Author: Jay Acunzo / Source: Marketing Insider Group As things get increasingly commoditized in our world, creative thinking becomes the
As things get increasingly commoditized in our world, creative thinking becomes the biggest weapon your brand possesses. Eventually, all task-based, logic-driven jobs in marketing will be automated, and even now, they’re table stakes. They’re the types of tasks that get you to perfectly average. But to differentiate, we need to rely more heavily on something others can’t copy and technology can’t commoditize: the creativity of your people.
Unfortunately, creativity requires a trait that’s often stigmatized or outright ostracized in the business world: sensitivity.
Quick, what comes to mind when I say that a marketer is “sensitive?” Maybe we picture a designer or writer who “can’t handle” the demands of a data-driven job? (Which kind of data do we mean, anyway?) Maybe we assume they’re soft, or perhaps we’re a bit more nuanced and decide to manage them through encouragement rather than criticism. Regardless, we tend to begin our thinking about sensitivity the same way our president ends his tweets: “Sad!”
To that I’d say: “Wrong!”
Being sensitive is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of openness.
That’s pretty darn useful when your goal is to break from conventional thinking and do something new, different, and exceptional.
Sensitivity should be an organizational strength, but first, we have to stop confusing it with individual weakness.
“Why?”
It’s no coincidence that some of the best speakers and authors of our time can distill their big ideas down to the same question: “Why?”
Asking, “Why?” is a simple way to start thinking like a sensitive individual. With a single world, you’ve immediately opened yourself up to new possibilities. You break out of the routine, wherein you already know why and can just keep plodding along. Never stopping. Never wondering. Never feeling things.
Asking “Why?” opens a closed mind to the inspiration sitting all around us.
So, let me put that trick into practice right now. I just claimed that being sensitive is a powerful trait to possess to be creative.
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