With the weather heating up, so too is the creativity within the PN London office. The creative facilitators have been working hard internally and externally with clients.
The real joy in these sessions is homing in on the ability to listen to people. With a large variety of topics from patient solutions, cars, and fashion to A, it’s great to see people who aren’t normally part of the creative process light up and engage with ideation. It’s productive and a lot of fun for everyone.
Creating the activities and asking the right questions is exciting and creative in its own right. Each one is very bespoke and takes time to nurture and get right. Using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic approaches we try and engage everyone. From the quietest of voices to the loudest, across all levels of position; the idea is to produce a level playing field to work together.
It’s energising to absorb the different viewpoints and clear wide-ranging passions throughout the agency. Personally speaking, it extends my own viewpoint and my knowledge base. They excite me creatively and I know make me a better person. People are really interesting, aren’t they? Often I find their approach to problem-solving so different to my own, a real surprise.
Real listening, let’s face it, is hard. My natural default is to solve, offer ideas and debate.
So, it’s a challenge. Making people feel safe, comfortable, heard and interact – and allowing those awkward pauses – is so important. When we do get it right, it’s such a magical experience. It’s something that makes us all feel alive in the experience. Wider perspectives allow us to increase the number of solutions. Harnessed with data insights, we end up with informed approaches.
It’s also vital for the world we live in.
With technology driving our communication to be less human, we are now all possibly feeling a little less connected to each other – even disconnected. With the arrival of ever more powerful AI this disconnection will be evermore compounded. It’s not the technology itself we should fear but it is because people are driven to get their views and agendas across at the expense of others. The founder of Peace One Day, the very inspiring Jeremy Gilley, came in to talk to us. He described how the whole world is becoming more and more divided.
With so many global issues ahead, it’s a real opportunity for all of us to listen more to each other and to create those safe spaces for all, no matter what their beliefs. Whether it’s your nearest and dearest, or someone you don’t know, it’s a truly wonderful gift to listen, but not only to someone else but also yourself.
So whatever your challenge – Climate, Cost of living, Diversity, AI, internal or external – the team and I would love to listen.