Creative talent needs a safe space to grow

Authored by Nikhil Dey, Executive Director, Adfactors

Creativity is key to the growth of the public relations Industry. Every person who works in the world of PR has something unique to contribute. Helping them find what that is and allowing it to flourish requires several things to change. PR is one of the top 10 most stressful jobs in the world. It is a demanding 24x7x365 profession. Add to that the impact of the pandemic and there is a serious issue of being short-staffed or understaffed. How to deliver creative excellence in a pressure cooker environment and without the right set of people? There is also a lot of ambiguity about what PR is and what it is not. Anything that is remotely connected to communication and is nobody's job has a way of finding its way to the PR team. All of this is a problem, but it’s also a huge opportunity. The canvas is so large and the possibilities to contribute in an impactful manner are endless.

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The quote “Creativity is intelligence having fun” beautifully captures two essential ingredients that creativity needs to thrive and grow – intelligence and fun. For this kind of creativity to breathe in our industry, I believe five things need to happen. 

1 The ability to connect the dots in a unique and meaningful way and be the author of action. This is the art of ‘sensemaking’. Bringing together different data points and diverse viewpoints and then stitching them together into a fabric that captures an audience’s attention is what we as PR practitioners do every day. My favourite definition of PR is “Public relations is doing good and then getting credit for it”. It underlines the need for every PR person to consider the possibility that they can be the author of action - the idea generator, the behaviour changer, with the power to make something happen. Then become the communicator who takes that idea to the right audience. 

2 Breaking out of the box. We have a PR tool kit. The handiest tool in that box is the Press Release, it’s like the hammer to a carpenter. And for anyone adept with a hammer everything looks like a nail. From the good old-fashioned press release that we are so used to hammering out on our keyboards, we have now added a few other tools. The interview and the authored article still reign supreme. A host of digital experts occasionally rush in with a Twitter trend or an Instagram micro influence campaign. Then there is the LinkedIn CXO thought leadership package. 

Original thinking around framing a problem or an opportunity and then coming up with something creative and never done before is not an everyday affair. It needs to be. Taking the ordinary and doing something extraordinary with it is where the magic and potential of PR lies. Transforming the pedestrian into something surprising is when you get put on a pedestal. For original thinking. For frugal innovation. For forging a new path and showcasing the impact that public relations can and does make in the world or reputation building. This needs us to put down the tool kit and stop hammering away. Instead, we need to bring back the artistry of our tradecraft and create something unique.

3 Being fearless. This requires a new tribe of professionals with a whole new mindset. “New rules, new tools, same game” is how I like to think about the opportunity to reinvent what PR can become. The ability to ask questions, find new ways of solving a problem, or leverage an opportunity will only appear if we have the courage to ask the right questions. The answers are not always easily available but they must be found. Who is the audience that needs to receive this message? What do you want them to do once they hear it? Simple stuff, we often fail to get to the heart of.

“Just send out the press release and make sure we get 100 exposures”. “Do what you are told and don’t ask too many questions”. This has to change - with knowledge and skill we can intelligently navigate this conversation, get the information we need, and still do what we are told. We just need to find a way to help reframe what is being asked of us. The journey PR people have to make is from coverage to courage. The courage to chase bigger goals, and climb taller mountains than just dossiers, clicks, and likes. 

4 Balancing commerce with care. Caring for people needs what we call a “resource surplus” environment. A place where the workload and the people available to do the work is well balanced. In the current pandemic context, to maintain this balance we need a few extra people. The burden of burnout from the last two traumatic years is partly because of the constant cycle of having colleagues who are unwell and unavailable. The impact on mental health and how people can cope are all showing up in the workplace now. Hence the smart organisation will create the capacity to balance all of this out. And finally, the most important ingredient of all - Psychological Safety.  A fun place to work, where people feel safe and empowered to speak their minds without fear of criticism. A safe space, that allows people to be themselves and bring their best selves to serve. 

5 Remember, that everyone has a special skill or talent. In their own way, everyone is intelligent. Great organisations find that uniqueness in their people and create a safe space for these skills to come into play. The power that is unleashed in a playground is the collective energy of a team having fun, each playing a variation of the game they love. An organisation structure that is agile and flexible enough to accommodate this diversity and at the same time has some strong foundations and frameworks to ensure the broad rules of good gameplay and sportsmanship are adhered to is one that will race ahead. 

I have seen this up close at Adfactors PR. There is an amazingly strong process backbone. And a set of principles that guide our firm. For example, learning is a must. There is a huge budget devoted to L&D and there is a demand that every single employee invests their time and energy in learning every year. I have just completed a 9 month UpGrad course in Advanced Digital Marketing along with 890 other colleagues. Designations don’t matter when it comes to learning. A democratised learning environment demands that everyone has to sharpen their saw. At the same time, there is also a huge amount of flexibility and variety that also allows each person to find their sweet spot and play to their strength. An example of this is an internal transfer option. If you want a change look within. We facilitate the movement of people from one practice or location to another. Make it easy for people to move and grow within the playground. That way they don’t need to look outside. Find a way to let a person find their unique skill or talent, let their innate intelligence have some fun. 

The formula is easy enough, PR needs PS. Public Relations teams need to operate in an environment of Psychological Safety. First, hire enough people to do the job (and then hire a few more) to create the capacity for creativity. Then create enough psychological safety to allow each person to be their creative best. The power of PR that this will unleash will drive our industry into the future. PR people will only be able to flourish and grow to their full potential when they have the space to do so. As easy as the formula is, finding the resources to execute this plan and having the resolve to bring this formula to life is hard. 

What are you waiting for? Use your intelligence, connect a few dots, have fun while you’re at it, and create a special space for your team to thrive. Allow the creativity in each PR person to shine through and the PR industry will shine bright.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and Adgully.com does not necessarily subscribe to it.

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