By: Maryjose Zorrilla - Creative Strategist of BTC
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-The key you are looking for wasn’t found-
But here’s the key to my home.
I’m at my kitchen table, adapted as a surprisingly functional workspace.
COVID-19 outbreak has given rise to great worldwide challenges on economy, business and even on people’s daily lives.
Nonetheless, digging on the good, it also has represented a strong driver for creativity and innovation. As a creative professional, one can already get amused with copious creative experiments at institutional, organizational, and individual levels. From Creative Jams triggering solidary solutions to Baby Boomers trying TikTok for the first time. We are all creatives!
More than ever, crisis is shrinking boundaries and times to create. Although research on creativity stresses the need for time and preparation to successfully innovate, with the world shouting for rapidly responses, theories had been skipped.
So, welcome to the relentless race to unveil the key and open doors to the future.
Ready, Set, Go!
What gets you up in the morning?
If you are going through a creative process, this is the most important question you may ask yourself. You’ll need a heavy higher purpose to focus.
Most of us are now working from home, on provisional offices, glued to video conferences, mails and WA. In some other cases people are required in their workspaces, making things as safe as possible. Today, we may all have the opportunity to create and convey solutions to urgent real-world problems, but anxiety and uncertainty may stay in the way. Find a common and touching purpose for you and your team to rely on!
Solidarity and Community Sense as shield
Inspiration can be found in creative solutions to all sorts of problems all over the world, driven by care and connection. Solidarity and sense of community are serving as an armor not only for individuals but for business in order to keep a close relation with audiences, transmitting stories of encouragement and action.
Interdisciplinary teams from all backgrounds are collaborating to solve seemingly impossible problems while leaders are acting on decisions that might usually take years to arise. Here’s another essential for creativity. You have to be sure that your ideas are put into action, otherwise you are imaginative, not creative. And nowadays, action is more than needed.
Action creativity on nontraditionally creative teams
Challenging as these times are, we must all give it a try, even more the ones that normally stay on the box. So, with your purpose clear and your will to act, it’s time to create!
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Prepare your team to tear down boundaries and fear of being wrong.
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Then ask. Listen. Ask. Listen. Then ask and listen indeed.
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Thoroughly work over the ideas and enlist them (new markets, new channels, new ways to deliver, new partnerships).
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Shape and develop ideas based on time, costs and priorities.
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Select finalists.
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Schedule, prototype, implement and adjust.
Make sure you have interdisciplinary feedback and be careful with deadlines on every step, you don’t want creative wave to overwhelm your team and set you apart from action. Remember “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched it too late” (Reif Hoffma, Linked In Founder).
Road to post COVID-19 creative future
-Roads? Where we are going, we don’t need roads-
Dr. Emmet Brown
Creativity connects us, enables us to care, brace and give voice to the lives of the people who are making a difference during the COVID-19 crisis (healthcare providers, first responders, delivery drivers, sanitation workers, supermarket staff and many others). If consciously applied, creativity find the way to reach this people, working tirelessly to keep us all safe. (The Blog Adobe, 2020)
So, if we are wise enough, on a new Post-Covid order, our All Creators World is here to stay. Times of crisis has given creativity the power and responsibility to prove its critical role for businesses continuity, problem-solving and economic growth. Overmore, creativity has been given the chance to manifest its value to connect a society that, against distance, is willing to stay close, visioning the day in which the pandemic will have passed, doors are opened, and gears of the economy start running again. (Entrepeneur, 2020)
Stay Safe. Stay home. Stay Creative and... Good luck finding the key!
Maryose Zorrilla is the Creative Strategist of btc, passionate about spreading stories through words and brand experiences to drive change. She has collaborated on articles concerning innovation for educational purposes and goal measurement.