Saw an engaging post on HBR about creative thinking and neuroscience. Tony Schwartz suggested four stages of brain activity that yield greater creativity. His ideas resonated with the internal, backstage “process” we use at RHB:
Input: investing in relevant marketing research to yield significant data upon which to build understanding; and then ensuring that the entire team has clarity about and access to that information.
Ignition: sparking the flame for the creative team to light a bonfire of possibilities; inspiring the team with vision and opening windows with little initial judgment about viability.
Incubation: allowing time and solace to let the best possibilities take hold/shape and making space for…
Inspiration: “aha” and “not so aha” moments that bring focus to the right solutions.
To these we could add Insight, but as a team we have experienced points of insight all throughout this process and at all stages. Whether these four “steps” happen in an afternoon or over the course of a month, they still work in our favor—and, ultimately, for our clients—when there’s a problem to solve or opportunity to seize.
What fascinated me most, however, about Schwartz’s blog post about how to think creatively was the discussion in the comments. Respondents feel strongly about the way creativity works; whether two brain hemispheres are significant to creative thinking; to what extent creativity is developed by nature or nurture; and whether it’s even possible to expand creative skills. I wasn’t convinced that Tony’s post was trying to say everything the commenters attributed to him, but the conversation his post started was gripping.
My big takeaway from my reading his post and subsequent comments was the importance of starting on a strong foundation. In the “saturation” phase of Tony’s model he writes: Any creative breakthrough inevitably rests on the shoulders of all that came before it. In this regard, the importance of sound marketing research cannot be overstated. Creating a fancy “whatnot” will be effective in direct proportion to the research foundation upon which it is built. Smart stuff has to go in before smart stuff can come out. You can’t get an exceptional viewbook or website or campaign case statement without marketing intelligence as the forerunner. It might be pretty, but it won’t be exceptional. Better to begin with some strong marketing research shoulders.
-Rick Bailey is the principal and founder of Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency and author of
Coherence: How Telling the Truth Will Advance Your Cause (and Save the World). Follow him on Twitter
@RichardHBailey.
