Brighter Marketing

We run creativity and innovation workshops and the main challenge we have it getting people to break out of their normal thought patterns and start using their grey matter more effectively.  Getting individuals out of their routine and shaking up their “this is how we do things around here” mentality is one of the most important aspects to getting them to open up their minds and get their mental muscles working.  To think in a more creative way often means we have to break those unwritten rules about how we do stuff to break through to new ways of working or get new marketing ideas.

Roger Bannister was one such person that broke the rules and showed that the impossible was in fact possible. Before he ran the mile in under 4 minutes, there was a consensus of opinion that it couldn’t be done, mainly spun by the media and backed up by doctors and scientists said that the human body couldn’t endure such a speed and that there was no way a human being could run that fast. Even Roger himself considered giving up after his “failure” at the 1952 Olympic games placed him 4th in the 1500m final and out of medal contention. But then he came up with a new goal, he would run a mile in under 4 minutes and in 1953 he ran 4:03.6 shattering previous standards. It was then that he realised that his goal was achievable. However, so did other runners and they began to believe that the sub 4 minute mile was also possible. The race was on; Roger had dared to break the thought patterns around what it was possible for the human body to do.

Then on 6th May 1954 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford Bannister ran a time of 3 min 59.4 sec, watched by a crowd of over 3,000 spectators. He had done it, he had broken the unwritten rule, which then spurred other athletes to do the same and only 46 days later Bannister’s record was broken by John Landy of Australia.

We find that if we can get people to break the rules and get out of their habitual thinking patterns, their creativity begins to flow and they find it easier to come up with new ideas. The most creative thinkers are constantly challenging the rules and will look for results outside the usual rules and guidelines. Next time you have a challenge or a problem to solve, think outside the normal rules, be a rebel and imagine yourself doing the opposite of what everyone else does, you may be suprised with the ideas you come up with.