In Conversation with the Muse

Why Human Creativity is the Ultimate Marketing Advantage

I remember walking into my art classroom years ago and asking the room of 25 or so high school boys this: “Raise your hand if you consider yourself creative.” Something like 4 hands shot up in the air. In my 15+ year career in the arts I’ve posed this question to everyone who crosses my path in the studio, and the answer I get is usually the same. A small minority of us consider ourselves creative. When I was teaching creativity my main goal was not to impart technique (that’s easy)- it was to gently nudge people into remembering their innate creativity.?

I want to focus on two words here- Innate and Remembering.?

In a groundbreaking study commissioned by NASA and executed by Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman, they set about measuring genius levels in children. The test looked at the ability to come up with new, different, and innovative ideas to problems. The scientists discovered a shocking correlation between the number of years spent in school and a linear decline in levels of genius.?

Of the 1600 children surveyed, who were between the ages of 4 and 5, 98% of them scored in the genius category. Here’s where things get interesting. The scientists were so impressed by these results that they decided to turn this into a longitudinal study and tested the same kids five years later. The result? Only 30% of them scored in the genius level. At the age of 15 (10 or so years later) that percentage went down to 2%.?

Insert dramatic pause here.?

Back to my art classroom or as I used to call it- creativity lab.?

Here are the questions I got when most of these kids (around the age of 14, 15) came into my space for the first time.

1. What do I do next??
2. What are the steps?
3. Can I see the rubric for this?
4. How are you grading me?
5. Can you show us an example??

These are not genius level questions. These are conditioned questions that have come from years of indoctrination into a factory-style method of education whose only goal is the standardization of thinking. I’m not being dramatic when I say this- these are facts.?

So why am I telling you this and what does it have to do with marketing and business? Well, marketing is not my first career rodeo. I can see things from a bit of an outside perspective and I see the same patterns emerging, only now they are amplified by speedy technology. AI really brought our creativity problem to the fore, by showing us the quality of our thoughts at scale.

In the world of my work the questions my teenagers were asking me in the studio translate to:

1. What is next on my task list?
2. What are the frameworks/ templates for this?
3. How will this reflect on me?
4. Am I gonna get fired if I take this risk?
5. What are others doing??

Sound familiar??I see this kind of thinking in marketing all the time.

This is why we are drowning in low-quality regurgitated content.?

This is why marketing budgets are rising higher and higher because “things are not working like they used to”.?

This is why the purse holders are skeptical of the ROI and are pulling the strings tighter around their creative budgets.?

The Process of Creativity

When we talk about creativity in the world of business we use the word innovation. Creativity smacks too much of the artist stereotype- and those folks have no place in business. Right??

Innovation on the other hand is rarefied. It has that aura of capitalist striving that we find it easy to get behind. In reality it’s the same process and it follows the same pattern.?

From all my work in creativity, I can boil it down to three steps.

1. Noticing & Foraging

Paying attention is a prerequisite to creativity. By noticing your brain is collecting diverse stimuli. In my creative practice, I have trained myself to be a noticing machine (makes me an excellent thrifter btw). I notice beautiful things, I stop to look at patterns on walls, textures, I look up occasionally, I look under, I notice facial expressions, I notice groupings of words, I notice ideas, I like to open doors and see what’s behind them (shocking how many of them are open) It’s really non- stop for me when I am not focused on task execution.?

I forage like a squirrel before the first frost, tucking little nuts into the soil of my mind. I know I will forget most of them, but also knowing some will be there when I need them.?

This capacity can be trained or as I like to put it- remembered.?

When we were living in caves our noticing skills were on point. We had to spot slight movements, changes in the clouds, the subtle undulation of a soil indicating an edible root underneath, the difference in the rustling sounds in the forest. We were on constant alert. So this capacity is innate, we were just trained out of it. This is our RAS (reticular activating system) at work. The RAS allows us to laser-focus on what we have decided is important in our environment. Because we can’t possibly process all the external stimuli we are bombarded with on a daily basis, the RAS acts as a filter. The RAS is why you notice handsome strangers when you are single, and why you keep seeing Teslas on the freeway when you are shopping for one.?

The RAS is a creative superpower.?

If you are interested in training this creative capacity, here's a free and easy way to do that in your day.?

One of my favorite exercises:

Step 1: Pick a colour

Step 2: Tell your brain to notice that colour as you go about your day.?

Step 3: Every time you see that colour, stop for a second and either take it in or take a picture of it.?

Do this for a week or two and then switch colours.?

PS grey, black and white are not colours (sorry once an art teacher always an art teacher)

2. Categorizing & Integrating

Categorizing is the second part of the process. I take the stimulus I have gathered one way or another and file it away in my brain. This is an automatic process that I think most of us do naturally. Categorizing is a type of pattern recognition and sense making. After all, how can you “innovate” out of a pattern if you can’t see the pattern? Some categories are loose. Eg. colours and colour combos and some are specific- eg: the shapes of byzantine triptychs. We all have these categories in our minds.?

If you are interested in developing this skill find a way to record your observations. This can be a swipe file, your camera phone, a journal- whatever. The key here is to become a collector of ideas. Find what works for you and develop a practice.?

3. Divergence & Risk

This is the step my students struggled with the most, because it requires risk. Now that you have noticed and have categorized your stimulus it’s time to put things together in a way that hasn’t been done before. Yikes! No pressure. Where does this pressure come from? You know it- school! If you remember getting docked marks for not following an exact process even if you arrived at the same (or better) answer you know the feeling. We are conditioned not to play, not to take risks and as a result not to flex our divergent brains. Convergent thought is analytical thought. it judges, finds limitations and applies new ideas to existing context. if you've ever been in a brainstorming meeting and someone says "This won't work because..." you've met a convergent thought. Divergent thought is all about possibility. it doesn't judge ideas, it simply focuses on generating them.

One easy way to practice divergent thought to take an object- say a spoon, and come up with 25 alternative uses for it. You can do this with any object!

In Conversation with the Muse

I believe in the Muse. She is the personification of creativity and my partner. The reason I am so comfortable personifying my creative capacity is because when you are participating in the creative process and in the flow- it literally feels like someone is moving through you. There is no effort, there is no forceful thinking, there is just doing. It very much feels like you are taking dictation and so, I like to imagine that someone is dictating and I am the instrument through which all that good stuff flows.?

I’ve spent many years in conversation with the Muse. I didn’t stop when my youth ended, and I stubbornly clung to her for many years even though all external voices told me that she was not a good influence and I was sure to end up broke, destitute and of questionable morals as a result of our relationship.?

Here’s what I know about her:?

• She only comes when you are ready to work.?

She will not tap you on the shoulder, coax you or otherwise interfere. If you are not at that desk, fingers poised atop the keyboard, she will go to someone more ready than you. It helps to keep a notebook handy!?

• She doesn’t always come to visit.?

What can I say, she’s a busy lady. When I am working without her, I can feel it. It’s hard. The ideas seem forced. The flow is not there. It’s a fact you have to resign yourself to and take full advantage when she does come.?

• She loves constraints.?

The Muse loves a good challenge. She will give you amazing ideas if you have tight constraints. In my line of work (ideas + writing) I always start with the constraints and work from there. It is a misconception about creativity that a blank canvas is what is most conducive, or a large budget in the case of businesses.?

• She is a voracious learner.?

There is nothing she likes more than random information. This goes back to my noticing and foraging point from earlier. The Muse will visit you more often if you fill your mind with new ideas, images, stimuli.?

Creativity & Productivity

I hope by now you can see how this capacity for collecting, assembling and creating is a huge competitive advantage in any field, but particularly in business, where you are constantly faced with changing stimuli, when you are constantly faced with the task of finding your competitive advantage. Those who can see patterns, identify them as part of the larger categories and come up with alternative and weird solutions win.?

AI is only making this happen faster. We have entered another creative renaissance and ironically, it’s the artists amongst us who are best positioned to capitalize on this. The good news is that we are all artists. Yes you, Bob, who “don’t have a creative bone in your body.”? and can “barely draw a stick person”. You too can build this muscle back up and while you are at it raise a defiant finger of your choice to the system that took it from you in the first place.?

Bonus: it makes your life a helluva lot more interesting too.

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