Although being ‘creative’ is unquestionably a good thing, the concept is vague and ill-defined and usually only refers to those who write or draw. Here Hanne Kristiansen and Mark Simmonds describe an innovative system for defining five different styles of individual creativity which are essential to producing effective team work and winning ideas

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The Mars bar, Pret a Manger,Apple iPod, Google, X Factor,Dyson.Allof thesebrands rep-

resent famous success stories thatstandoutfromthecrowdinverycom-petitivemarketplaces.

Atsomepointintheirdevelopment,a creative spark or two catapultedthem on the road to success. Yet theimportant point is that the likes ofFrank Mars, Steve Jobs, Larry PageandSimonCowellallfoundthatcrea-tivesparkinquitedifferentways.

Creativity is the personal skill thatenables individualsandteamstohelpbusinesses act differently in order togrow.Unfortunately, thisbigword isusually misunderstood in the corpo-rateworld–itisdifficulttonaildownprecisely.

Thisiswhypeopleshiftnervouslyintheirseatswhenasked‘Areyoucrea-tive?’Thewordtendstobeassociatedwith thearts, andcreativepeopleareoften believed to have ‘special’ pow-ers.Asaresult,creativityandbusinessoftenmixlikeoilandwater.

Somostpeopledon’tthinktheyarecreative.Buttheyare.

The question isn’t are you creative but how are you creative?

Introducing Creative CreaturesCreativeCreaturesisaground-break-ing marketing capability tool thathelps companies to be more innova-tive by leveraging the full creativepotentialoftheirpeople.

The tool breaks creativity, that bigword, down into five fundamentalbehavioural building blocks: theStimulator, the Spotter, the Sculptor,the Selector, and the Supporter (seetable,page43).

Creative Creatures enables you tounderstand how you are creative byidentifying your strengths and weak-nessesacrosseachofthebehaviours.

By being more aware of your per-sonalcreativeprofile,oryourCreativeID,youwillbeclearerabouttherole

youcanplayinanyprocessrequiringcreativeinput.

Sothat‘Areyoucreative?’questionshould be rephrased more construc-tivelyas‘Howareyoucreative?’

There are three really importantcommentstomakeaboutthefivefun-damental creative behaviours. First,eachofthebehavioursiscriticaltothecreative process. Not one of them issuperiororbetterthantheothers.

Withouttheexploratorymindsetofthe Stimulator, the flower-bed forcreativesolutionswouldsoondryout.Without the detective mind of theSpotter, it is likely thatopportunitieswouldgobeggingandgoldennuggetswouldremainunearthed.

Without the Sculptor’s skills ofcommunication and articulation,

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those nuggets would not get devel-oped into clear, fully formed ideas,understood by everybody. WithouttheSelector’srationalandcommercialperspective, the wrong decisionswouldbemadeatcriticalstagesofthecreative journey. And without theempathy and versatility of theSupporter, group dynamics wouldmorelikelyhinderthanhelpthesuc-cessoftheproject.

Second,asindividuals,itisunlikelythat you will all be equally strong ineachofthefivebehaviours.

If, for example, you are a strongStimulator,alwayslookingtoexplore,expand,unearth,diversify,youmightnot feelateaseclosingdown,choos-ing between two options – in otherwords,demonstratingtheconvergingbehavioursofaSelector.

If, on the other hand, you feeltotally comfortable picking threesticky notes out of a forest of threehundredtoidentifyastrongnuggetofan idea in a brainstorming session –thearchetypalSpotter–youmayfeelcompletely uncomfortable spending30minutes trying tocarefullycraftaconceptforresearch–theSculptor.

ThethirdandfinalpointrelatestotheoverallshapeofyourCreativeID.It may well be ‘spiky’, meaning thatyou have clear strengths and weak-nesses for each of the behaviours.Thatisfine.

Alternatively,yourCreativeIDmaybe ‘rounded’, meaning that you areequally strong across all the behav-iours.Finetoo.Inbothcases,youaremore than earning your place at thecreativetable.

Essentiallythereisnosuchthingasa ‘bad’ Creative ID – ‘spiky’ profilesarenobetterorworsethan‘rounded’ones.WhetheryourCreativeIDisfitfor purpose is another question andthis will depend on factors such asyour role, who you work with andwhatjobneedstobedone.

In a nutshellByhavingamuchclearerideaofyourown Creative ID, you have a much

better understanding of where andhow you can contribute most to thecreative process. By having a muchclearer idea of the Creative IDs ofthose with whom you work, you canworkmuchmoreeffectivelyasateam,by making sure that the Stimulatorsaredoingthestimulating,theSpottersaredoingthespotting,andsoon.

Remember, it isnot ‘Areyoucrea-tive?’but‘Howareyoucreative?’

Workplace applications for Creative CreaturesSowhatexactlyareindividuals,teamsand organisations going to do withCreative Creatures and their newlydiscovered Creative IDs? Is it a toolearmarkedforthat‘nicetoknow’cup-board or is it a tool with concreteapplications that has the potential tomakeatangibledifference?Companies

and teams have found the followingapplicationsparticularlyrelevant:

1. Recruitment and selectionBecausethecreativeprocessreliesonfiveequallyimportantbehaviours,itisimportanttoensurethattherightmixof individualswith therightblendofCreative IDs is recruited to get theright job done. This is true at bothteamandorganisationallevels.

Katie Vanneck-Smith, managingdirector of the customer direct divi-sionatNewsInternational(whospikesas aStimulator andaSpotter), spon-sored one of the Creative Creaturespilotprogrammes:

‘Morethanever,themediaindustryis being challenged to come up withnewandinnovativeideasforengagingmore customers on more platformswhiledevelopingnewrevenuestreams.I decided to pilot the Creative

The five creative behaviours

stimulators are creatures of diversity. they love exploring and are often the first to discover new things. they soak up inputs like a sponge. in conversation, they hop effortlessly from topic to topic. they fertilise the flower-bed of new ideas.

spotters have great vision and tend to see things that others miss. they can spot potential ideas based on only the tiniest bits of stimulus. they intuitively make connections between seem-ingly unrelated pieces of information. When they ‘connect the dots’, what emerges is often the beginnings of a real ‘gem’.

sculptors are the builders and storytellers of this world. they are good conceptual thinkers who have the vision to take the outline of an idea and build it into something concrete and tangible. they are skilful at articulating ideas through descriptive language or appropriate images … or both.

selectors are great at separating the good from the not so good. they’re comfortable comparing several options and considering the pros, cons and wider implications of each. selectors are primarily objective, their prime motivation being to make the best decision.

supporters love collaborating and facilitating the creative proc-ess. When entering unknown territories, supporters lead the way by making others feel comfortable about the ambiguities ahead. they understand group dynamics and sense people’s individual energies. ©copyrightCreativeCreatures2010

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It would be really powerful and useful to know that we had three Stimulators in the room, a Spotter, two Sculptors (one good with words, the other good at pictures), a decisive Selector and a Supporter who was really good at facilitating

Creatures tool to raise awareness ofmyteam’sinherentcreativeabilitiestoinjectfreshthinkingintokeyareasoftheirjobs.’

If News International is rethinkingitsbusinessmodel,andusingitstitlesasbrands(ratherthanmerelynewspa-pers) in order to find new revenuestreams,thenitmustrecruitsufficientStimulatorsintothebusinesstohelpitbreak free from orthodox industrythinking.

Atateamlevel,workingonspecificprojects, it is always going to beimportanttomakesurethatanappro-priate mix of creative behaviours ispresent to maximise thinking andeffectiveness.

IncludingfiveStimulatorsinacrea-tive brainstorming session may wellfeel highly energising and ‘creative’,butwhomwill you relyon todo thespotting and then the sculpting totransform great stimulus into well-craftedideas?

Team selection must be driven bythe task at hand. Whereas a pureinnovation-driven company mighthavetorecruitanabove-averagequotaofStimulatorsandSpotters,acompa-ny that focuses more on renovationmight need a higher proportion ofSculptors. It’s like the proverb goes:horsesforcourses.

2. Co-creation in teamsCo-creation, translated literally, isabout people working together todevelopnewideas.Withinacompany,this way of working tends to involvemultiplefunctions,oftenacrossgeog-raphies. Diana Harris, innovationcontrolleratKelloggUK(whospikesas a Sculptor and Spotter) ran aCreativeCreaturesworkshopwithher

cross-functional team. She under-stands perfectly the importance ofcollaborationandteamworking:

‘At Kellogg’s, we are continuallyseeking new ways to understand anddevelop our creative capability, espe-cially in our innovation, marketing,researchanddevelopmentteams.

‘Working with the CreativeCreaturestool,ourteamsgainedfreshinsight into their individualcreativitypreferences and behaviours and,importantly, how they could contrib-ute to generating new ideas for thebusinesswhenworkingwithothers.’

Anextensionofco-creationiscom-paniesworkingdirectlywithempow-ered and committed consumers inordertodevelopnewideas.

AnaMedeirosandAndrewNeedham,intheirexcellentMarket Leaderarticle(January 2009), demonstrate howcompanies such as Lego, GSK andUnileverhavebroughttogetherdedi-cated consumers with their insight,brand, agency and R&D teams todevelopideasandconcepts.

Whichever angle on co-creationyou take, the interpersonal dynamicwillbethesame:anumberofpeople

from different walks of life, differentfunctions,quitepossiblywithdifferentvaluesetsandmotivations,allworkingtogethertodrivefuturegrowthofthecompany.

In this situation, it would be reallypowerfulandusefultoknowthat,forexample,wehadthreeStimulators inthe room, a Spotter, two Sculptors(onegoodwithwords,theothergoodatpictures), adecisiveSelector andaSupporter who was really good atfacilitating.

Surely this would be better thanusing a more conventional profes-sionalanddemographiclabelling–forexample, brand manager, marketresearcher, account director, maleconsumer, female consumer – thattells us precious little about how thegroupmightactuallyworktogether.

3. Process lubricationWithin theworldofmarketingcapa-bilitydevelopment,businessprocesseshavebeen‘king’overthepast10to15years.Mostoftheleadingmarketing-driven organisations have developedrobust processes, tools and templatesinkeyareassuchasstrategicmanage-ment,brandplanning,insightgenera-tion, brand positioning, innovationandcommunicationdevelopment.

Mostofthesecompanieshavespentsignificanttimeandmoneyequippingtheir managers with the skills toimplementthesekeyprocesses.

Butprocesscanonlytakeyousofar.Howeverwelltheindividualsorteamsunderstand the various stages, it is

How was Creative Creatures developed?Since 2008, Hanne Kristiansen, Pippa Duffy and Mark Simmonds have been working with Dr Kamal Birdi at the Institute of Work Psychology, Sheffield University, to create and validate the psychometric questionnaire that underpins Creative Creatures.

Last year, more than 260 people from three different blue-chip companies (Vodafone, Kellogg and News International) participated in the pilot phase.

This consisted of quantitative reliability and validity analysis, based around a survey containing question sets for each of the five creative behaviours. This was complemented by three full-day qualitative workshops (with the same companies), which enabled the team to better understand the characteristics for each of the behaviours, and the concrete applications for the tool itself in the workplace.

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onlywhenpersonalandinterpersonalbehaviours successfully ‘lubricate theprocess’thatonecanstarttogeneratequalityoutputsconsistently.Creativityisoneofthosecriticalbehaviours.

DavidErixon,director,brandstrat-egies and capabilities at Vodafone(who is a strong Stimulator andSpotter), ran a Creative Creaturesworkshopwithhisleadershipteaminglobalmarketing.

He stresses the importanceofpeo-ple rather than process development:‘Peopleandcreativityaretheenginesof brand building. Anything to makethe engine work faster, harder andmoreefficientlyisgoingtobeagooduseofdevelopmenttime.’

Forexample,akeystepinanyideagenerationprocesswillbe todevelopas many initial ideas as possible.

‘Good’ behaviours required willinclude‘exploring’,‘diverging’,‘ques-tioning’, ‘looking for new angles andperspectives’, ‘searching forhypothe-ses’–anarchetypalStimulator.

‘Bad’behaviours,however,willresultinasadabsenceofrichstimuli,andtheprocessislikelytostutterandstall.

The difference between ‘good’ and‘bad’ is an ability to demonstrate theright personal or interpersonal behav-iourwithinthestage.

Knowingthestepsintheprocessisnotenoughifyou‘behaveinappropri-ately’ at each step. At every stage ofevery process, there will be therequirement to apply at least one ofthefivecorecreativebehaviours.

And without appropriate ‘lubrica-tion’, the ‘process machine’ will sim-plynotfunctionproperly.

4. Individual creative ‘powerhouse’ – on the goThecurrentrealityinmostworkplac-esisthateverybodyisrunningaroundat a hundred miles an hour, meetingimpossibledeadlines,withnotimetobreathe,letalonethinkcreatively.Theluxury of spare time to enjoy two-hour,half-dayorfull-daygroupbrain-stormingsessionsisbecomingscarce.

Yetincreasingpressureisbeingputonindividualstocomeupwithideas,without much support, by nextTuesday.AlthoughCreativeCreaturescannotclaimtohavefoundtheanswertothemadnessofthemodernoffice,itdoesprovideaframeworktohelp.

If you know your Creative ID aswellasthatofthosecolleagues‘withinreach’ on a day-to-day basis, you aremuchmorelikelytobeabletomaxim-isethe30minutesthatyouhaveinthecaronyourwaytowork,the15min-utes that you can grab with yourSculptor friend after lunch, or the30-minute team meeting that youhaveeveryFridayafternoon.

Thelesstimethatyouhave,themoreefficientyouneedtobe,andthemoreimportantitistoplaytoyourowncrea-tivestrengthsandweaknesses.

In summary If yourbusinessneeds to innovate inorder togrowand succeed, thenoneofthecriticalbehavioursrequiredwillbecreativity.Andifyouwouldliketomakeasignificantcontributiontothecreative process at a personal level,thenitisimportantforyoutounder-standhowyouarecreative.

By identifying your own CreativeIDaswellasyourcolleagues’,youwillhaveamuchbetterchanceofmakinggreater impact.Remember, ‘Howareyoucreative?’istherealquestion.❦

Hanne Kristiansen is an independent consultant. Mark Simmonds is an independent trainer. hanne@wearecreativecreatures.commark@wearecreativecreatures.comwww.wearecreativecreatures.com

Working out the creative styles of the people on your team can lead to more efficiency