Creatives are often lone wolves. Misunderstood in their way of thinking, their wonder. Seeking solitude in the process of creation. Eventually they will surface from this lone endeavour, finding critique and comment from only their closest peers and confidants.The creative process in this way takes time, for Michaelangelo it took three years to create his statue of David, Emily Bronte nine months to birth Wuthering heights and in contemporary times Taika Waititi looks at his first draft of a screenplay only after locking it away for at least a year. Creativity and ideation takes time and has a natural inclination toward solitude.
This of course is a problem for creatives in corporate culture. There is never enough time, especially for independent perfection. Instead large companies rely on the power of many. Building a workforce to increase efficiency, ability and of course profitability. In business creatives are challenged to resist the individual endeavour of perfection and instead embrace the opportunity to invite more diverse discussion into the process of ideation. This invitation to ideate comes naturally for some, for others it can be difficult to achieve particularly with new environments or teams because to be creative you need to be vulnerable. Your mind needs to feel safe to wander, thinking of the unimaginable and perhaps insane to then conceive the brilliant and achievable. This need for vulnerability can create a barrier to letting others into the creation of an idea. This challenged me when I first moved into corporate culture and still does if I’m particularly attached to an idea, so I have learnt some tricks to help overcome this apprehension. A great start is the approach, when you know your process of ideation you’re able to know when and how to bring other people into the journey. A process that emphasises collaboration, empathy and discussion, all perfect to foster an environment of vulnerability, is Design Thinking.
Design Thinking is an approach to problem solving built from the concept of human-centred design. It’s a process that has aided innovation because it focuses on the human experience. Seeking to empathise with the end user and enhance their overall experience. As a design approach it has been around for centuries but its introduction to the modern business world is often credited to Tim Brown CEO and president of design company IDEO who published an article in the Harvard Business Review about it. This process emphasises the need to understand your end user to build a strong solution, which naturally invites broader conversation and ideation in its application. The format of Design Thinking shifts depending on which paper you’re reading or how detailed you want to go but traditionally there are five basic steps, first you Empathise with your end consumer, second you Define the problem, then you Ideate solutions for the problem, Prototype your solution, and Test to learn improvements. The double diamond helps visualise this process.
This is the format I see the most when applying design thinking and it can seem overwhelming but I challenge you to simplify this process. When my university professor Ashish Sinha first introduced Design Thinking to our cohort he emphasised how it's about truly understanding a problem to then ideate the right solution to fix it, not necessarily perfectly following a bunch of steps to an answer. He wanted us to see it as a system of overlapping spaces that we move between depending on what new information we learn or insights are uncovered . The process relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as being functional. At its core Design Thinking is about empathy, building a deep understanding of people, how they think, feel and behave which is why I believe empathy underpins every stage. If I had to visualise how I utilise this approach it would look a little more like this:
It's simplified to encourage moevement between these spaces whilst still understanding the purpose of each stage.
Now I understand that the design thinking approach can be somewhat idealistic in contemporary business, or at least across the category of media and advertising. It was after all adopted into the business world, not born from it. So how can you channel this approach and invite collaboration when there’s not as much time? I’m no stranger to the two day turn around, if not the 24-hour one for briefs but we can still achieve diverse thinking and ideation inspired by the core of design thinking. This my friends is the power of the brainstorm, getting people into a room and throwing questions to see where they land and what comes to the surface. When approaching a brainstorm with Design Thinking there are four elements that are key:
Understand where you are in the process,
Deliver the information to get the job done,
Have diversity in the room,
Bring people into ideation early.
Understand where you are in the process: When taking this approach into a brainstorm make sure you understand where in the process you want to play, are you defining the problem? Uncovering inspirational insight? Or have you moved into the solutions space and are seeking an abundance of ideas? Perhaps you have three directions and want to converge on your thoughts. Identify where you are and ensure you are bringing the right information to the table.
Deliver the information needed to get the job done : You are the conductor in the room, your job is to help keep discussion on track but also to ensure the group understands the purpose for the brainstorm. Equip your audience with your goal of the conversation so they can feel a sense of responsibility in achieving it. A brainstorm without a conductor is doomed to run rampant and escape its purpose.
Have diversity in the room : Ensuring the people you invite into the room have experience in the category or with the product is important but what is more important is diversity. Diversity of thought and experience is imperative, otherwise you’re just creating an echo chamber. The more ideas and perspectives you involve the more fuel you have to spark a brilliant idea and unforgettable execution.
Bring people into ideation early : Don’t let apprehension or ego stop you from engaging in group ideation. Bring people in early and allow your ideas to be bolstered, not undermined by the challenge of different perspectives. Inviting discussion invites the opportunity to improve.
When we work with our broader teams we are able to create ideas that reflect a community of thought, not just a single perspective. Great ideas have been sparked from one mind but conversation and challenge make them more impactful. The Design Thinking process is one that helps foster creativity in teams but also helps us avoid allowing time to dictate our ability to create collaboratively. Seek out an opportunity to apply this process of design thinking in your work and see how you find it. If you want to read more on design thinking The Harvard Business School has some great resources.
Until Next Time,
Emily
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