Creativity for PR

Week 3: Lecture 5 : 10th October 2017

Developing Creative Mindsets

Carolyn Freeman
Relevant books
 The importance of creativity in future-based mindsets
Creative and lateral thinking skills are essential for the development of products,
services and communication techniques that do not currently exist.

Ongoing development of the information age

Compounded growth in technological innovations
More complex world with rapidly changing trends
Constant need to solve future based industry related problems on a regular
basis

Some recognition for independent, creative and

horizontal thinking skills, that produce novel ideas
and solve complex innovative problems

These soft-skills are perceived to be the remit of

innovation and creative agencies rather than
encouraged as everyday business skills.
Creativity
 How creative do you think you are?
5 minute Creativity / Divergent Thinking Test

2. de300_2016j_vid023b-640x360 (0:02:00 0:03:50)

 Are we all creative?
We are born creative
Our childhood games are evidence of this
Children are born artists the problem is to remain an artist as we
grow up (Picasso)
Children generally take a chance and make things up if they dont
know, theyll have a go and make up the story and the rules as they
go along

We learn logic
The educational focus of maths and the sciences has come from the
need to educate workers for the industrial revolution
There are right/wrong answers, mistakes are stigmatised and
creativity is frowned upon To watch in your own time

You need to be creative to be artistic,

You do not need to be artistic to be creative.
 Creativity Defined
A creative idea will be defined simply as one that is both novel and
useful (or influential) in a particular social setting. Alice Flaherty
Creativity is:

Notoriously difficult to define MANY varying definitions

Subjective and open to interpretation

Socio-culturally defined and culturally appropriate

Socially judged by those deemed within society to be:

Relevant to the age
Experts in their field
Opinion leaders

Must be recognised as something that is novel, new and

task appropriate
 Creativity: nurture or nature
The question is still being debated
Nature:
Twin studies indicate that genetics does have some impact on creative ability
+/- 70% chance of heritability influencing a person choice of career within a
creative field

Nurture:
62% of those who pursued and engaged in creative based activities were
perceived by both themselves and others as being creative
Creative individuals have a firm sense of self as creative

Everyone displays creativity in everyday problem solving, without requiring

either expertise or culturally defined creative achievement
Creativity emerges as a result of a persons ability to be flexible enough to cope
with the changes, challenges, opportunities and advances of everyday life.
 Creativity: link with intelligence

Creativity is not dependent on

traditional intelligence but by
how cognitive processes are used
to solve problems in meaningful
and useful ways, rather than the
products of creativity being a
result of high IQ.

It seems that creative ability can

be linked to the makeup of our
brains white matter

See video: 2. de300_2016j_vid023b-640x360 (0:03:55 0:09:45) for a more indepth explanation

Creativity and Personality
 The Big 5 Personality Types & Characteristics
A number of different personality measures (e.g. Myers Briggs, TetraMap) the most commonly accepted the Big
Five personality types.

Big 5 Personality Generic Characteristic Traits

Types
Extraversion Energetic, sociable, friendly and talkative
Agreeableness Sympathetic, affectionate, trusting and soft hearted
Conscientiousness Self-discipline and deliberate, ordered and controlled actions
Neuroticism Anxious, nervous, tense and display emotional instability
Openness Resourcefulness, being intellectually curious and being open to new
experiences

Note: we all have a unique mix of the 5 personality types with one more dominant that
the others and is manifest through the traits that we display (both inwardly and
outwardly) and is what defines us as unique, individual human beings.

Well be exploring the links between creativity and personality in week 5 so were not
going in to detail in this weeks session.
It may be worth doing a Big 5 Personality Type questionnaire to understand a bit more
about your dominant Type.
https://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/big-five-personality/
 Personality Types & Creativity

Research has shown that:

Openness and Extroversion are directly associated
with creativity

A weak correlation between creativity and

Neuroticism

A negative correlation between creativity

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness
 What else is there that affects creative ability
The cognitive ability to draw information out of the long
term memory at the right time for the right purpose

The environment you expose yourself to at home or

out of home

Simply giving a person the permission to be creative

either by giving instructions or by creating a safe and
nurturing environment

Everyone has the same potential to be creative,

whatever the gender, culture or ethnicity
The Dark Side of Creativity and Genius
 The Thin Line Dividing Genius and Madness
There is no great genius without a tincture of madness.
(Roman Poet: Seneca, 1st Century AD)

Strong evidence for creative-madness link:

Close relatives of creative people have higher rates of
schizophrenia & psychotics have more creative relatives
(Simonton, 2005) - one e.g. Einstein had a schizophrenic son
Van Gogh

I have been surprised at finding how often insanity or idiocy has

appeared among the near relatives of exceptionally able people
(Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius, 1892)

Mental disorder is more common in close relatives of creative Isaac Newton: Intensely
people where illness usually impedes success the exception is suspicious and distrustful of
colleagues and competitors
writers who have high disorder rates incl. schizophrenia, mood
disorders, anxiety, alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide (Kyaga et al,
2012).

Certain traits and thought processes are shared by genius and

madmen (various genes and neurotransmitters are implicated)
o Ideas are novel, unconventional and grandiose John Nash (A beautiful mind):
o Usually workaholics, ambitious, narcissistic and self-promoting Experienced paranoid delusions.
Hospitalised involuntarily and
feigned sanity to be discharged.
 Malevolent Creativity
Research suggests that creatives are more likely to consider
a range of both honest and dishonest solutions to problems
and being dishonest can encourage creativity

The Dark Tetrad

Machiavellianism Narcissism Psychopathy Everyday
Detached manipulation Self-obsession Anti-social behaviour sadism
Cynical Superiority Lack of conscience Gaining pleasure
Calculating Entitlement Absence of empathy from others pain
Unprincipled Grandiosity

The Wolf of Wall Street The Devil Wear Prada Amon Goeth in Shindlers List 50 Shades of Grey

Underlying traits: callous, disagreeable, lack of honesty or humility

Creativity and Thinking
 The different ways we think
Our thinking is diverse - we think about the
world in all the ways that we experience it
Visually
In sound
kinaesthetically
In abstract terms
In movement

Zhang (2001) has revealed a significant relationship between thinking styles and
personality, with the external thinking style being linked to social and
enterprising personalities and the conservative thinking style associated with
personality traits that prefer structure, guidelines and working on details.
 Thinking Styles
A direct indication of how individuals prefer to use their cognitive abilities to process data

Creative The processes involved in coming up with ideas for products, processes
Thinking or press.
A creative idea is often the result of merging/combining of two existing
concepts or ideas in order to create a new idea
Lateral The process that searches for a simple solution outside of a logical
Thinking systematic framework and uses outside the box thinking where an
incorrect answer is sometimes needed to find a more correct answer.
Requires the deliberate search for and generation of irrelevant
information to repattern and restructure this information so as to
generate new ideas
Divergent The ability to have ideation fluency and flexibility and requires the
Thinking movement of thought in a variety of directions that leads to unusual,
novel or unique ideas and solutions.
Insights The discovery of something enlightening about needs or values that can
be used to gain a competitive advantage

Well be covering Lateral Thinking and DeBonos 6 hats during week 4

 Brain preferences
(found in behaviour & communication tests)
Left Hemisphere thinking Right Hemisphere thinking
Ideas and
imagination

Salience, logic
Creativity and
and planning
curiosity
sequence

Data and Passion and

facts emotion

Thinks in pictures
Stores memories as a whole
Social and
and experience
community

Popular science image!

Left and Right Brain theory doesnt make sense
Reading music requires
more logical sequential
brain thinking.

Instruments and
equipment are designed
for right hand use.

Left-handed people learn

more intuitively
pictures and sounds.
 Neuroscientific research is changing the way we
perceive how our creative brain functions
Creativity in dynamic and interactive and is not a left
brain / right brain phenomenon

The whole creative process involves interacting

cognitive processes and emotions (both conscious and
subconscious)
 Thinking creatively uses the whole brain

Different brain regions are involved at each point of

the process:
preparation > incubation > illumination > verification

Resulting in the whole brain being engaged during

the entire creative process

Logic (Green)
Executive Attention Network

Creativity (Red)
Imagination Network
Creativity is stimulated when turning off the logic switch
In neuroscientific research on free-style rappers:
Areas of the brain normally used for making decisions (blue
areas) were deactivated
When performing free-style creative tasks (orange areas)

We think what we see is a relaxation of executive functions to allow

more natural de-focused attention and uncensored processes to occur
that might be the hallmark of creativity (Alan Braun)
 How your brain works in University

In lectures: The Executive Attention Network

The brain acts like a laser

blocking potentially distracting information
focusing on complex information
sourcing and logically storing data

It puts more demand on your working memory taking

notes helps

Uses the outer and back regions of the brain

 How your brain works in University

In seminars: The imagination network

This helps you to work creatively by constructing your

own insights about what you see and observe.

This is based on your past personal experiences & social

interactions.

It helps us to understand how other people think or act.

 How your brain works in University

While studying: Salience and problem solving.

The brain monitors both external events and

the internal stream of consciousness and uses
the most appropriate information to solve the
task at hand

Helps you to sift information

Improving Your Creativity
 Increase your creativity by: increasing dopamine levels
The more dopamine that is released into our system and
taken up by the brain, the more creative we are

Activities that increase dopamine

flow:
Taking a warm shower
Exercising
Driving home
Engaging in a hobby
i.e. things that make us feel great
and relaxed

People vary in terms of their level of creative drive according to the

activity of the dopamine pathways of the limbic system. (Alice Faherty)
 Increase your creativity by: distract yourself
A distraction may force an incubation period for an idea to move
from you being fixated on an ineffective solution and a
breakthrough idea that solves the problem.

Your subconscious mind may

have been working out ways to
solve the problem giving your
conscious mind a break will
allow your subconscious mind a
chance to allow those ideas to
surface.

A distraction may provide the break you need to disengage from

a fixation on the ineffective solution. (Shelley H. Carson)
 Increase your creativity by: relaxing
When our minds are at ease were more likely to direct the
spotlight of attention inward, toward that stream of remote
associations that are bouncing around our brain.
When we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be
directed outward, toward the details of the problems were
trying to solve - necessary when solving problems analytically,
but preventing us from detecting the connections that lead to
insights.
(Jonah Lehrer)
 Tips to foster daily creative moments

Research shows that you come up with your most creative

ideas when you least expect to:

Everyday we have moments of creativity - dont worry about trying

to spark your creativity, but rather capture and celebrate the
creative moment when it happens

Keep a notebook with you at all times and capture the idea
immediately mapping out or cataloguing creative ideas can help
you recall them easier later
 Tips to foster daily creative moments cont

Plan daily distractions go for a walk, start the task put it down to
work on something else then pick the task up again, go shopping

Overwhelm your brain take on a task you think is too hard for
you & keep working on it, the shock will naturally engage your
creativity, then get back to the task you were working on before
it may seem a lot easier

Learn new skills, develop wider interests, read widely and meet
new people the more new connections you make, the more
opportunity your brain has to subconsciously find daily creative
solutions
 Creativity and Audiences
Internal and External Communications

relevance for bothand some examples

Become aware of your biases - they can easily stifle
Confirmation Bias:
your insights, perspective and creativity some e.g. The tendency to
search for, interpret,
focus on and
Framing Effect: remember information
Neglect of Probability: in a way that confirms
Drawing different ones preconceptions
The tendency to conclusions from the
completely disregard same information,
probability when depending on how
making a decision that information is
under uncertainty presented

Empathy Gap:
Illusion of Control: The tendency to
The tendency to underestimate the
overestimate ones influence or strength
degree of influence of feelings, in either
over other external oneself or others
events
Post-purchase
rationalisation:
The tendency to
persuade oneself
Optimism Bias: through rational
The tendency to be argument that a
over-optimistic, purchase was good
overestimating value.
favourable and
pleasing outcomes
Biases (heuristics) simplify
our world and are useful
most of the time.
How do our biases affect how we read communication from others?

Sometimes we need to look

at communication from a
completely different
perspective in order to fully
understand it.
 How do our biases affect how others read our communication?

I don't think he should get the job.

I don't think he should get the job.
Meaning: Somebody else thinks he should get the job.

I don't think he should get the job.

Meaning: It's not true that I think he should get the job.

I don't think he should get that job.

Meaning: That's not really what I mean. OR I'm not sure he'll get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.

Meaning: Somebody else should get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.

Meaning: In my opinion it's wrong that he's going to get that job.

I don't think he should get that job.

Meaning: He should have to earn (be worthy of, work hard for) that job.
Understanding our
I don't think he should get that job. audiences frame of
Meaning: He should get another job. reference is key to
knowing where to
I don't think he should get that job. place emphasis on our
Meaning: Maybe he should get something else instead.
communications
 System 1 thinking (Kahneman)
Automatic system, acts without conscious effort, fast,
mental shortcuts, no thinking involved, subconscious
decisions e.g. walking, driving

If its less hassle, then people will default to that

option, even if the choices arent good.

Note: System 2 is the effortful system, thinking is deliberate,

conscious, slower
Unless you make it fun, disrupt automatic processes
and give people a reason to change

Other examples to
watch in your own time.
 The Social brain

Humans are social species few enjoy being ostracized

We need social recognition and acceptance -

Urbanisation and globalization

Physical communities disintegrating
Online communities growing

Technology is changing faster than most can keep up with

Product and service choice is increasing resulting in

decision fatigue
 The Social brain

Branding and behavioural communication plays to our social

nature, as do social media sites

Were relying more and more on reviews and recommendations

from strangers

Ill have what shes having

o Upgrading your phone every 2 years
o Having the latest

Amazon makes product suggestions based on what other people

have bought
 Using the social brain in communications

Do whats right for your friends and family?

Guilt and fear of missing an organ if no Endorsement by contemporaries
commitment were made?

Our pets are included in Lynx comms appeal to the desire to be It must be good if that
social brain comms physically socially acceptable many people eat there?
 Loss Aversion
People will work harder to avoid losing something than they will to gain it

Central to Behavioural Economics - we tend to avoid losses at all costs

Were happy when we make money, but suffer when we lose money

The emotion of losing is stronger than the emotion of winning

Losses are perceived as about 2.5 times more powerful than gains
Giving a free trial period = people consider themselves owners and more painful to lose the
item/service, than the cost of paying e.g. the subscription

Framing of value to trigger a loss averse

response
Happier to receive a discount 5 on a your next
bill rather than receiving a 5 surcharge but will
waive the charge fee as a gesture of goodwill

Satisficing (satisfy and sufficient)

finding a solution that will do the job
Preference for good enough (discount) brands
Thatll do
 Making rational choices
1. Everything is relative - people dont
normally know how much a product
or service ought to cost

2. We often pay too much when we pay

nothing e.g. free shipping, there
seems to be no downside

3. Were happy to do things, but not

when were paid to do them
market norms are not the same as
social norms

4. Why we cant make ourselves do Dan Ariely: Behavioural Economist cites

the Economist subscription choices
what we want to do, without the
pressure of deadlines

Animated book
review to
watch in your
own time
 In Summary
We were all born creative but we are taught logic through education relevant for the industrial revolution

Genetics has some influence on creative ability, but so does personality, socio-cultural environment, creative
self-perception and the flexibility to solve everyday challenges

Being creative in the workplace to solve unique future-based work is an increasingly important skill

A creative idea is often the result of merging/combining of two existing concepts or ideas in order to create a
unique or novel idea

Creativity can be used for both good and evil/self-centred purposes

The deeply held belief that the right hemisphere of the brain is creative and the left brain analytical is false.
The creative process uses all 4 quadrants of the brain simultaneously as does the logical process
Creative parts of the brain are switched off when using logic and visa versa

It is possible to improve creativity

Increasing dopamine levels
Distracting yourself from an intense task
Relaxing and taking a mental break from thinking
Maximising new experiences

Understanding our own biases and how our audience thinks and behaves, will help us to develop more
creative communications that have more profound results
Its not about being creative, just for the sake of being creative
Its about creative ideas that hit home for the audience, reinforce or change behaviour and maximise
communication budget spend.
 What else are we doing this week?

Tomorrows lecture:
Understanding and working with opinion leaders,
tribes and global networks

Fridays seminars:
Collecting evidence: knowing your audience