How to Be a More Effective Creative

How to Be a More Effective Creative

Programme

Course Overview

Reignite or fan the flames of ambition, capability and effectiveness with provocations and practical techniques to help set benchmarks and inspire. All lessons learnt from a long career at the creative coal-face.

You will learn to:

• Build on six key areas that affect your creativity
• Find new ways to have ideas
• Engage the support of others to increase your effectiveness
• Use 'why' to have more effective ideas
• Use truth as a weapon - we're all responsible for insight
• Inspire and influence your colleagues

Course Information

The Innovation Engine & the conditions for effective creativity

Considerable academic consensus exists around the conditions required within an organisation for creativity to flourish. ‘How to be a more effective creative’ takes the Innovation Engine model created by Dr Tina Seelig at Stanford University as its point of reference.
At the outset of the session course attendees will be introduced to the theory of the Innovation Engine, the principles behind it and the 6 core conditions which underpin it.

Knowledge

• Understanding the language of creativity
• Exercise: agreeing a common definition for creativity
• Exercise: sharing and discussing favourite work and ideas
• The difference between ideas and execution
• What is effectiveness?
• Exercise: agreeing a common definition for effective creative work

Imagination

• The timeless technique for producing ideas
• Discussion: the value of creative partnerships
• The importance of diverse teams
• Miles Davis and radical collaboration
• Diversity and innovation: 6 behaviours that unlock new thinking
• Whole brain thinking - the latest thinking on how we think
• Some practical initiatives to fuel effective creativity
• Extended exercise: mini brief

Attitude

• Discussion: why have you chosen this career?
• Exercise: articulating and reflecting on your ambition
• Discussion: sharing experiences of doing something out of the ordinary
• Discussion: exploring fear and how to put it into perspective
• Exercise: sharing and discussing examples of brave creative
• Extended exercise: identifying the rules of an industry sector and how its rules and tropes might be broken
• Inspiring and influencing colleagues

Resources

• Your greatest resource: the value of creative time
• Discussion: how is creative time valued in your company and how would you want to change this?
• Insight - where it comes from and how you can play a part

Environment

• Discussion: how is your environment geared towards creativity and what could you do to change or influence it?

Culture

• Leadership and trust: how is creativity supported within organisations
• Margaret Heffernan and the principle of social capital
• Discussion: how does your company culture foster creativity and how can you influence this?

Action plan: how to be a more effective creative

• Attendees will spend the last section of the day writing a tangible and practical action plan they can take back into their work place to guide their day to day thinking and interactions.

Please note: this course will involve some practical pre-work to bring to the session:

• I love this: bring a piece of creative work that you love. It could be yours or someone else’s.
• Wow that’s brave: bring a piece of creative work that demonstrates bravery or might have scared everyone to death.
• Out of the ordinary: before attending the course actively do something you’ve never done before. It doesn’t have to be sky-diving or shaving your head, but it could be watching a TV series or film that’s the complete opposite of your normal choice; visiting a venue or event you’d never normally go to; engage an individual or group in conversation that you’d never normally meet. Come prepared to share what you’ve learnt.

Who Should Attend

This course is recommended for junior to senior agency or in-house creatives who would benefit from independent external input to challenge and support their development

‘The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.’ Plutarch

This is not a course about becoming better at Photoshop or being a better writer. It’s about helping agency and in-house creatives to be more effective at fuelling a brand’s competitive advantage.

The evidence is clear. Companies that harness creativity perform better financially. Creative is the largest contributor to advertising’s sales uplift. And emotional creative is better at driving share growth. But for creative professionals, constantly striving for fresh perspectives and originality in a commercial framework, often within tight parameters, can be hard.

This course puts the creative person front and centre, challenging, supporting and inspiring their effectiveness.

Tutor

Ian Bates, Founder & Creative Partner Firehaus Ltd.

Ian has spoken at Cannes, won multiple awards (including the DMA Grand Prix), is Chair of the DMA Awards Talent Hub, a Trustee of GRT (helping young creatives into the industry) and a veteran of numerous judging panels – including D&AD and DMAs. He is passionate about the power of ideas to build brands and helping others to ignite this potential.

‘...he cares an awful lot about helping to develop the skills of those around him. I feel extremely lucky to have worked with him.’ Sam Beament, Dyson

‘A passionate and articulate industry leader, Ian strives for excellence … while also getting the most out of his teams’ Michael Hailey, Nike+

‘What I love most about him is the endless passion, energy and enthusiasm in all he does – it's truly infectious.’ Lucy Merigold, Grayling Dubai

‘One of the most inspiring and motivating people I've ever worked with.’ Mark Benjamin, Pukka

Venue

London (W1W 8SS)