Catch Your Creative Butterfly with Breakthrough Thinking
It's becoming evident that traditional capitalism has led us down a problematic path. Excessive waste, thoughtless consumption, and a lack of progress in both the economy and societal well-being are just a few of the issues we're facing. Many business leaders and marketers are more focused on maintaining the status quo than on inspiring change and promoting sustainable behaviours. Short-term goals have overshadowed the need for real transformation.
Shifting Our Outlook
To break free from this predicament, it is being stated more and more that we must change our perception of capitalism. Collaboration and partnership, rather than self-centeredness, can lead to positive growth. As Sandrine Dixson-Decleve recently put it at the Beyond Growth conference in the European Parliament, “We need to move from a system grounded in power, profit and patriarchy, to one focused on people, planet and prosperity”.
New technology, energy sources, and work methods offer vast opportunities, but they remain out of reach when we're stuck in the confines of conventional marketing and business practices. It's time to break the cycle and foster innovative thinking and behavioural change for true progress.
Discovering Your Inner Creativity
At CoEX, we constantly explore innovative concepts and the elements needed for transformation. "The Net and the Butterfly: The Art & Practice of Breakthrough Thinking" by Olivia Fox Cabane and Judah Pollack, renowned experts who have worked with Google, start-ups, and major brands, offers invaluable insights into the limitations of linear thinking and the importance of tapping into our creative potential.
Cabane and Pollack emphasize that traditional executive thinking is excellent for organizing and making lists, but it inhibits creativity. They encourage us to access the "genius lounge," a latent part of the brain that is rarely utilized. By practicing intentional thinking and creating new neural connections, we can unlock fresh ideas and solutions.
To find breakthrough solutions, they suggest immersing ourselves in the problem and then stepping back to change our perspective. This involves engaging in new experiences, such as taking walks, exploring nature, or exposing ourselves to different art forms. By temporarily breaking away from our usual routines, we can activate new neural connections and capture the elusive "breakthrough butterfly."
This observation resonated with us. As we put it, we need to find ways to tap into our subconscious. That’s why we hold most of our meetings together with a walk around the park. We’ve got used to the idea now that an idea comes to us after we have been really trying. Usually just as were concluding and saying goodbye to each other an idea pops into our head. Then we walk some more.
Unleash Your Creativity
Cabane and Pollack's book is filled with inspiring examples of breakthrough thinking. For instance, Darwin developed his theories on evolution while walking in circles on his Kent garden path. Aristotle's followers, known as the Peripatetics, engaged in philosophical discussions while strolling around Athens. Mendeleev discovered the periodic table of elements through a dream. Keith Richards woke up in a Florida motel with the opening bars of "Satisfaction" in his head. These stories illustrate how individuals deepened their thoughts, quieted their logical minds, unlocked their creativity, and captured breakthrough insights.
Achieving Breakthroughs in Business
We assist leaders in bringing breakthrough thinking to their organizations and markets. Our team leverages many years of expertise in branding, marketing, and communications to craft unique and impactful storytelling. By immersing ourselves in the problem, understanding the key challenges and collaborating with others.
Dresh and innovative solutions fall out of reframing a problem and by looking at the challenge in a different way. Outcomes can often seem magical but there is a process which includes our Creative Catalysts that provoke thoughts and ideas. The results are a seamless meeting point of strategy and creativity working together in a seemingly effortless but highly valuable way.
Our approach involves several steps:
Dive deep into the problem: Gain a thorough understanding of the current situation and engage with key decision-makers early on.
Identify the real challenge: Uncover gaps in understanding and find new perspectives that others may have overlooked.
Free your mind: Explore ways to unleash your creativity by stepping away from rational thinking, whether it's taking walks, showering, napping, or meditating.
Foster collaboration: Work with others to deliver breakthrough solutions, drawing inspiration from diverse sources and copying successful strategies from afar.
Creative Catalysts: We use tens of Creative Catalysts to trigger ideas.
A world of experience: We cross reference this with knowledge of some of the UK’s largest brands that we have either worked with or analysed.
Bring the story to life: Utilize creative storytelling techniques to captivate audiences, animate your idea, and win over sceptics.
We could talk all day about the power of breakthrough thinking, but we’ll stop there. If you’d like to pick up on the conversation or wonder how this could apply to your business, drop us an email at Andrew@co-ex.co (strategy) or Paul@co-ex.co (creative).
