Being creative isn’t innate, it’s learnt

By Pat Southwell:

My wife has been working hard on a new creative project. She’s launched a clothing and homeware brand. It’s taken a lot of effort, and she’s finally taken a few days downtime.

Yet the minute she switched off her brain, things started popping into her head. “Why do the creative ideas come as soon as I leave home?” she messaged me.

“Because you have time and space,” I replied, before (in my mind) doing a mic drop and walking off dusting my hands as if I’d launched a truth bomb so big it would have been seen from Mars.

Why was I so pleased with myself? Because I firmly believe in two things. Firstly, anyone can be creative. My wife is wildly imaginative, but at the start of my career, it’s not something I would have naturally felt about myself. Yet there I was, mansplaining something about the creative process to her.

Secondly, creativity isn’t mystical. It’s procedural. Giving yourself time and space being one of those procedures.

So, if you’re wondering how to get the ideas flowing without a brainstorm, just believe in yourself and then try some of the following techniques. They are actually quite simple.

1. Don’t beat your brain into submission

If you think, “Right, I need a creative idea in the next hour,” you’re going to fail. You need to unleash your unconscious mind. Sounds a bit woo woo, doesn’t it? But it’s true. We all have a part of our brain that does things while we’re not looking. Like when we’re driving or on the tube. We get to the destination and think, “How did I get here?”

You need to tap into this. I recently read a book by John Cleese on this topic. He called it the difference between your Hare Brain and Tortoise Mind. The Hare Brain is the rational bit that hampers creativity.

The Tortoise Mind is more playful, leisurely and meandering. It allows you to ponder a problem rather than trying to fix it. Interestingly, this is something my co-founder, Lynsey, is always challenging me to do. “Let it percolate. Sit with the discomfort of not knowing,” she says.

She’s right. Because this is when your mind starts to relax into a creative mode like meditation. You begin to have thoughts. As Mr Cleese says, most will be bad. That’s fine. You can engage your Hare Brain later to interrogate and shape them.

It’s all about exploring things and not discounting thoughts. Let it flow. You’ll be surprised how your unconscious mind kicks in to start suggesting stuff you never would have come up with otherwise.

2. Drift

But how do you get into this frame of mind? Firstly, you need to be relaxed. This is hard in modern life, but thoughts follow mood. And if you’re anxious, the Tortoise Mind won’t extend its head out of its shell.

The answer? Stop. Turn off emails and Teams. Don’t look at your phone. I often find going for a walk helps. Because while I am busying my body with something, my head can wander off in the other direction.

Apparently, Thomas Edison, a man so creative he invented the lightbulb, had a technique he swore by. He thought the best ideas came when he was in the liminal space between wakefulness and sleep.

So, he sat in a chair with ball bearings in his hand. Below his hand was a plate. He relaxed and if the ball bearings fell as he dropped off, he would wake up to the noise. Thus, he entered a perpetual hypnagogic state (big word, look it up). Interestingly, also the state in which people often claim to have seen a ghost. The mind can invent all sorts. 

3. Iterate

There’s no such thing as a totally new idea. Only iterations of what was done before. That’s how collective human knowledge works. We build on the past. So, another way of finding space while also being inspired is to look at what other great minds in our industry have done.

The CEO of a well-known consumer PR agency once told me to simply read all the Cannes Lions entries to get ideas. Then go for your walk or do the Edison thing.

4. Have a framework

In amongst all the mindfulness and meandering, you do need a framework to shape your thoughts. For PR stories, I often think there are three ways to develop a great creative news angle.

Again, they’re things I learnt from someone else. It’s all iterative. I’ve written about them here. They are: do something counter intuitive, turn it up to 11 or shift the focus. I won’t go into them now. Have a read.

5. Test it

Once you’ve let your Tortoise Mind snuffle out some fuzzy thoughts then allowed your Hare Brain to focus them, it’s time to get a second opinion. This normally comes from colleagues who are at the sharp end of media relations. I used to bloody love selling-in stories and have a good news sense, but I don’t speak to many journalists these days, so I ask for help from someone who does.

But, and I can’t stress this enough, don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t accept advice. They need to be a dispassionate, trusted person who will tell you the truth. If they have an axe to grind or you don’t think their judgement will be sharp, go elsewhere.

Final thoughts

Look, this isn’t an exhaustive list. But what I can say is that this stuff works. I stand by it and the success of Five not 10 is testament to that.

So, going back to my wife. The ideas came when she left home. Not because she’s magically creative.

But because she gave her mind room to be. And being creative isn’t innate, it’s learnt.

Cheerio!