-changers. Creativity is not for the few who have stumbled into how to do it. Today, everyone can take the lead and unlock the creativity code.