2. From the central image, order your thoughts so that they radiate out with lines in the sequence of their importance. Any key words should be emphasized by printing them in capital letters on these lines. Remember to use only one word per line and to keep the letters upright. Use your favourite colours to emphasize different key words.
3. Highlight the importance of the different thoughts by varying the thickness of lines, and use spacing.
4. Show further connections between your thoughts by connecting lines to each other, linking and associating ideas with loops, curves and arrows. You can also use symbols, such as happy or sad faces, to illustrate any positive or negative points.
5. Help your memory by using graphic elements or words relating to the senses wherever possible.
This technique is particularly helpful when dealing with complex situations where there is a need to set priorities. The strong use of visuality is also effective in making the issues and ideas memo-rable for easier recall.
Idea and Problem Bank
When looking at the Illumination stage of the creative process, we saw how people fail to record all the ideas that come to mind. You should write down or record as many Illumination thoughts as possible. But it is not always possible to make immediate use of these ideas and sometimes you will want help from others.
One solution is to create your own Idea and Problem Bank. This is a place where you can submit problems to be solved by others.
Problems can be deposited in the bank and withdrawn by other people, to be returned with possible solutions. For example, public relations consultancy Communique uses its internal e-mail system to circulate ideas and problems.
TECHNIQUES FOR ENCOURAGING
The Disney strategy
A technique inspired by Walt Disney uses a set of distinct stages to encourage creativity and certain states of mind for each stage of the creative process.
First, there is a ‘Dreamer’ stage. Here you visualize a place in front of you to step into. You literally become a dreamer and are completely free to brainstorm – to create without any restraints.
While you are here, think back to a time when you generated some creative choices. Step into the spot and relive the experience as fully and immediately as you can. By doing this you associate, or anchor, the dreamer, the creative part of your mind, to that spot.
Step out when finished.
This is followed by a ‘Realist’ stage, in which you choose a different place to become a ‘realist’. You need to sift the dreams, organize them and act upon them.
You need to know how dreams are translated into the real world. Think of a time when you thought realistically and constructively about an idea and devised an effective action plan.
Step inside this spot and relive that experience. Anchor the realist part of you to that spot and, when satisfied, step out.
Lastly, the ‘Critic’ stage is where you select a place to be a critic or to evaluate. Think of a time when you were able to criticize a plan in a constructive way. Again, step out.
Now you have created three places, or states of mind, as
‘anchors’ for a particular thought process and you can visit and revisit all three places at any time. With its use of anchor points, this technique is helpful in creating a suitable state of mind for generating ideas. (See Chapter 13.)
Stand up, Incubation Rest, low-cortical-awareness break
After 40 minutes or so in a meeting, simply get everyone to stand up and, as Jane Austen would say, ‘do a turn around the room’.
Attempt anything different, even just looking out of the window.
(One company encourages its staff to play with Lego building blocks.) If you are in a meeting, swap places. This will not only give you the chance to freshen up but will also help you look at a situation literally from a new perspective.
Some great writers testify to the merits of giving yourself a break and a change of activity, from going out for a walk, or relaxing in a bath, to taking exercise. This gives them what we have called an
Creativity in public relations
Incubation Rest, or a low-cortical-awareness break, during which further Illuminations are likely to emerge.
Affirmations
Affirmations provide a useful method of ‘programming’ your mind to act in a particular way. These work by creating a positive statement about yourself and then repeating it regularly. You can have your specific affirmations produced on cards and even as reminders on your computer.
Affirmations can work for individuals and for groups. Typical affirmations for an individual are as follows:
● I am a successful public relations practitioner.
● I am willing to use my creative talents.
● I have a constant flow of new and interesting ideas.
● I treat each new problem that I encounter as a new door to be opened, and an opportunity to be creative.
● Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.
Before you think of this technique as too far-fetched, with an image of group hugs and mantra chants, consider the effective leaders and managers that you have known. They have very likely succeeded by getting their teams to share a common vision and belief, although actually proclaiming their affirmations in a subtle or non-overt manner.
Alcohol and drugs
Are alcohol or drugs useful as stimulants to creativity? Stories of people appearing to come up with a great idea after a few drinks are commonplace. Yet, if you look at the elements of these situa-tions, the drinks and drugs are conducive to creativity only in that judgement is being suspended, sometimes coupled with the benefits of social situations where you are more likely to be relaxed and free of immediate work pressures. These ingredients are better described as influential factors rather than the effects of the substances. (Besides, there is the catch-22 of not being able to remember any good ideas when you are drunk, until you get drunk again!)
The great surrealist artist André Breton derided the potential benefits of drugs to inspire his art when he declared: ‘Surrealism is
Green Light thinking: creative techniques
the intoxication.’ Likewise, when you are in full flow, freely coming up with ideas is the best fix for any creative public rela-tions practitioner.
Try as many of the techniques described in this chapter as you can in order to generate ideas on future assignments. You will soon find the ones that work best for you, or are more suitable for particular tasks.
You may know of, or come across, other techniques for gener-ating ideas. Examine how they achieve any of the following. Do they:
1. suspend judgement or perspectives;
2. stimulate a quantity of ideas;
3. focus on the detail of a situation or problem;
4. generate combinations of different elements;
5. give a structure or discipline to your information gathering, idea creation, and evaluation of a situation;
6. encourage a creative state of mind;
7. enable the individual to detach from any anxieties involved in being creative about the task being faced;
8. create time to be creative?
SUMMARY
1. Although many experienced practitioners may appear to be intuitively creative, their creative ideas are the product of their using a technique, albeit subconsciously.
2. Failing to separate the use of Green Light and Red Light thinking can lead to Brown Light thinking (where the resulting ideas are of poor quality, of limited originality, or where valu-able time and other resources are used inefficiently).
3. Any techniques for generating ideas will achieve one, or more, of eight key tasks.
4. Never having enough time to be creative is not a valid excuse.
Creativity in public relations
KEY WORDS FOR YOUR CREATIVITY VOCABULARY
● Anchoring.
● Attribute.
● Extreme option.
● Low cortical awareness.
● Mind map.
● Safe bet.
Green Light thinking: creative techniques
We tried brainstorming once, but nothing came from it. All we got was a lot of far-out ideas.
A not uncommon response to a suggestion for a brainstorming session Mention the subject of creativity or the task of coming up with ideas, and one word usually comes to mind: brainstorming. ‘Let’s brainstorm this one’ is usually the cue within public relations departments and consultancies trying to come up with new ideas and insights. This chapter puts brainstorming into the context of Green Light thinking techniques and shows how public relations practitioners can use brainstorming effectively.
The word ‘brainstorming’ is often used as an umbrella term to describe the process of being creative. In the context of this book, the word is solely concerned with describing a formal group tech-nique to generate new ideas.
There is an urban myth circulating that the word ‘brain-storming’ is not politically correct and you should not use it as it offends people with epilepsy or mental illness. Other words that could be used instead include ‘thought showering’. This is