Re: Creativity

[Barb Philbrick <barb -dot- philbrick -at- PCOHIO -dot- COM>]

Paul Race said:
RP>couple of years, I come up with some brilliant new way of doing my
RP>job or producing or delivering or formatting our output, which I
RP>"propose" to my manager (several managers in succession, by now), and
RP>I always get this "dumb look" like "What were you smoking when you
came
RP>up with THIS?"  This ticks me off, and I go back to the "worker bee"
RP>syndrome for about two years until things get intolerable, and I
RP>can't HELP but stick my neck out again with another new idea.  I even
RP>used to keep a file to record these things, called "Sticking my neck
RP>out." So, do any other "hyper-creative" people out there have this
RP>problem?

Yes. However, I'm stubborn and inclined to believe I'm right, so I'll
push an idea until someone accepts it or gives me a really good reason
for not trying it ("But we tried that once back in the 50's and it
didn't work" doesn't cut it). Sometimes it requires a lot of work on my
part.

Anecdote time: At one of the companies I worked full-time at, I was
appalled that they didn't do press releases - heck, free advertising,
and I thought we had some great products to promote. I pushed to get
someone to do them, but you all know what pushing on a rope is like. You
can guess who wound up doing them. I gathered the information, created a
database of magazines and editors, and started doing them. All of them
got published in at least two or three major industry magazines. I did
manage to get some help stuffing envelopes and sticking address labels
on envelopes.

I was also appalled at the sales literature - it was usually incredibly
inaccurate and they used black and white photographs on a bright blue
background (maybe you'd have to see it - but trust me, it looked
hideous). No one would OK changing the style, so I went to the graphic
artist and worked with him to create a new style. Bingo. Once I showed
the mock-up to the sales manager (one of the ones who originally didn't
want to change), he liked it. They're still using this new style, five
years later.

If there's a will, there's a way. However, the problem with coming up
with good ideas is that they usually mean more work for you!

Barb

barb -dot- philbrick -at- pcohio -dot- com
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