Blog 6: Reflections on Creativity

            For me, creativity is somewhat unexpected. While I like to think of myself as someone who is overall a creative and clever person, there are definitely moments in which my creativity seems much stronger than others. The challenging facet of creativity for me is that these moments of spiked creativity and innovation come in the most unexpected times. There has never been any rhyme or reason to when I am more creative, and it’s not a quality I can just turn on or off. My own level of creativity seems to be dependent on my moods, which are relatively hard to predict and anticipate. In the times I am feeling most giddy and happy, I find myself to be much wittier and creative. In times of stress, I find my creativity to be strained. In fact, I often find that I am least creative during times when I am working hard to be creative. It’s an unfortunate paradox, but I think that the pressure of trying to be creative and think of out-of-the-box ideas actually places more stress upon me and as a result restricts my thinking.

            This realization became especially clear when I worked on a team for L’Oreal’s Brandstorm Case Competition during my junior year. After making it to the final round of the competition, my three-person team was tasked with creating an idea for an entirely new product for the L’Oreal Paris brand to launch in Southeast Asia. My group would meet often to rigorously work on this case, but we found that our least creative moments always occurred during the meetings themselves. For some reason, the pressure to be creative on the spot affected us all, and none of us were able to innovate new products when faced with the deadline of immediate idea delivery by the end of the meeting. In fact, our inevitable product idea came when we all took a week to think of ideas on our own. After giving ourselves this break of time away from any pressures, we all came back with fresh, new ideas that we were able to combine to create an innovative new product that inevitably guided our decisions for the remainder of the project.

           

As a business-minded individual, when I am under pressure or feeling stressed, my natural reaction is to follow very step-by-step thinking and take things one at a time. This type of process-driven is not conducive to creativity. I have found that creativity is strongest for me in the unpredictable moments where I feel completely carefree, optimistic, happy and free-spirited.

            During my internship at L’Oreal in New York City this summer, I was always blown away by the creativity of my superiors within the marketing department in the Luxury Products Division. Many of the marketers I interned under were incredibly creative. As a member of the digital team, I saw first-hand as many of the managers were able to create clever digital campaign themes and witty copy on the spot in the middle of our meetings. When I reflect back to why this may have occurred at L’Oreal, I believe the reason can be traced back to the importance placed on group meetings at L’Oreal. Employees at L’Oreal jokingly discus that you’ll never go a day at L’Oreal without at least 5 hours worth of meetings. From my own experience this summer, I can attest to the truth in this. Marketing managers are constantly meeting with one another to discuss and collaborate on a wide variety of projects. While at times these meetings seem tedious and unnecessary, I think the frequency of these meetings inevitably leads to L’Oreal’s continuous innovation. As I sat in on meetings with the Kiehl’s team, I saw that people from various segments of the marketing department were able to piggy-back on one another’s ideas and effectively grow and refine the ideas until they became fine-tuned surefire paths to success. Each person in the meeting brought a fresh, new perspective to the table. Because the Kiehl’s brand within L’Oreal has set such casual, comfortable in-office environment, employees felt free to openly express their ideas. L’Oreal rewards out-of-the-box thinkers and group collaboration, and I really think this helps to promote creativity within the corporation as a whole.

            I do believe that both individuals and groups have the potential to be creative. However, I think group thinking can create constraints to creativity unless key conditions are met:

• Optimistic Group Thinking: Negative groupthink can create stress and tension within the group, in effect constraining free-thinking and creativity. It’s important for a tone of positivity to remain within the group to ensure that members feel motivated to think creatively and innovate.
• Open & Dynamic Relationships: It’s key that a strong team dynamic exists in order for a group to collectively work together to be creative. There needs to be a strong relationship amongst team members and a level of respect for one another. If one team member does not respect the ideas of another, this will create tension within the group and will make members feel fearful to freely express their ideas. Open expression is key to generate creative ideas.
• Planning: As discussed above, the pressure of deadlines often places members of a team under so much stress, that it’s harder for them to be creative. I think it’s important that a group plans ahead in order to allow for the team to have enough time to think without being faced by stressors and deadlines.

            Overall, it’s important for individuals, whether alone or a member of a larger group, to reflect personally on what drives their own creativity. We must be individually aware of the conditions under which we operate most creatively. If we have this knowledge, then we will be able to better understand the environments we desire or groups we need in order to maximize creativity and spur innovative thinking.