Are misfits more creative?

Do you ever find yourself wallowing in the depths of your imposter syndrome and thinking to yourself, “How come that annoying person seems so much more creative than me?” Ouch.

In my early years in the agency world, I was extremely intimidated by the creative “cool kids.” Red-framed glasses, practiced eccentricity, loud outfits. They wore ensembles I could not imagine choosing at Marks and Spencer, never mind actually having the audacity to wear to the office, and be seen by people who would doubtless be stifling giggles behind their polystyrene cups of BBC tea bar tea.

We’ve all met the “wacky creative” stereotype in advertising. The funny thing about stereotypes is that they exist because they are founded on truth. Is it the odd socks, the bright sweaters, the cowboy hat in the office? Do these fashion choices actually make you an ideas person? Or is it that people who tend to have outside-the-box ideas are those who choose to dress and act in an off-kilter way?

The answer turns out to be a combination of factors. A recent Chinese psychology study (X Du et al.) looked at factors that influence innovation in creative companies. The study found that those who challenge social norms tend to show higher personal creativity. This suggests that if you are willing to think differently about how you dress, then it follows that you are potentially a more divergent thinker in general. Contrast this with “The Red Sneakers Effect.” In this study by Silvia Bellezza, Francesca Gino and Anat Keinan, it was found that individuals who intentionally violated dress norms (such as wearing red sneakers in a professional setting) were judged to be higher status and more competent.

So yes, being a bit of a misfit does correlate with increased personal creativity. But I believe that the annoying “wacky creative” phenomenon is driven by a need for personal branding. At a time when so many careers hang by a thread, we are all under pressure to convince others of our brilliance. Creativity is also such a misunderstood concept that practitioners must find a way to communicate to higher-ups that they have creativity in spades. To non-creatives, it’s seen as a mystical force. The C-suite doesn’t really understand where it comes from, so let’s hire the guy who wears the red sneakers and a sparkly robe to the office. He’s our Merlin, our secret weapon. In a way, dressing like this is job security. For those in the creative department, it’s a signal that they are the creative experts and are doing something no one else can do, so please remunerate commensurately.

Well…

The driving force of my last twenty years has been spreading the message that we are all capable of creativity. We are all special. We are all ideas people. It’s not just those in the creative department – though they may have cornered the market in your particular organization.

You may choose not to wear outlandish fashions in the workplace, and that is fine. It in no way diminishes your capability for innovative, creative, inventive thought. The only requirement is that you do the work to exercise and strengthen your creative muscle, so that you can churn out ideas as fast as the “wacky creatives.”

How does this work in teams?

At Wee Beastie we preach that great ideas can come from anywhere, and that there is no ownership of ideas. Ideas float in the air waiting for someone to grab and execute. A fantastic idea can come from any team member. In our culture, any team member can contribute ideas and non-”creatives” are in no way considered inferior to the “creatives.” Even that word annoys me. The insinuation that we have a separate group of people in the agency who are deemed “creative” by job title is anathema. We want everyone to realize their creativity. We want everyone to practice coming up with ideas and to contribute.

We solidified this approach many years ago with a few successful business practices.

Inclusive brainstorming - “ideas come from anywhere”

All team members attend brainstorming sessions. As a result, junior members of the team build up their ideation skills to the point where our best and most award-winning ideas often originate with those junior members.

Shared Recognition

Awards are won as a team. We recognize individual craft skills such as writing and designing, but raw creativity - ideation, clever ideas - we share these successes as a team and share the joy in winning awards.

Actual, real, non-imaginary training

We give each team member creativity training: our in-house grounding in specific ideation skills which have helped increase their creative thinking power. Once you accept that anyone can be creative, there are plenty of training tools out there to help your team build their creative muscle.

Mind expansion

We direct team members of every level to get out in to the world and bring back new knowledge which they can share with the rest of the team. This has expanded our “deep pools of knowledge” - the raw material for ideation - which consequently enriches our brainstorming sessions.

Why the old stereotype survives

But what about those “wacky creative types?” I get riled up by them because these force-of-personality creatives often make the rest of us insecure about our own creative abilities. We want our team to grow in creativity and skill and performance, so we work to decrease the effect of those who gatekeep the generation of ideas.

Create a workplace where ideas flow and where team members are rewarded for thinking differently. Build an environment where your most junior employee has the opportunity to make the greatest contribution to a new campaign - coming up with the idea that no-one else thought of.

Wacky creatives, however, can have their place. When you are pitching an outrageous idea to clients staid and resistant to change, then who better than Merlin to cast a spell and impress the suits with the mystical “creativity.”

So the conclusion is mixed. Anyone can be creative, and you definitely don’t need to wear red glasses. That said, no-one is stopping you, and according to the science, it might help you keep your job!