Reuben Milne

I love travelling by train.  I find that long train journeys provide a wondrous opportunity for quiet, considered creative reflection.  A welcome respite from stuff, things and bits (otherwise known as life) which I find incredibly fruitful for idea generation.

I took the train to Edinburgh this week to give a talk and acheived loads in the eight hour round trip; a little bit of remote brainstorming (sending the ideas over later today as it goes), a speech written, a presentation tweaked, a couple of emails sent (I know, but needs must and the train did have wifi).  Oh, and a bit of reading for pleasure.  All good.

But I nearly missed this.  

This is the view from my window as we went through Berwick on Tweed (just a snap on the iPhone, I haven't instagramed it - so sue me...).

Head bent over my laptop / workbook (I still find the physical act of writing very creatively effective) I just caught it out of the corner of my eye and even then I nearly returned to what I was doing without pause for thought.

But I didn't.  I made myself stop and look and appreciate and enjoy and think ("blimey," I thought, "that's f**king beautiful.").    

From a creative standpoint, focus is fiercely important.  That's why train journeys work for me.  But equally important for your creative good health is remembering to pause, look up and appreciate life around you.  

The two are not incompatible.

Language is a thing of great and magnificent beauty.  In the hands of a decent copywriter, it is positively scary.

A recent Holiday Inn advertising campaign managed to do the job of a half-day coaching session in just six letters (although one was repeated so, technically, that's seven). 

Stay You.  

Clever innit?  In just two short words you get the exhortation to be the person that you are, at a very reasonable rate for an overnight stay.

Turn-down service and mini bar aside, those two short words also encapsulate the concept that lies at the heart of all of the Personal Brand coaching I do.

Stay You.  

Understanding yourself in terms of a brand isn't about subsuming yourself to a cheap marketing trick.  It is about appreciating your best bits and then helping other people understand them too.  It is about authenticity, not facade.

It is about staying you.

Many years ago I heard a German friend of a friend (she lived in Munich, if you're wondering) bandy the phrase 'happy in your skin' around which always struck me as a nice way of putting it.  

But Stay You is shorter, and we're all busy people these days.

Juxtaposition.  

Apart from being a lovely word, far too infrequently used in everyday conversation (and the letter count makes it very Twitter-unfriendly), juxtaposition is one of the simplest creative tools available.

Two recent stories on the ever-inspirational PSFK site showcase juxtaposition putting in a shift, working tirelessly to create two "Love it!" moments involving sweet shops and Banksy.

In both cases, someone has brought two opposed (in a good way) worlds together to create something genuinely engaging that is more than just the sum of its parts....

So next time you are creatively stuck, get juxtaposing.

A vending machine which encourages people to swap piqued my interest today.  A great example of how a simple 'what if it did the opposite?' question can create something clever and engaging.

So I pinned it (I'm so bleeding edge...).  Whilst I was there, Pinterest asked me if I'd like to categorise my board to help people discover it.  

I've called my board 'creativity' because every so often I come across an image linked to a splendidly creative idea which sparks my own thought processes.  So I share them in the hope it does the same for others (admittedly the name needs a bit of work in the imagination stakes).

Now I understand that a more specific category might help drive traffic.  Except that Pinterest only does vertical categories; 'Art & Architecture', 'Products' and 'Crafting' to name but a few.

I'd like to think my board is all of these and none of these.  I want categories like 'Inspiration' and 'How cool is this?' and 'Genius ideas'.

The only option I got was 'other'.  That's it.  Not even the chance to create your own categorisation within 'other'.

And having chosen it, I got the saddest message of all from Pinterest.  "Categorized (their spelling) as other.'  I wish I hadn't.

Continuing the scientific theme for today (see post below), I discovered this on the BBC.  Apparently researchers have discovered that the colour of a Gouldian Finch's head may indicate its personality type.

The tests showed red-headed (not strawberry blonde) birds were more aggressive whilst those with black heads were bolder and took more risks. 

Which must make developing interpersonal skills dead easy if you're a Gouldian Finch.

Imagine.  Its your first day at work in the open, subtropical woodland.  You are desperate to make a good first impression on your boss.  No need to ask around to see what he is like (Let's face it, its more likely to be a 'he' - less a glass ceiling, more a dense tropical canopy) or google him / check him out on finchbook (see what I did there?) to get the measure of him.

Just use your eyes.  Check his plumage.  If black of head, show passion and be bold.  If red, defer and compliment.  If only our lives were so easy...

Which is an interesting thought for the non-finch workforce.  The finches are generous with their personality.  They help their work colleagues 'get' them quickly.  How generous are you?  

How much do you help the people you work with understand what you are about?  

I'm not suggesting a range of personality-linked coloured headgear (although I may drop Pantone a line), but you can help in other, more subtle ways.  

Consciously deciding how to behave doesn't necessarily make it any less authentic.

“Here's what doesn't work: hacking around and ignoring what doesn't work.

Here's what also doesn't work: doing your best with your work and then dismissing the elements that don't work as experiments.”

Wise words from Seth Godin as part of a recent post entitled ‘Getting Serious About Experimentation’

I’m a big fan of Godin’s miraculously consistent digital stream of wisdom to the extent that I quote some of his nuggets in the training I deliver but this time round, I'm not sure I agree. 

Pressure is one of the most common creative maladies; there are few better barriers to idea generation than the pressure we put ourselves under to come up with the ‘right’ idea in a brainstorm for instance.  It means you never share your thoughts in case they aren’t quite right.

As experiments don’t have to be right, then the pressure’s off.

Furthermore, ‘experimenting’ is listed as one of the five crucial components of an innovator’s DNA in a Harvard Business Review paper of the same name.  According to the clever American people, “Executives of innovative enterprises…make experimentation central to everything they do.”

In this case, Godin's point is that “The best experiments are experiments on purpose. They are done with rigor and intent.”  In short, don't be frivolous with your f**k ups. 

Which is all well and good if you are already at the experimenting stage but less useful if you don’t feel comfortable with the concept of experimenting, of not being ‘right’, in the first place.  And I reckon that's true of many individuals and organizations.

So if you haven’t started thinking in terms of getting experimental yet, don’t let seriousity (I made that word up) put you off just yet. 

Lab coats can come later.

Frames are interesting.  Very much an addendum to the art itself yet with the potential to considerably affect 'the main event'.

Frames provide a visual boundary but also create a context, a point of reference which has some bearing on how you 'read' the image within.

I'll be honest (and a little more down to earth). Frames I consider to be ugly have seriously detracted from my appreciation of the art within.  

Using the 'right' frame has an equally important role in creativity - perhaps more so - something that apparently Artistotle was banging on about centuries ago.

Clever fella that Aristotle (you heard it here first) but then so is Michael Michalko whose post on The art of framing your challenges creatively highlights brilliantly how "A simple change of words or the order of words in a problem statement will stimulate your imagination by adding new dimensions of meaning."

Read it and remember that when you are stuck creatively, it ain't what you say, its the way that you say it.......

I got this for Christmas from the fine folks at Skywrite PR.

It is not the first time something like this has been done and nor, I'm sure, will it be the last but don't let that detract from the appreciation of a creative job well done.

Mix-ups / mash-ups / juxtapositions / cultural collisions - call them what you will.  Combining unlikely bedfellows remains a fiercely useful creative habit to have.

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

I thought this was interesting - via the always excellent Michael Litman.

I've already covered no. 18 in a previous post but the next two (19 & 20 for those numerically challenged) took my fancy.

19. I like the idea that the surroundings in which you sit have as important a role to play as the action unfolding in front of you in terms of creative inspiration.  And unless plastic with a hint of popcorn gets your creative juices flowing, most cinemas aren't going to do it for you.

20. This little beauty doesn't even have to involve random geographic foodstuffs.  Just pick up a different newspaper, listen to a different radio station* or change your transport choice into work for a day.

*Apologies in advance if you end up suffering a potentially taste-threatening bout of Chris Moyles / regional Heart FM drivetime shows - remember, its helping unlock your creativity.... 

This is a guest book (although technically it is a guest canvas).

(In this post, it is also lying on its side.  This is not because it does, but because my technical ineptitude prevents me from working out why the picture I took will only appear in landscape rather than portrait - but I digress....)

It's not small – its about 6ft square – and leans provocatively against the wall in the entrance room at Meanwhile’s offices on Manchester Square in London.

I love it. It is a simple and vastly creative (in every sense of the word) statement of intent. It is, dare I say it, massively on brand for the Meanwhile proposition.

It is also a great example of an insanely simple technique for generating creative ideas. Take an element of your current solution and then scale it up or down and see what that does to the answer. It may not solve it but it may take you to an interesting, thought provoking place.

Or a really bloody gigantic way of keeping a record of your visitors…….