How can you overcome roadblocks to ensure the success of your Creative Strategy?

Asking impactful questions can be a superpower. Creative strategy is an intricate dance of ideas. Applying the ORID framework empowers teams to orchestrate this dance effectively. Let's jump in: 'Objective': Gathering and analyzing the facts. What resources do we have, what's the feedback and scope of the challenge? 'Reflective': Consider emotions and feelings. How are internal and external stakeholders reacting to the situation? What's exciting, and where's the apprehension? 'Interpretive': Explore meaning and significance. Why does this matter, and what's the broader purpose? 'Decisional': Chart a course of action. What steps will we take next. How might we adapt our approach? ORID is a pocket skill we should all pay attention to!

Effective communication is the cornerstone of overcoming roadblocks in creative strategy. Actively listening and empathizing with others' needs and opinions is crucial, fostering collaboration. For example, the less we're distracted with typing and can focus more on listening, the better. I advocate for AI assistants like Tactiq for insightful meeting summaries and 'meeting buster' tools like ScribeHow. ScribeHow generates click-by-click job aids and "Steps to reproduce." These are examples of novel tools that can unblock our calendars by eliminating the need for certain kinds of meetings, and that serve to amplify the impact of synchronous communications by offering clear visual aids at the moment of need.

Testing is key here. Once you have an idea of where the roadblock exists within your campaign, product marketing roadmap, or lead-gen flow, it's a good idea to test your hypothesis to ensure you're making the right adjustments. Your adjustments should be targeted at fixing or avoiding the roadblock. Let's say it is a campaign with specific messaging, but one of the product's feature's release date got pushed out, making your campaign less impactful. You could try adjusting the messaging of the campaign to steer away from said missing feature. Or, you could take the opportunity to test engagement with your target audience by discussing these missing features as "coming soon." There's always an opportunity to test things!

Managing resources effectively is a multi-pronged challenge. It's a matter of being change-ready. Firstly, aligning resources with the evolving strategy is key--circumstances will constantly change and shift. Secondly, fostering a culture of innovation in the team is crucial. Encourage open dialogue, idea sharing, and experimentation. Create an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute to creative problem-solving. This helps build flexibility. Lastly, harnessing technology can be a game-changer. In summary, aim for continuous alignment, a culture of innovation, and to deploy strategic technology tools. A team that can learn and grow together, is a team that can pivot and deploy resources in the face of constant change.

From a design and creative perspective, it's always a good idea to follow the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) model. This doesn't mean do the least amount of work possible, it means choosing which tasks and items to take on first, and then executing enough work to communicate your ideas to stakeholders. This way, you'll end up gathering valuable feedback without the risk of massive reworks that will impact project timelines.

Taking care of yourself can sometimes look like "taking care of your fun." In the journey to overcome roadblocks, maintaining a flow between work and personal life is pivotal. Equally important is seeking intentional connection, not just from mentors but through reverse mentorship and peer-to-peer learning. Another strategy is to embrace design thinking and non-traditional collaboration techniques, such as 'Yes, and' improv games. This fosters an environment of trust and innovation, so that work becomes a source of joyful (instead of forced) collaboration. By nurturing ourselves and embracing diverse, interdisciplinary experiences, we boost motivation, confidence, creativity, and the will to collectively thrive in the face of change.