What about habit?

It’s time to debunk creativity on two fronts. First, creativity is a skill to be developed, not solely the product of innate gifting or spontaneous inspiration. Counter to conventional thinking that suggests creativity is for the gifted elite, creativity is a skill available to all. The question is not whether or not you were born creative, but whether or not you will hone your creativity through hustle and habit. It’s not that genius and gifting don’t matter – it’s that creativity fully realized usually has more to do with perspiration than inspiration.

This raises the second issue with creativity, namely, that it is not an end in itself. Because creativity is a skill, it is a function of the process, not a destination. In other words, the goal after your new product is released, your writing is published, your is project presented, or your process is re-imagined is not to see if your finished work is “creative.” Creativity was a part of the development of your product, writing, or project. Creativity came through in how you sought to solve problems, craft sentences, and approach solutions. This is why you’ll hear people talk about the creative process – not creativity as something to be arrived at.

These twin truths about creativity cannot be overstated: creativity is both a skill and a process. As the legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp says, “The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone.”

Creativity is not just for artists. It’s for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it’s for engineers trying to solve a problem; it’s for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way. -Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Sure, prodigies exist and inherent talent varies from individual to individual, but even Mozart had to dedicate serious time and energy to composition. In fact, his hands were crippled by age twenty-eight because of the hours he devoted to his craft. “People err who think my art comes easily to me,” wrote Mozart to a friend. “I assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to compositions as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.”

Here are four ways you can develop your creative habit:

1. Prepare – Creativity is not synonymous with spontaneity. Great creative work requires various levels of preparation. Take time to study the experts, seize new opportunities, assemble the right tools, and look for inspiration everywhere. As Tharp says, “Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity.” Set time aside to develop a game plan that will enable you to accumulate and assemble all of your little ideas into a big idea.
2. Practice – Habit doesn’t just happen. Unless you’re the legendary super-athlete Bo Jackson, you need time to apply what you have prepared. Practice can take a variety of forms like prototypes, soft-launches, or focus groups. The goal with practice is to build a bridge between the big idea your mind has conceived and what you actually produce.
3. Perform – Performing is all about going live. As Tharp says, “there’s a fine line between good planning and overplanning.” Eventually you have to get out and test your work. Preparation and practice are behind you – now is the time to use your skills on a project, lead a team, solve a problem, develop a strategy, compose a work, or communicate an issue.
4. Polish – Review how you performed, make notes on how you could do things better, and then begin the process from the top (prepare, then practice). Ruts and grooves will come, but remember the wise words of Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Creativity sweats. It requires quality, continual, diligent hard work. At the same time, creativity is a process. Embrace the time it takes to develop your creative routine and expect results to follow. “Creativity is a habit,” Tharp notes, “and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.”

This post was originally posted over at LinkedIn. Check out more of LinkedIn posts here.

Source: How to Generate Value from Digital Marketing

1. Device Shift

2. Communications Shift

3. Content Shift

4. Social Shift

5. Video Shift

6. Retail Shift

Understanding these shifts sets the backdrop for effective digital planning. For example, a failure to understand the role of mobile and tablets in personal computing will leave your plan shallow and deficient. So how do we formulate a winning plan? McKinsey offers 5 considerations:

1. Stay close to users by investing in customer insight. Customer behavior is rapidly changing, demanding strong market intelligence and customer insight functions.
2. Build a competitive edge with deep analytic skills. As segments get smaller and more distinct, the need to use data to optimize product development and marketing will only grow.
3. Make business models more robust to reflect consumer diversity. Focus and breadth are both needed.
4. Ensure investments are clearly aligned with consumer shifts. Executives need to clearly communicate the “what” and the “why” of strategy and operations and tie this to current opportunities.
5. Reward superb execution skills. A potential downside of big data and analytics is that the analysis goes on too long and the market opportunity evaporates or is seized by a competitor.

Read the full article here.

Image: Moto 360 Watch with Android – Credit Motorola

1. Identify a specific goal.
2. Segment your list
3. Personalize when possible
4. Create consistency between “from name” & “from email” address
5. Use actionable language
6. Create Clear & Compelling subject lines and email copy
7. Write mostly in the second person
8. Focus on benefits (not features)
9. Be brief
10. Have a concise signature and footer
11. Test your email
12. Analyze your email

The certification is well-worth your time. Be sure to check Perlman’s “Sending the Right Email to the Right Lead” class out.

The work includes 500 new images and 80 pages of new material. Check out the book here.