Creativity in your Back Yard

< Blog
Updated on: August 23rd, 2022Ken Braun5 min read
Creativity in your backyard

Where do good ideas come from? Do you spend time in meetings trying to unsuccessfully drum up ideas without really getting anywhere? If so then you are actually fairly normal. People have developed a fascination with using groups to try and solve problems and brainstorm for concepts.

But that is the wrong way to go about things.

The Herd Mentality

Social scientists have known for quite a while that the group method is not as dynamic as people tend to believe it is. Generally speaking, individuals perform better than groups for both quality and quantity and that separation becomes greater as the group size increases. The simple reason for that is because people in groups instinctively sit back and let a dominant personality take over. They mimic other people’s thoughts and opinions and lose sight of their own or at least become less confident in them.

The herd tends to be less creative initial and brainstorming with a group is not nearly as effective as letting people have a chance to create ideas on their own with some quiet and privacy so the conscious and subconscious can solve problems. But feedback and collaboration does have its place within the creative process, just not at the beginning.

Diamonds in the Rough

So if you have a company and need ideas, where should you go? Why not look in your backyard! Creativity and ideas can be found within anyone, especially people in your own company. Anyone can have an idea and in some cases, they can have a lot of them.

Consider this, a receptionist answers the phones and she also fields front line questions and often complaints. The same can be said for people in customer service or sales. Hearing problems and understanding concerns means these people have an idea what a customer base wants changed plus their brains have probably been thinking of solutions for problems the hear about.

Also consider the people who are in the trenches. One thing the TV show Undercover Bosses has demonstrated is the lack of connection between upper level management and lower level employees. Often times the people who are doing work day to day see problems and then create ideas to solve them, because that tends to be how people work. Yet those ideas never make it up the ladder to people who could and should implement them.

Criticizing and Feedback

Of course there is no real point to brainstorming, exchanging ideas and collaborating if people aren’t open to honest feedback and criticism. Debating ideas actually fosters more growth and offshoot ideas compared to people who just agree rather than offering their true thoughts. That means the environment at work needs to encourage people to question and discuss rather than simply agree and follow.

A Blueprint for Creativity

One very successful businessman has turned creativity into part of his entire operation. He fully admitted that creating great ideas isn’t his forte, but if you give him a great idea he will turn it into money. So he takes the creative process and turns it into a company-wide project.

  • Open Call for Ideas – Have a staff meeting or send out an email asking employees for input on a subject or to share ideas. Let them know that they will get credit for their idea (make a contest out of it or offer an incentive) and that no suggestions will be reviewed negatively.
  • Focus Group – Have a small group review the ideas and look for the best options. This group is the one that will discuss and criticize ideas to help flesh them out and look for offshoots.
  • Bring in the Top Idea People – Have another group meeting with the people with the best ideas and do some more give-and-take on those ideas specifically to see if any other fruit can be shaken off the tree.
  • Run with It – Pick the best concepts and run with it!

Ideas can come from anywhere and more than likely some of the best concepts are already in the building. The key is creating an environment and process to harvest those ideas from the people that you work with.

Published on: April 4th, 2013

Related articles

Do pageviews equal success
7 min read

Do Pageviews Equal Success?

August 23rd, 2022

Far too many people seem to focus on the simple idea of page views. They think success is equated by the number of times someone has [...]

Making good social media content choices
5 min read

Making Good Social Media Content Choices

August 23rd, 2022

One thing we constantly remind our small children to do is, “Make good choices.” We do this as a way to teach them the difference between [...]

The unwritten rules for seo optimization
5 min read

The Unwritten Rules for SEO Optimization

August 23rd, 2022

In life there are just certain things that don’t need to be said. By the same token there are certain rules that are unwritten or unspoken. [...]

How does a business use twitter
5 min read

How Does a Business Use Twitter?

August 23rd, 2022

Let’s face it, if you have a business or are in charge of marketing for a company of any size, you need to use any tool [...]

Benefits of hiring a professional writer
7 min read

Benefits of Hiring a Professional Writer

August 23rd, 2022

Why do you ever hire a professional to do a job? Simply put, because they do it better than you. But for some reason there seems [...]

Social media marketing
5 min read

Social Media Marketing

August 23rd, 2022

One of the most frustrating things about marketing these days is that everything changes at such a rapid pace. The internet has spawned countless types of [...]

Creativity in your Back Yard
Share On:
Newsletter Sign Up

"*" indicates required fields

0 of 60 max characters
0 of 60 max characters

Request a Proposal

Fill Out Our Form & We’ll be in Touch Shortly

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Type of Project**

New York City
112 West 34th Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10120
Long Island
991 Main St.
Suite 200
Holbrook, NY 11741
Washington D.C.
1101 Connecticut Avenue NW
Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
Nashville
424 Church St
Suite 2000
Nashville, TN 37219
Los Angeles
1100 Glendon Avenue
17th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Miami
1221 Brickell Ave
Suite 900
Miami, FL 33131
Charleston
170 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC 29401
Richmond
919 E. Main Street
Suite 1000
Richmond, VA 23219