Navigating the Creative Process: 6 Steps to Creative Success

Creativity and innovation are hallmarks and the heritage of the American experience. But lately, many organizations have lost their way. New ideas seem to represent more of a risk than an investment. As a result, creativity is often mismanaged or is perceived as a threat to guaranteed ROI, results, and the soft comfort of status-quo. It’s an unfortunate turn of events that is addressed and corrected in Navigating the Creative Process: 6 Steps to Creative Success. The book outlines the need for an in-depth understanding of the factors affecting contemporary creative development on a commercial level. The importance of a clear and effective briefing process to clearly define problems and opportunities The need for a new approach to creative-team formation, and an ideation approach that is designed to create new and innovative ideas rather than preserve status-quo.  The value of a disciplined approach to creative comments and requests for timely and often necessary revision. The critical step that approves and mandates an idea for continued investment, development and execution. The best approach for managing creative people. The book uses the Advertising and Marketing industry as a benchmark for an effective creative process. Not because they do it right all the time, but because it is the acid-test given short time-frames, inexperienced people on both sides of the process, and the huge budgets they are required to manage. Navigating the Creative Process is the first book to: Focus on the 6 steps that define the creative process and deliver action steps to enable and manage the entire process. Demystify the myths and misconceptions that surround creative people and their workstyle. Suggest specific tools and techniques at each stage of the process to make the subjective nature of creativity and innovation efficient and objective. Provide a new approach to team formation that is designed to find and empower solutions. Focus on both sides of the creative equation: the people creating the ideas and the people reviewing and approving ideas.