“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” - Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti, legendary racer, was talking about driving Formula 1 race cars, but his quote is remarkably apt to today’s business world. Controlled chaos is the objective of many of today’s cutting edge businesses. Agencies especially are operating in overdrive, merely to keep up with changes in technology, media, and even client operations and needs.
In a world that has shifted from manufacturing to service, from production to ideation, controlled chaos is not a bad thing. Teetering on the edge can be a great location for mind-bending thinking, as it can provide a rush of adrenalin that can move you to try things you might have avoided as too risky or too “out there,” given time to overthink. Taking a more measured approach may lead only to a variation on the same old solution.
Our primary business is still ideas. The kinds of ideas clients need from us are constantly evolving, but they are still ideas. How we execute those ideas—whether in traditional print or outdoor media, or newer web, social or mobile media—is less critical than the need for us to foster “higher risk” ideation. As in financial investing, high creative risk offers the potential for high returns.
If your creative work is bogged down in process, try some new brainstorming tactics, methods that focus on speed and immediacy rather than discussion and lengthy consideration. Here are some things to try to push your creative development a little closer to that edge.
Free Association – Throw a bunch of random photos, objects or words on slips of paper into a hat. Draw them, display them, and ask for the first word that comes to participants’ heads when they see the thing. Write everything down. Move on quickly to the next thing. This also works using a random list of words, and just going around the table, giving a new word to each person. Don’t think or discuss until you’re done.
Silly Products – Every few weeks, have a “Silly Product Development” session. Write a creative brief for a completely ridiculous, totally imaginary product. Then have your team brainstorm names, silly logos and ad ideas. You’ll have a great time, laugh a lot and get everyone collaborating. Tie ideas back to specific projects. What if we made a movie of our client’s product? Who would we cast to play the client? What story would we tell? How would we market it to the moviegoer?
Idea Bank – Keep a folder on Google Drive, or any other file sharing service, and fill it with idea starters: article clippings, funny headlines, photos, cartoons, doodles, ads you like, links, whatever. When you need to trigger new thinking, randomly select a few items in the folder and see what ideas stir to the surface. Record everything, especially the whacky stuff.
Dictionary Pick – Stuck for an idea? Unable to move beyond an uninspiring solution? Open the dictionary at random and, with eyes closed, put your finger on a word. Relate it to the problem. Try to spin ideas based on the word.
Dream Talk – Compare silly, strange and just plain creepy dreams. Free-associate from dream images, or use them as starting points for story-telling exercises.
All brainstorming techniques can be wrapped back into specific projects or creative briefs. Relate ideas from brainstorming to problems by asking “what if” questions.
Keeping sessions short helps keep ideas spinning—time limits become adrenalin boosters. Also, involve everyone in the agency, not just creative staff. Sometimes the most agile minds are those invited to try something they don’t normally get asked to do. The trick to fast-paced creative sessions is to keep them interesting, challenging and different. Test some new thinking techniques and see how far out on the edge your creative ideas can travel.
