I was considering today whether the speed of modern life is behind a lack of creativity. Does the fact that we are constantly rushing between things mean that we don’t ever spend time truly considering an issue and finding creative solutions? This is something that I think all communication professionals should consider.
Most communication or public relations teams are now smaller in numbers than they were five or six years ago. The demands placed on the individuals have not reduced and realistically is now more than it was when we had staff. Because of the lack of people and resources we have to find new, creative and innovative ways of doing things. But I wonder whether we have got to the point we are treading the same water now.
The key to the situation has to lie with us as individual communication professionals. We have to be able to manage our time much more effectively than we have ever done before. We also need to ensure that we are spending time in the planning of activity, we need to bounce ideas around with others, and we need to try and knock ourselves out of our comfort zone.
When we made the significant reductions in funding for communication we knew we had to shake things up. Social media had arrived on the scene and it presented opportunities to take to try new things. Five years on social networks are a standard part of daily life which we use as communicators every day. In fact, I am wondering whether our use of it needs to change quite dramatically to make more innovative use of the developments. Are we standing still again after we had the chance to transform communication?
I think we can only grasp creativity if we are prepared to look at things in a different way and consider alternatives. We need to stop being comfortable with where we are now and start to want more even with smaller teams. With all the pressures on professional communicators we need to ensure that we are making time to review things, consider alternatives and really develop our creativity.
Amandacomms's Blog 