Agile Creativity

Think about it.  If you never planned a thing in your life, never had any goals or aspirations—never thought about your next move, you might find yourself in a constant state of improvisation.  On the other hand, you can try to plan your life out to the last detail—but life has a way of working out in ways you could have never planned for.

Why should creativity be any different?

Agile Creativity is about planning for a variety of scenarios—anticipating and developing a strategy, but not being so rigid as to lose the capacity to improvise when things don't go as planned.  In the overlap exists a state of agility, founded off a core set of guiding principals—yet flexible enough to adapt to changes in the creative ecosystem.

Easier said than done?  You bet.

Comments

[roland]

That does indeed sound like a fine line to walk on. Any examples of people who managed to walk this fine line? First person that comes to my mind is business guru and billionaire Richard Branson - what do you think?

[Maurizio Goetz]

very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I'm working on the concept of liquid branding with the idea of taking the shape of the container (the containers are media, which can be earned media or paid media) therefore planning and improvising are two side of the same strategy.

[Doug Meacham]

Hi DA,

Now your playing in my backyard. Having a core competence in agility and adaptivity is essential for organizations to remain competitive. The days of "plan your work and work your plan" are gone. The biggest disruptor here is, you guessed it, The Customer. Organizations must develop effective "Sense" mechanisms to ensure that they know things earlier. They also must have highly adaptable organizational structures that enable them to "respond" (faster than the competition) to emerging opportunities and threats.

It is indeed a difficult change for most organizations to make, mostly because it's a culture shift. People are naturally resistant to change, especially if it means giving up control or working with uncertainty.

Developing this competency is something that I spend half my time on at a major US retailer and for us, the transformation is going to take considerable time.

Doug

[Gavin Heaton]

Doug is right, organisational transformation is challenging and time consuming work. But the same principles can apply to our personal lives ... how do we manage and adapt to changing circumstances, respond to threats and disruptions or sense changes in the relationships around us?

Importantly, how do we deal/cope with changes to what we would consider our own borders? How risky are we willing to be? Are we able to open a conversation in an elevator? Will we sing in public? Do we dance in the office? Will we ride that motorbike all the way down route 66?

Changing organisations is hard work, but it can be harder to start with yourself. As Mike Wagner says, try drawing something today and see what happens!

[DA]

Roland, I'm not familiar with Richard—I'll have to look him up.

Maurizio, That sounds really interesting. Liquid is a good metaphor because it constantly changes.

Doug and Gavin—good points about the changes we are all going through.

[gianandrea facchini]

sounds like darwin theory at fast pace.

[Lewis Green]

David,
I tend not to be a good planner in my personal life (in fact, I can't stand planning).

On the other hand, I encourage my clients to create some balance between plan and improvise and do so in my own business. For example, before hanging the "Open for Business" sign, my business and first annual strategic plans were launched.

However, I think the heavy side of you visual best falls on being a quick thinker and a flexible change agent who can innovate and improvise without losing a business beat.

Of course, while the visual you created might have an uneven center, leaning toward improvisation, it's a good thing to discuss all the likely scenarios well in advance, so when the good, bad and the ugly happen, and they will, we are ready to respond correctly. Doing so doesn't necessarily require a plan, which probably would be wrong for the specific event as we tend not to be great seers.

[DA]

Lewis,

Really good points. Though the visual is meant to show balance. Planning is just as critical as the ability to improvise and think on your feet.

[olivier blanchard]

Nah. It isn't that hard. People who can do this are pretty easy to identify when you know what to look for. Teach your recruiters and HR managers what to look for, and you'll be rolling in puppies in no time.

[mm]

Richard Branson started up the Virgin brand.

Interesting concept, but what exactly are you saying?

Are you talking about fluidity and the seeding of a central creative idea across channel opportunities (planned and unplanned?

[Jason Lonsdale]

There are few things that i like more than a good Venn diagram, and this is one of the best.

All too often we struggle with clients who are slaves to their plans, and who are not nimble enough to respond (i.e. they need to go and create a whole new plan in order to move forward). Fortunately, like the dinosaur, these clients will soon cease to trouble us.

[DA]

MM,

here is what I am saying:

I drew this in my notebook during a mind numbing strategy meeting. At first I was tempted to believe that strategy/planning was all just smoke and mirrors and the proof was in the doing. Then I realized how reactive that would make the doing. Then it dawned upon me that the sweet spot is the overlap—though ironicallt we treat it more like a handoff as opposed to the most critical phase of creating something.

Anyway, that's my story. :)