Grounding Creativity in Sound Strategy

Do you have a false sense of your own creativity?

I see a lot of business people who do, and they can easily cripple themselves and their organizations because of it.

A false sense of creativity happens when you’re constantly trying new approaches (thus feeling all tingly and creative) when you’ve yet to answer the basic strategy question, “What matters?”

If you haven’t grounded yourself in your fundamental goal by answering this important strategy question, your willingness to constantly experiment isn’t a sign of a creative spirit. It’s a harbinger of significant strategy problems, if not now, then in the near future. Expect to waste a lot of resources (energy, time, money, goodwill…you name it) and never really achieve what you should.

Identifying what matters is typically a more analytical strategy exercise than a creative one.

After putting the time in toward really identifying what will have a material impact in your situation, you can begin creatively thinking about alternative ways to realize your objective. That’s where your willingness to experiment creatively becomes strategic and has the potential to yield real results.

Until you can credibly communicate “what matters,” don’t let your wild creativity out of the house.

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Mike Brown is an award-winning innovator in strategy, communications, and experience marketing. He authors the Brainzooming^TM blog, and serves as the company’s chief Catalyst. He wrote the ebook “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” and is a frequent keynote presenter.