Serendipidy

     While I was doing my research for the "Planning and Communication Skills for PR" assignment at the beginning of this year, I realised that the very first of the 10 steps model (or 12 in later editions)  for planning public relations campaigns developed by Anne Gregory represent in fact a method of inducing creativity.
   
     The first three steps in the model (part of the situational analysis) are: the external environmental analysis, the internal environmental analysis, and the stakeholder and publics analysis. The first one, most commonly represented by the PEST (Political, Economical, Social, Technological) analysis, essentially presupposes gathering all the possible information about everything that is happening on the outside of the organisation: governments, laws, public opinion, new findings, economical statuses, future events, tendencies, and so on. The internal environmental analysis (mostly represented by the SWOT - Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats - analysis) reflects on the situation of the organisation: the financial power, the corporate reputation, corporate brand, brand communities, as well as the potential impact of the exterior on the organisation and vice-verse (the Opportunities and Threats mostly being determined by the PEST analysis) and the list continues. Then, the stakeholders and public analysis, the process where the organisation identifies what groups of individuals are more likely to be influenced by the actions of it, according to their desires and expectancies.
    
     As soon as I have finished the research on this particular stage, I was surprised to find that this process of, essentially, getting informed about everything that surrounds and in the same time, represents the company per se, as well as who are the people who are and the ones that might be interested of the product/service that the organisation is intending to promote, has sparked off my creativity process. Having the adequate knowledge of all the above-mentioned has triggered a web of connections between the external status, the internal status, the target, and the product I had to promote. Ideas of creative solutions started racing in my mind so fast that I was afraid of losing them if I didn't write them down as quick as possible.

     This is my personal theory regarding creativity: Facilitating connections, in all directions, between the first three steps of the situational analysis and the product/service the organisation is willing to promote through thorough information gathering can lead to creative thinking.

  



 My quest throughout the dissertation is to further test this hypothesis, to prove the importance of creativity in the PR sphere, as well as to find training methods of inducing creativity in public relations programmes.

Edward de Bono on creativity

     Edward de Bono, creativity expert for over 30 years now, writes (among many other aspects) about the misperceptions regarding the topic.
     Firstly, the most common error of all: it is a natural talent and it cannot be taught. de Bono counters the argument with a very intuitive example. He envisions a row of people competing against each other at a marathon. Obviously, someone would come first, and another, last, therefore performance depended on natural running ability. Then, the invention of the roller skates occurs, and the runners are taught to use them. The race takes place again, everyone is obviously faster, but someone would still come first and another last. What does this mean? It means that if we do nothing about creativity, yes, it will depend on natural talent, essentially. But if we provide with training, techniques and so on, we can increase the creative ability.
     Creativity as art is another misperception. People tend to acknowledge the two terms as being synonymous. This is why they believe that creativity is best taught by artists. de Bono asserts that not all artists are creative, instead, they are powerful stylists in perception and expression. He continues by saying that a race driver is not the best designer of racing cars OR the best racing teacher.
     Others believe that training on creativity has the main goal of "releasing the creativity in you". Closely related to the first misperception, it is countered by de Bono who states that the human brain is NOT designed to be creative. "The excellence of the human brain is that is is designed to form patterns from the world around us and then to stick to these patterns". He calls this the dynamic of perception.
      Creativity because of intelligence: Another aspect that Edward de Bono contests. He exemplifies that usually, the highly intelligent are encouraged not to speculate; when knowing that an idea is absurd, the intelligent would most probably not present it. This immediately creates a wall from creativity. The less intelligent, because of the lack of knowledge that an idea might not work can "score" higher for an additional idea. This is why it is a question of habit, education, and so on. And above all, another reason for creativity to be achieved as a skill.

     There are many more ideas that de Bono presents regarding creativity in all its aspects. But the essential message is that creativity is a skill, and not a gift. Hence, the possibility/need for it to be taught.
     

Creativity and public relations

PR Week, articles from the 3 February and 23 March editions

     It is not hard anymore to see that, increasingly, creativity is a word of reference in the PR sphere. Companies start using terms like "collaborative innovation", "creative environment", "no-boundary creativity", "innovative campaigns" and so on.
This is one example:

 PR Vision TV: Creative ideas that really work

     It is obvious that creativity is a primordial characteristic for successful outcomes of public relations agencies.
     But the questions remain: Can we spark off creativity? Can we enhance it? Could an uncreative person turn into a creative one, and the creative one into an even more creative one? Fortunately, the answer is: Yes!
On one of the lectures we had at the university, the guest speaker, Katie Blanch from 3 Monkeys Communications, has told us that their company has occasional workshops where they have actual creativity tutors guiding them to superior creative skills.
     Further research made me realise that there are several creativity tutors and experts out there, one of which, Edward de Bono, quickly became my favourite, because he shares the same belief as myself :
     "Creativity should be producible on demand. Creative thinking is a skill, it's not just a matter of individual talent, it's not just a matter of sitting by the river and playing Baroque music and hoping you'll get inspired. That is very weak stuff".

What is creativity?

      Is creativity originality? Or, perhaps, innovation? Good imagination? Do we get born with it? Do we ALL get born with it? Is it just that? Just a characteristic of our brains that exists only for some, and for others, not?
     Truth to be told, there is no universal definition of creativity. It is drowned in a semantic swamp. Marshall Dimock, political scientist, asserts:

     "The creative person is the one who is most skilled at including all factors, and especially the psychological ones, and coming forth with a conclusion that is better than others because it stands the test of time."

     A Freudian approach says that creativity emerges from the clash of opposites, from conflict. Others assume it comes out of imagination. When asked how did they come up with "that" idea, some say: "I don't know, it just popped in my head".
     For others, creativity is an ambiguous term, because it is used to characterise a person, an activity, a process, a product or all of the mentioned together, but when assigned separately, it is something else. Another thought is that creativity is associated with the unexpected, the spontaneous, or the unskilled.
     Of course, one of the oldest perceptions regarding creativity is that it is a hereditary ability, a neural mechanism that "runs in the family".
     Another definition is the production of novel, appropriate ideas in any realm of human activity, from science, to the arts, to education, to business, to everyday life.
     OR
     A sort of clue-oriented thinking process, within which new ideas are to be generated based on some clues from a previously structured relevant source(s). This is my personal favourite, because it presupposes not a special ability or gift that no one can explain, but an induced ability of the person that has the proper knowledge to generate ideas. This is the goal I want to pursue: making creativity a palpable and accessible tool. 

Creativity

What is creativity? Who can provide us with a decent definition of it? Is creativity something you are born with or can it be artificially induced? But most importantly, how much does creativity weigh in public relations' processes?
Starting today, I will try to answer these questions, not just with my own thoughts, but with examples and other people's ideas.

As my senior lecturer said, the subject of creativity is a very intriguing one for a dissertation, because it is obviously linked to public relations, but then again, it hasn't been covered too much by scholars or PR practitioners. Indeed, creativity, or innovation, or ingenuity, inventiveness, call it as you please, is not a subject to be found often in public relations papers. So why not contribute to this topic? I've always liked challenges, and this is truly one that, if would turn out successful, will be a major personal satisfaction for me, and, who knows, maybe an inspiration for others as well ?!





So let's dive into the world of synapses...

Taking cyber-interactivity to physical interactivity

  
  http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/AGM/

     innocent drinks is a fast growing business, and it is mostly because of the special connection they have with the publics. Visually impeccable, with simple messages, the website (www.innocentdrinks.co.uk) is very appealing. The social media it exerts is also strong. Interactive games, creative ideas and openness, they all contribute to the success of communication, and the stakeholders only return good feedback to the company.
     The interactivity innocent drinks use with its publics is exemplary, covering all types of communication (one-way, two-way and three-way).
     What is most interesting is that  innocent continues to push the communication boundaries even further, by combining the cyber-interactivity to actual physical interactivity. How did they do that? The AGM (A Grown-up Meeting): a strategy through which clients are invited to the company's headquarters to taste products, ask questions, suggest ideas, learn about the business "and eat a lot of cake". People get to have fun and get involved.
     This is what I call a great PR strategy of gaining trust and commitment. And the results show.