Shiraz Khan, Founder / Director, SpiceTree Design Agency (SDA)
Creativity could mean different things to different people. It comes with many layers of meaning. The opportunities and experiences we encounter throughout our lives strongly influence how we assess our creativity levels. Most of us perceive creativity as transcending traditional concepts and transforming new, imaginative ideas into reality. But it is about originality, being different, and daring.
Creativity and emotions are needed in equal parts for an outcome that can move us, give us goosebumps, and tell us that it is a brilliant idea. While the former requires a person to know and break the rules, the latter demands empathy and feelings. Unfortunately, they are both under attack. How? Below are a few starters.
The Role of Rules
Until now, creators and agencies in the creative space have had to go through a box-ticking exercise of standard rules before anything could be invented. These set processes, best practices, algorithms, and endless research diluted to fit into a certain mold have made everything quite similar to everything else.
The popular saying, “constraints choke creativity,” could not be more relevant than in this connection. This isn’t to say that constraints and rules don’t play a role. They do. In fact, they are the rules we need to be aware of to break them. But when our innate human curiosity does not get sufficient exposure to thrive, we will most likely be inefficient and reluctant to innovate or face a creative block.
Ultimately, this frame of mind discards innovation as we prematurely reject solutions that may have feasible applications we have yet to consider. Unfortunately, many workplaces and clients operate this way and often overlook the need to grant creative independence, fostering a culture of criticism and micromanagement. This approach’s outcome reflects brand stagnation, a lack of creative output, employee frustration, and repetitive ideas.
Going Behind and Beyond Closed Doors
If you look at leading tech companies like Apple, Google, IBM, and Amazon, they have mainly succeeded due to their dedication toward creative independence. These brands have entrusted the responsibility of new product development, marketing and communication, and finances, along with other functions, to experts who have shown the ability to produce new ideas, take risks, and deliver work that outshines their competitors.
Several new-age organizations, including those mentioned above, emphasize lounge areas, long-coffee tables, and break-out areas for employees. These are a few ways to promote collaboration and conversations that could translate to developing the next big project. However, creative collaboration can be created within the organization’s four walls. In this era of cocreation, external creative partners can contribute equally, or rather more, towards a company’s goals.
These potential partners, namely creative agencies, influencers, and social media creators, have a substantial reach and the correct understanding of how to build a robust brand community. The only thing required is to give these partners the freedom to generate creative and growth plans with minimal interference to witness more appealing outcomes and maintain the level of authenticity that consumers desire. This is possible when brands and agencies create shared goals and align teams to achieve them.
Get Started, Get Creative
It is high time that companies take a proactive step towards promoting a collaborative environment rather than a culture of fear so that employees and brand partners can share their ideas openly without judgment and be aware of how their actions affect business performance and shape the organization’s evolution. And what is even more important is the need to give them space, the time to think about it, and the leeway to imagine something ‘out-of-the-box.’ This is the only way to witness originality and experience goosebumps!
