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Introduction
My name is Kay Allison, and I make my living by helping people have ideas.Many people I've worked with consider themselves to be intelligent, well educated, and open to new ways of working, yet when they are faced with the prospect of having to generate new ideas, they say with resignation, 'Oh, I'm not creative.' Creative people have new ideas all the time, right? New concepts spring fully formed from their heads with ease. 'I can't do that!' people insist.Why is the creative process such a mystery? Why are we so quick to believe that creativity is magical, a talent that very few are given? It's easier to stand back, to let other people-the ones who are creative- have the ideas.One of the first things I tell my clients is that I didn't start out as a creative person. I didn't believe I was creative at all.My older sister, Jan, was an artist. I was not. She had the idea of creating artwork on the cement walls of the basement of our house in a suburb outside of Chicago. On one side of the basement, she painted a series of panels; each had a piece of poetry surrounded by beautiful images, each in a distinctly different style from the others.After I saw what Jan had done, I couldn't wait to try it myself. I badgered my parents into giving me a part of the basement to paint. My side of the basement had a single wall . . . and I couldn't come up with a single idea.I kept looking at Jan's work and wondering what I should do. Other thoughts kept creeping in: Was I good enough to do this? Would my wall be as good at hers? Where should I start? How could I make my wall as cool as hers but different enough to reflect my own personality? Without a plan in mind, I began painting. I painted 'Kay's Place' at the top of the wall, and under the title I painted my garden. It came out as a wall of dorky-looking flowers. They were boxy and amateurish, with thick stems and no perspective. I looked at my painting and thought, 'I'm a failure. I can't do this. I never should have tried. I'll never be as creative as Jan.' I tried many things (singing, acting, playing the cello), diving into each with a great deal of enthusiasm and a modicum of talent.
However, despite my energetic attempts, nothing I tried led to success. I had to be realistic and realize that I wasn't going to earn my living as a singer, an actor, or a cellist. So, I went into advertising. In advertising agencies, there is a department of people who are called 'creatives.' I was not in it.Clearly, I wasn't creative; I didn't have the title. And yet I kept being asked to have ideas, and to have them fast.
'You're Looking In The Wrong Places'
When I had been working at a big ad agency for a year, an executive at an international Fortune 500 company asked me to write a presentation on how to market 'mature' brands. This guy worked in the floor wax category. With more women working and the rise of no-wax flooring, this guy's business was tanking fast. Here I was, labeled 'uncreative,' but expected to produce ideas that had enough power to stanch the losses this guy was facing. There was a lot on the line here. This client's career would be affected. His company's profits and stock price would be affected. My agency's relationship with this client would be affected. And, not least, my career would be affected.
I asked my bosses, 'What do I do? Where do I start?' They directed me to look at examples in other packaged goods categories and to learn lessons from other people's experiences. I remember gathering all kinds of information-case histories, consumer surveys, videotapes of other people's advertising. I worked lots of hours. Then I went back and showed my bosses what I was doing. 'You're looking in the wrong places,' one of them told me. 'Well, where should I look?' I asked. 'Just keep working. Ask the Information Center for more articles.' I raised my eyebrows, asked for more articles, stayed late. I wrote some kind of presentation that showed what companies in similar positions had done. Then I drove to another state to make my presentation to my client. I explained what had worked for lots of other companies, but the client kept asking me, 'So what does this mean for me?' and 'Now what should we do?' He was interested in something more revolutionary than what I'd given him. He wasn't interested in the lessons of the past; he wanted to know how to get to the next revolution.What I remember most about the presentation was not being able to help my client create the kind of ideas that would drive sales, revolutionize his category, and connect with consumers in a new and powerful way. Copying other people was not going to enable me to answer my client's questions. I survived that presentation, but it left me with some burning, basic questions: What makes an idea a good idea? How do you consistently generate good ideas? How do you find that magic 'x factor' that makes an idea stand out?
My entire career, from director of new business development to innovation consultant, has been focused on the answers to those questions. I have been on a quest for ideas, a search for the source of creativity. Not in some abstract, vague sense; I knew there had to be a way of thinking that led to good, new, fresh, practical ideas. And I was on a quest to find out what it was.
