WOW #025: Creativity Is Your Small Business Superpower

 Quote of the Week:
“Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.”
- Donatella Versace

What was the most creative project or idea you launched last year to promote your business?

Whether a specific story came to you or it took a hot minute to think of one, I'd wager that the phrase “most creative” gave you pause.

Is Creativity becoming a relic of a time gone by? 

Is today's emphasis on Performance and Metrics eating Creativity for lunch?

There are many ways to define creativity. 

What I like about Versace’s interpretation is that it recognizes that different ideas (possibilities, alternatives) create the needed friction for creativity to address our most important business goal: Solving Problems.

- How to reach more customers
- How to convert more leads
- How to lower expenses
- How to accelerate operations

The welcome mat for ideas is either threadbare and worn from overuse or completely side-stepped depending on the environment you’re entering. 

As a Corporate Marketer, my colleagues and I often avoided presenting new ideas out of fear of being labeled silly.

As a former gym owner, my Business Partner and I did just the opposite with ourselves and our staff. Spoiler alert: the sillier ideas often had a better track record.

When we run out of ideas or don’t encourage new ones, creativity stalls.

Potential breakthroughs can quickly become predictable breakdowns.

2 Takeaways:

1. Free Association and Effortless Activity Ignite Creativity. Many people say the best ideas happen when going to the mailbox, washing the dishes, or showering. What's personal is often universal. After long periods of deep focus work, free association for your mind helps. Abandoning that spreadsheet for 20 minutes to walk the dog might produce the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for. 

2. Champion Ideas and Experiments More than Your Competitors. What your competitors do is one thing. Your culture can encourage more ideas over bad ideas, experiments over absolutes, new ways over familiar ways. As the business owner, this is up to you to establish.

1 Action:

Schedule a few :30 blocks of open time per week on your calendar. Call it DTT: “Divergent Thinking Time.” No Slack. No Zoom. No Screens. Just ideas and some old school Post-it Notes.

Think back to high school when we all learned the difference between convergent thinking (what's the quickest car route from Point A to Point B) and divergent thinking (how many transportation modes and routes exist from Point A to Point B).

Divergent Thinking is the creative key that can unlock new ideas for your business.

Include a current business challenge in each DTT session on your calendar (e.g social media, accounts receivables)

Reinforce that there are no bad ideas, just better ones waiting for the light of day.

Please share this issue with others and I’ll see you next week!

Hubert