A couple of days ago I popped out the back door for a smoke, only to realise I’d left my Zippo lighter in my other jeans, which I’d just put in the wash. Panic striken, I ran to the washing machine and gazed mournfully at the soaked denim spinning around. It was gone, game over.

As is the case with anything slightly more remarkable than staring at a wall, I tweeted my anguish for all to ignore. Because that’s what you do.

Redswish:
Nooo! Just realised I’ve left my zippo in my jeans in the wash!

You can practically hear my cries of devastation, no?

Within a couple of hours, Zippo themselves, who I had no idea were even on Twitter, replied to me:

Zippo:
Remove cotton & wick.  Let dry.  Replace.  Refuel.  Good 2 go. RT @Redswish: Nooo! Just realised I’ve left my zippo in my jeans in the wash!

As it happens, I’d salvaged the sodden lighter from the wash and left it to dry on the radiator. A couple of hours later I slotted it all back together and to my astonishment it sparked up first time. This was before I’d noticed Zippo’s tweet.

This is, in my mind, a simple but powerful example of how a great product and great customer service go hand in hand. Zippo didn’t have to spot my tweet and reply, but doing so proved to me that the care about their customers. They’ve reached out to create a connection with me, not by trying to sell to me or bullshit me, but by being genuinely helpful. In doing so I now have more respect for them and am happy to act as an advocate for them.

It took Zippo maybe 20 seconds to see my tweet and reply, but in turn they put a smile on my face and impressed me so much that I’ve gone to the effort of throwing this article together. These little efforts can add up to a lot. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

If you care to, Zippo are here.

Amongst the ramble, several tricky and often avoided questions emerged:

• Can you train your mind to be more creative and have better ideas?
• Are there any exercises to develop creative thought processes?
• Is creativity really ‘99% perspiration and 1% inspiration’?
• Is creativity a teachable/learn-able skill of coming up with good ideas consistently and on demand?

Some of the remarks in the comments section addressed these questions from several different viewpoints, all putting up very good arguments. I’ll look at a few excerpts shortly, but first I think it’s important to consider what creativity really is.

What is creativity?

I’ve always believed creativity to be far more than just ‘coming up with ideas’. Although this is often seen as a genuine starting point; the big bang, the light bulb, the ‘Eureka!’ moment – I’m sure there’s far more to it than that.

I believe creativity is an amalgamation of many traits that when honed, revised, expanded and fused together can create dramatic results.

Problem solving, empathy, social awareness, imagination, inspiration and taste, passion, logic, technical understanding, critical thinking, general knowledge, research and an open mind.

I feel that real creativity, the stuff stories are made of, requires fear, and the ability to overcome that fear.

That may be fear of failure, fear of competition, fear of loosing your job, fear of displeasing someone.

Taking all of this and much more into consideration; creativity’s a little more than ‘having good ideas’. In environments such as the ones we work in, it’s often the case that we’re required to solve a problem, sometimes without even realising it exists.

The big idea

We need to perform research, share thoughts and ideas with others, put pencil to paper and put ourselves in the position of those we’re designing or building for. Ideas may come and go, some may seem brilliant first but are later pulled apart either by ourselves or others. Perhaps there is never a ‘big idea’ moment but a bunch of smaller ideas can be fused together to form fantastic solutions.

On occasion, there is a ‘Eureka!’ moment. I’ve been in meetings with some fantastic creatives and have truly been blown away by some of the ideas that appear to have popped out of thin air. I’ve even felt jealous and angry at myself – “Dammit, why didn’t I think of that!” and in circumstances have been afraid of failing to come up with ideas, of failing to ‘do my job’.

This fear will only hold creativity back, but the desire to overcome this fear can motivate us to come up with even greater ideas.

Can creativity be taught?

Honestly, I don’t think it can. But it can be learned. I believe many of the various facets of creativity can be taught and trained, such as general knowledge, social awareness, problem solving etc. But the other elements are what I believe are generally considered as ‘creative traits’. The ability to honestly empathise, a keen imagination, passion for what you do and an open mind are qualities attributed to our personalities.

They are in some respects part of our nature, but also the product our of lives, the people we interact with and the media and literature we consume.

So in some respects they can be learned, but only if we choose to, and work hard at it.

So 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration? I don’t quite agree with that. I believe that a lot of work is involved and that ideas don’t simply appear from nowhere, but inspiration also plays a much larger role.

A few other thoughts

It’s worth noting that I’m still very young to this industry and in a few years, or even months, my views may change radically. That’s why I’d love to hear your thoughts.

However here are a few excerpts from comments on the original post that inspired the inspiration for this article:

“It’s the abstract connections in *your* brain that do the creativity bit. The more things you stuff inside your brain to connect to other stuff, the better your creative leaps. And no one but you can teach you that.”
Jonny

“In general terms, I would say creativity derives from curiosity.”
John W

“Having ideas shouldn’t be a problem. The real genius is in spotting them.”
Ben Kay

“Encourage fearlessness of being wrong. When it comes to being creative, some people can barely put pen to paper due to an innate fear of doing something ‘wrong’.”
Paul F

“The brain is lazy. It will also take the quickest route. Go the long way. Get lost. Try routes other people would take. You may find you really enjoy it. That’s when the ideas will start to happen.”
Deborah Khan

“Being creative to me is about seeing abstract patterns in human behaviour and identifying, absorbing and learning from them.”
Sunitha

“Creativity is nothing less than a mystery. It’s as profound and complex as life itself. So enigmatic, in fact, that the great artists themselves cannot agree on what it is. Still, the artists seem to fall into eight categories:

The tormented. The courageous. The lovers. The dreamers. The mad. The spiritual. The stumblers. And the juvenile.”
Per Robert Öhlin

What are your views on this? What do you think defines ‘creativity’? Is it something that can be taught, learned and trained, or is it a natural talent? Have your say below.

A brief history

For those of you, which is quite probably most of you, reading the post that use Twitter on a regular basis, this may have been your initial attitude as well. It certainly was mine 2 and a half years ago when I first toyed with the service.  Back then I struggled to see it’s value. It wasn’t clear who I was supposed to follow, what I was expected to write and what real value was to be gained from it.

Fast forward 18 months to the end of 2008 and Twitter really started to sneak it’s way in to the public conscious. Radio presenters were discussing it, celebrities were expanding their reach across it, advocates such as Steven Fry and Jonathan Ross were coating Twitter with a layer of star appeal that began to draw the masses. Twitter began to grow at an exponential rate; in terms of usage at least. An indicative measure of Twitter’s success presented itself in November 2008 when Facebook offered to buy the service for $500million worth of FB stock, a serious, although slightly imaginary figure. They turned the offer down, believing bigger things were yet to come.

A year on Twitter’s userbase has continued to expand dramatically, although research is showing that a large portion of users are signing up and giving up before they’ve really made the effort. Hence a large majority of Twitter’s userbase is dominated by practically dormant or spam accounts. This doesn’t bother me though. Because there’s still a mass of inspiring, innovative and interesting individuals and companies out there taking full advantage of the benefits Twitter offers: the ability to connect and converse with a range of people you’d never normally get the chance to meet, provide support, insight and share experiences with a massive audience that can grow to care about what you have to say, and more importantly to learn from and listen to others.

Why it works

The key to Twitter’s success is grounded in the constant devotion to the original principle that the service is designed for people. Not to make money, not to intrusively advertise and infuse sneaky viral marketing campaigns. It is a simple concept made powerful by user-generated communities and content.

It’s addictive, easy and enjoyable to use, resourceful, accessible and provides a core functionality that people can explore, adapt and extend to their own needs and purposes – it’s this that attracts and commits people to Twitter. Abusing the trust and shared social understanding that makes Twitter what it is could potentially snowball out of control and ruin it, for everyone.

Everybody’s talking

If you own, or work for a company with or without online presence, there’s the probability that people are talking about you. The bigger you are, or the more remarkable you are, the more people will likely be talking about you. I hate to state the obvious but 10 years ago if someone had a bad, or great experience with your business, they may tell a few friends who may tell a few more friends. Now, they can write a blog article, mention you on Twitter or Facebook, publish photos to flickr or Posterous, even go to the effort of filming and publishing a video on Youtube discussing you, or your business. In only a few minutes we can now reach literally thousands of people. I’ve talked about this before many time, as have plenty of other bloggers so I want rave on, let’s quickly scamper back to the Twitter subject.

If you’re using social media to promote your brand, whether that be an organisation or just yourself, you may be getting wrapped up in the marketing bullshit – strategies, ROI, KPIs, monitoring analytics etc. If that gives you a kick then go for it, but if you’re like me, it tends to bore me to death. How about just using such services for the reason they were designed – social networking. That means dialogue, a 2-way conversation, as opposed to shouting your message at people. If that’s your style then go hire some TV advertising time, I hear that’s dirt cheap nowadays.

‘Social Media’ requires you to be just that – social. Twitter is an ideal platform for such activity. That’s one of the reasons I love it, it’s one of the reasons we persist in advocating it to new people. We see the benefits, we reap the benefits. But it’s very much a case of you get out what you put in.

Be real

We need to forget ‘commercial’ and consider ‘personal’, we’re turning old marketing principles and trends on their heads, they have no business here in this dynamic, always-connected, real-time personal webspace. Instead of tarnishing user’s experiences with intrusive advertising and ineffective, instantly forgotten viral campaigns, we need to encourage, enhance and develop meaningful experiences by approaching potential consumers on a more personal level.

Our lives are overloaded with information from every angle and it’s getting harder to filter the signals through the noise. By harnessing the power of simplicity presented by Twitter, we can make it our responsibility to clear the noise and speak directly to consumers, speak directly to friends. This can lead to trust, it can lead to loyalty, it can lead to a sustained interest, sometimes it can lead to money and recognition, but it doesn’t always have to.

The endgame

Money is the endgame. It always is. Don’t pretend it isn’t. If, as a brand, you approach social media with this aim, there’s a high chance you’ll fail. And you bloody well deserve to you greedy capitalist whores! Only joking. But on a serious note, financial targets are not the way to win the game. Caring about consumers, trying to establish meaningful relationships, providing support and respect will go along way, and everyone will benefit in the end.

Business aside; those who use Twitter purely for personal reasons, as many of us do, to keep in touch with friends, to learn and meet new people, to share and discover – chances are we’re putting this beautiful, simple service to far better use, and likely getting a lot more out of it than large organisations employing social media executives and strategists. Because we mean it, our mission is honest and authentic, our approach largely selfless and open.

Let’s drop the bullshit. How about a little consideration? Let’s start creating experiences, let’s think personal. We want engaging, we crave fun, we desire escapism.

Let’s start thinking differently.

Are 140 characters enough to make a point? I think so.

Nathan