DOES CREATIVITY MATTER IN COMMUNICATION?
You want to change someone’s mind. How do you help them see what you see? Relying only on your facts is a mistake. Yes, your idea has merit and is backed by data. But there’s a gigantic problem: your listener is already drowning in facts. If you’re not careful, your facts may become like wasted water pouring from an open faucet, spilling over the edges of your listener’s mind.
Your facts are static objects, and they mean something to you. You spent long hours at your desk interpreting them, wrestling with their meaning, eliminating the unnecessary or misleading pieces. You mulled them over while driving your car. They tumbled around in your imagination long enough to eventually take shape into a compelling idea. Now you are urgent for others to see what you see.
Making your listener feel your same urgency doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s only difficult if you use the wrong tools. When you only have a few seconds to make an idea come to life, data is too slow and facts are too tame. What you need is something that lights up your listener’s brain. You need a little creativity.
CREATIVITY IS NOT JUST FOR ARTISTS
“I am not a creative person.”
I hear this at least once a week from clients. It usually happens when I urge them to tell a story or use an analogy. They start to feel uncomfortable, preferring to communicate in their familiar way, trusting that their facts will get their message across. They have a near allergic reaction to creativity, insisting it is just not their strong suit.
There are very few times when I strongly disagree with my clients. But on this point I refuse to budge. I do not accept the idea that a client is not creative. Why? Because everyone is creative, especially successful professionals.
Many people think creativity is at odds with their professional skills. They view creativity as something that belongs to the world of the arts – an impractical skill that is disconnected to solid logic and compelling facts. Telling a business person to be creative can make them feel like they are being asked to paint a sunset or sing opera. But creativity does not only belong to artists. Creativity is everywhere – in science, business, and daily life. To be creative, you simply need to take what is available and reassemble it for your own use.
In his book “The Creative Act”, Rick Rubin writes, “To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid traffic.”
Rubin, a prolific music icon who produced some of the greatest albums ever created, invites us to see ourselves as creators. Let’s see why his point is true and how we can use our innate creativity to be better communicators.
WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY CREATED
If you have enjoyed any professional success, it is because you’ve been creative. A deadline was pushed up, your resources were limited, yet you found a way to get the project done on time. Or you were assigned a task that was beyond your abilities. You educated yourself, sought help, and applied your skills in a new way. You made it happen. Or your team was stuck on a problem they couldn’t solve, and you looked at it from another perspective and focused them down a new path. You saw a different angle.
Finding a way to meet a deadline is creative. Making it happen is creative.
Seeing from another angle is creative.
Take some time to remember specific moments when you overcame obstacles and finished something. Notice how you used whatever resources you had around you and found your way through. Now tell yourself, maybe for the first time, “I am a creative person.”
CREATE CLARITY
Good communicators create clarity. Clarity allows listeners to see a problem or envision success. What is the quickest way to help them see clearly? Tell a story.
“A good story is more powerful than any statistic, chart, or slide deck.” wrote Scott Van Voorhis in the Harvard Business Review. “This is not necessarily because stories are more inspirational or persuasive. Rather, it is because of how our memory works. People are more likely to remember the story as time passes.”
Telling a story makes data come to life. Stories help us see in vivid color, give broader context, and connect to our emotions. The most effective communicators are good storytellers.
This may be the moment you are tempted to say, “I am not a good storyteller.” I assure you, you are.
Your story doesn’t have to be long. Remove the pressure to be captivating or dramatic. Simply share concrete details and paint a picture. For example, maybe you’re making an appeal to fix a staffing problem. You would ordinarily start with some data and say, “Last year our staffing was down by 6% which meant a decline in productivity and an increase in safety hazards. We hope to move that number up by two points for better efficiency and safety.”
That was accurate. Factual. But it was not very memorable. Why not? Because it is hard to see. It is too abstract and neutral. Numbers and overused phrases don’t attach quickly into our memory. But a story takes those numbers and brings them to life, creating images that are easy to see.
Take that fact and turn it into a story.
“March 2024 was our busiest month of the year. Our customers didn’t care that our staffing was down 6 percent – they just kept ordering like they always do. With less staff on hand to fill their orders, we had untrained salespeople in the warehouse, rushing through the aisles and pulling items off the shelves to deliver on time. Forklifts were zooming around, sometimes nearly bumping into each other. People stayed after hours to get the job done and we paid a lot of overtime. Luckily, we delivered everything on time and nobody got hurt, but it was pretty chaotic. We had some really close calls, and we may not be that lucky next time. Let’s do something about this.”
Concrete details – a time, a place, specific actions – these are what make an idea memorable. A mere data point becomes a vivid picture in your listener’s mind. Do this as often as you can, and you will notice how quickly your idea connects with those you want to influence.
This is what we do at Decker. We empower people by helping them be better communicators. Believe in your own creativity. You have everything you need to make your ideas come to life. Practice this and you will see how much more influential you can become.
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