Today, people seem more interested in “best practice” than original practice. In the global market place, companies and organisations are increasingly “fuelled” by the same environmental stimulus. And because of this their services and communications are beginning to look the same.
For the health charities we partner with, looking, feeling and sounding like everyone else is not an option. They are operating in an increasingly competitive environment where funding is being cut, fundraising is an uphill struggle and the battle for people’s attention and hearts and minds is becoming tougher. They need their campaigns to stand out. They need to act and interact (with members, media, medical and policy stakeholders and the general public) in a different way to really move people and change their attitudes and behaviours.
We recently invited press and policy officers from a range of UK and global charities to a free Just:: Invent workshop aimed at building creative confidence and sharing tools and techniques to generate novel campaign ideas.
We started by busting a myth – creativity is not a dark mysterious art – to be practiced by the few to the green eyed envy of the many. Everyone can be more creative. It’s about being different and trying new and different things everyday. Being curious and looking for (and using!) stimulus in your everyday work. Because we believe that when you behave creatively, you feel creative. And you will deliver creative work.
Instinctively as communicators we KNOW this. But crucially we don’t practice it. We forget to bring our natural creativity to work with us; our work environment unwittingly suppresses it; we don’t value it enough to give it the time and attention it requires. And of course just telling people to be more creative doesn’t help.
Instead, what we’ve done at Just:: is to develop a practical roadmap for creativity that breaks down creative behaviours and helps people implement them. We knock creativity off its pedestal – and we make it easy to put into practice and productive. And that’s what we did for the rest of the workshop – practised tools and techniques for planning and implementing creative sessions that get people in the right place to think differently and to come up with different ideas. Because we believe novel ideas fuel stand out campaigns (whether you work in the business or the charity world).