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What brainstorm?
Overland Park, Kan. – October 2, 2018 – I will state something that many creatives will never admit to within the agency they belong, mainly due to the popular belief that it’s effective. Creatives hate brainstorms.
YES, I said it.
Structured brainstorms are like “cold calling” on a creative brain that may not be “in the zone” or is focused on the meeting before. Forced “ideating” is just that – forced. It’s okay to throw out a few ideas on a whiteboard if everyone likes to see a large list. It’s comforting, I know. Account Managers feel you’re “moving” on the project and they can check that “formality” off their list. On to the next project.
But, in reality, this structured brainstorming can be stifling for creatives. You can feel like you’re on a clock in a game show and tick, tock, tick, tock … BUZZZZZ! Sorry, you lose. How come you don’t have any ideas?
That’s not what’s happening. We ARE coming up with ideas … at our speed… in the moment that we’ve carved out to block out all other thoughts and concentrate.
Creatives are different. Sometimes we come up with our best ideas in the shower, on a walk, in the car driving to and from work, while watching a movie or even grocery shopping. The reality is, for creatives, brainstorming in a sterile conference room is like when you had to take a math test in grade school and your attention is focused out the window and you wished you were eating Cheetos and on the swings.
Look, I get that some will read this article and think I’m not a team player. That’s just not so. I put my ideas out there for others to squash all the time. That’s part of this job. You come up with ideas, you get critiqued, you move on. But, I’ve witnessed many super creative folk just totally freeze up and not participate because they just aren’t “there” yet.
My fellow creatives can attest to any of this. And we know these “brainstorms” that Account Managers put on the calendar will never stop. So, how do you combat this and look like a genius around the conference room table at 11 a.m when your stomach is grumbling and you’re yawning because you’ve stayed up late working on another project?
Here’s what I do:
If you see it coming, prepare… just enough.
This is the only way I can get through these things if I have absolutely no time to think about them or am caught off guard and it’s an hour away. Make time to come up with at least three “sort of” ideas. They may not be fully baked, or even near good. But, at least you have something to put on the board or the dreaded post-it note tree that forms on the conference room wall. It’s like studying just enough to get a C on the test, but you pass. Then you say out loud, “I’m still thinking on this” and exit. You ARE thinking on this … you just aren’t ready to show your hand yet. Play it close to the vest and reveal when you’re ready.
Okay, that’s one way to survive the cold brainstorm. But then you REALLY have to bring it the next time you gather. (AM’s typically don’t schedule a second one. Do you know how many times creatives have had to say, “Well, we aren’t there yet with that idea and we might have a better one, so don’t go running with that just yet.” Ask for another meeting where you can present the ideas you’ve actually had the time to produce).
Partner with another creative and do “small” private sessions to hash out ideas beforehand.
This is a time where can you throw out ideas, but typically you’ve already thought about them and are actually anxious to share with your partner in crime. These types of “mini think tanks” sometimes render the best of ideas. I guess that’s why art directors are typically partnered up with a copywriter, right? Then, when you both come to the “official” brainstorm, you can collectively throw out twice as many ideas. Drop the mic.
This is my favorite.
Or, if all else fails…
Just ask to move the brainstorm.
This has worked many times for me. Whether or not the one who made the meeting would agree, it comes to benefit them as well since you have had that time on your own to think. I wouldn’t recommend this too often, as they could label you as someone that can’t manage your own time. But if all else fails, this might buy you a little extra time to do your own genius thinking.
NOW, I’ll defend the “official” brainstorm.
These meeting makers might actually keep us going.
Any creative will admit that we need deadlines, or, that we actually like some sort of “box” to ideate in. Open sky is almost overwhelming to the creative brain. Maybe it’s because most clients are conservative and their legal departments are always blowing the whistle on anything too “out there”. We know this, so that’s why we like and need a brief that outlines and sets even the slightest parameters.
Creatives need the timeline.
We need someone to play bad cop and put meetings on the calendar. We just need to carve out time to truly think alone (or with our favorite idea collaborator at work) and come to the brainstorm with a handful of ideas. It’s a checkpoint for creatives, that’s all. I’ve always marveled at the people that throw out ideas like a clown throwing candy off a float in a parade. That’s not too often. Maybe they were having a great day and got on a roll. I dunno.
Here’s my advice. Maybe I’ll just call it … what I have learned.
Do whatever you have to do to ideate generously on your own. Don’t sit in front of your laptop at your desk and hope the ideas will fall out of the sky. Let your mind and soul breathe a bit. Leave your desk, take a note pad, and go for that walk while at work. Do what YOU need to do to think. No one creative is the same. So find what gets you there. That way, you won’t dread going to brainstorms cold and look lame. I gave you some cheats if you absolutely haven’t had any time whatsoever to think, but really … we do most of our thinking while not at work, so what excuse do we really have?
So keep putting those meeting-maker favorites, the “brainstorm,” on the calendar, guys. Us wily creatives will sneak in time here and there to manifest the ultimate idea to share. We might not reveal it in the sacred “all-office” brainstorm, but we’ll get there.
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Written by Susan Tiehen, Creative Director
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