Cloverdew Creative

There’s an old adage: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to keep bad news to yourself, but there is good news. Whether good news or bad, it’s all in the presentation. Here are a 6 ways to practice creativity in communication skills.

1. Implore your strengths. Use what you know to present information. If you’re a math person, give an equation; if you relate most to music, think of your presentation or discussion as a song. Whatever you’re trying to present and regardless of the audience, if you’re not comfortable, your audience won’t be, either.

2. Recognize your weaknesses. If there is something lacking in your viewpoint or research, don’t try to cover it up. Acknowledge it, take note of how it might be important, and move on. Don’t dwell on what you can’t be in control of. If it’s essential to your work, find ways to get the information you’re lacking and come back with it later.

3. Try a new perspective. Put yourself in the position of your boss, employee, client, customer, friend, or stranger. How might each of these people view your communication skills? Are you pleasant? Are you smiling? Are you assuming the other is full of good will or bad? Did you do everything you could to explain yourself in clear, concise language? How else might you present it?

4. Improvise. If you get stuck and your audience doesn’t seem to be getting it, change your course of action. Take a detour and tell a story that’s relatable, explain with analogies and metaphors, use everyday language, role play or walk someone through the process themselves. Change your intonation. Change your location, if possible. Get moving – some people learn better when using multiple parts of their bodies, instead of staying stagnant.

5. Get excited. Talk with your hands. Use gestures and colorful (no, not that kind!) language – paint a verbal picture.

6. Use visual aides. Paint a literal picture. Some people need to see something in order to be able to fully process something. Make sure to provide clear visuals that are easily explained with numbers, values, and titles.

Building relationships and successfully collaborating with others comes from the ability to interact creatively. If you can plan ahead and think on the spot, presentations, conversations and everyday interactions will come more and more easily. And the more you practice creativity in interpersonal communications, the more easily creativity will flow elsewhere. Creativity is a practice, not a virtue.

Evaluation and refocusing are two essential pieces to accomplishing goals, especially for someone like me, who often comes up with tons of creative ideas, but never seems to have the energy to complete them all.

Last week, I posted regarding my goals for 2010 and the plans in place to achieve those goals. This week, I reflect on what’s worked, what hasn’t and where to go from here. I am doing this with just a few simple steps.

1. Review my best laid plans to remind myself of all the things I want to accomplish, both large and small.
2. Assess which goal paths I have been following and how much progress I have made.
3. Look for other goal path opportunities.
4. Act.

Learn

Assessment: I have utilized my free time very well and integrated learning into my work life with much success. I have accomplished a lot in the way of reading (books and blogs). I have deepened and broadened professional relationships, both through my office and no my own. I am extremely grateful to have a great new mentor and other professionals in my network whom I consider positive influencers, teachers, and colleagues. I’ve discovered areas of interest I didn’t know I had, uncovered talents and built skills I didn’t think I had the capacity for.  I view every challenge as a learning opportunity. I’m grateful and determined, working hard on every creative project and taking every chance to develop skills as a young professional. I’ve started journaling (on paper, in ink) again, launched this new blog to catalogue my progress in creative ventures and I am keeping the conversation going on the creative process across disciplines and fields and various platforms. I haven’t made it to any of the finish lines for my learning goals, but I’ve made huge strides.

Next step: I need to get out that 35 mm film camera and take some photos!

Create

Assessment: I’ve started this new blog about the creative process and have been successful with posting fairly regularly. I’ve cleaned out old clothing and have a huge pile of things to donate to charity… soon it will be time to make my own pieces. Though I haven’t completely succeeded here, I’m encouraged to do more the second half of the year. I’m excited about more opportunities to create blog content, my own clothing, jewelry for my roommate (who’s allergic to any metal except for gold), and putting together a cohesive and comprehensive offline journal. I used to carry around a Moleskine, which was not just a journal, but a living piece of art – I’ve started to get back into this practice and it’s amazing what a difference it makes in my life. Even if no one else ever sees it, “Art for art’s sake.”

Next step: Design my logo and put together a site. Completely finish cleaning out my closets and get my art and craft supplies in order in a workspace.

Invest

Assessment: I am doing MUCH better with eating well and have been shopping almost exclusively at the farmer’s market and only at Trader Joe’s aside from that. I have invested money into a personal trainer and this morning I started working out at the gym with her. The monthly membership and training sessions are expensive, but I’m looking forward to getting into shape and staying that way. I felt great this morning and, though I will be sore tomorrow, the investment in my future health is the only motivation I need to keep going. I’ve done a terrible job at keeping track of the accomplishments, but I certainly have been keeping up with the goal of doing something every week that I’m proud of – I think I’m going to start writing them all down for future reference and motivation. As I said above, I’m working on cleaning up and out and getting rid of any clutter (this one still needs quite a bit of work). I’ve been doing great with paying down what little debt I have and hope to continue on that trend throughout the rest of the year.

Next step: Writing in my journal the accomplishments I want to remember, work at better balancing my budget.

Image Credits: Learn – Rachael Ashe; Create – jessica wilson; Invest – connie zhen.

I’d love to know where you are on your goals for the year. How do YOU assess your progress? What adjustments have you made? How do you feel about the rest of the year?

The best of the web as relates to creativity:

Think a press release sounds too much like fiction? That’s probably because the writer has a great handle on writing. Read this post that explains 10 Things Public Relations Flacks Can Teach You About Writing Fiction.

Not sure what to write about? Here’s an idea or three: Let Analytics Be Your Guide from HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog.

The the Creative Copy Challenge and show what your made of! These sets of key words challenge you to create a short story that incorporates all 10. This morning, a feisty, fantastic bunch inspired by Shane Arthur’s grandmother.

Len Kendall Tweeted the other day about the word “fresh” – thinking fresh involves strategy and discipline. Becoming Innovative involves using what you know and linking it with the unexpected. Use what you know, turn it, mold it, form it into something fresh.

How To Grow New Brain Cells and Outwit Competitors is another knock-it-out-of-the-park post by Jonathan Fields. He illustrates how physical fitness leads to success in his series on Fueling Epic Journeys. Get ready to fuel your own when you join Zia Hassan, who posted not long ago on this blog about How To Get Into The Best Creative Shape of Your Life. How similar are building muscle and building brain cells? What does that mean for the creative spirit? I’ll let you be the judge.

What kinds of things influence the creative process in putting together a logo? There are many, but have you ever thought about what the energy of your logo embodies? Carolyn Winter, a professional energy healer and life coach, analyses Chris Brogan‘s new logo in her post, asking Do you resonate with your logo? Do your customers resonate with it? Something else to think about when you are creating – how does energy, physical and perceived, play into your work?

image from National Geographic

The best of the web as relates to creativity:

In need of some inspiration? Why not try on a new persona? Stepping out of the norm might just give you the kick in the pants you needed. Copyblogger’s Johnny B. Truant explains the freedom that comes along with letting your true self out, the one true self that you were always a little scared to be, but the one who drives your dreams, who inspires everyone s/he meets including you. So, who are you, really? What is your true self going to accomplish today?

We all get tired now and then. Burnt out. Here’s 10 Ways to Stay Creative While Exhausted… just a little fuel to keep you going this Friday.

Let us not forget the things we can do with absolutely nothing at all… here’s some fantastic art created only with the human form (work safe).

PLAY. Be silly. Do something frivolous and unexpected. Let spontaneity take over. Read The Creative Life: (Re)Learning How to Play.

Sir Ken Robinson speaks about creating the right environment for learning and creativity in his TED Talk (TED = Technology, Entertainment, Design): Bring On The Learning Revolution!

image from Anna Nguyen

The best of the web as relates to creativity:

The power of creativity is an awesome thing, indeed. Look what the Favela Painting Project is doing for the slums of Rio de Janeiro! Amazing what a little paint and a little instruction can do. (Thanks, Mack Collier, for the link!)

Steven Pressfield interviews Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love on his creative process. Check it out here.

The Six Hats of Creative Communication from Best100Ideas.com explores the different colors of creative thinking in the context of communication strategy.

Struggling to make every thought of yours new and creative? Check out the antidote: Why Being Obvious Can Be Original, Too from Danny Brown.

The lines are blurring… how everything is related to everything, or at least how sales writing is related to public relations from Amy Mengel. What perspective are you writing from? How will it improve if you incorporate the best of everything else you’re great at? What about thinking outside the box? Or knocking down the walls of the box altogether?

Need to brainstorm on how to brainstorm? Usual cloud technique not working for you? Explore all types of Creativity and Innovation Techniques from Mycoted, a wiki site dedicated to improving creativity and innovation for solving problems worldwide. See something missing? Add it! (Thanks for the tip, MyCreativeTeam!)

So you want to be a writer? What are you waiting for?! Check out 8 Must-Dos for Aspiring Writers from Amber Naslund. This woman makes things happen. She’s inspirational. Follow her lead and soon you’ll be inspiring others, too!

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As I have hinted at on Twitter, I am really, really excited about some new blog feature ideas I have. These things are begging to come out and I just can’t seem to make it happen. I’ve gotten one started recently: Merry Go Round, which I really like. Linking to others’ articles, art, blogs, photography, etc. is a great way to share things I find interesting, useful, or happy-making. I love it. Other people title similar types of entries with phrases and words like Link Love, Buffet, Carousel, etc.  I’ve always been a huge fan of Joni Mitchell, so when I was listening to the Circle Game, I thought how perfectly the lyrics fitted with taking time to shout out and point out little bits of happiness and beauty on the Merry Go Round each week. I was relieved to find the perfect name and connotation for my lists of link love, but still have yet to find the perfect names for some of my other features. They’re on the tip of my tongue, I just have to stumble on the perfect one.

So, bloggers, how do you name your features? Is it random? Whatever you think up at the moment? Does it take forever to decide? Do you use song lyrics like I did? What makes a good blog section?

I’m afraid if I go with the first thing that pops into my head, like I did for the name of the blog in the first place and also for the name of the category of Simple Image on this blog, that I’ll be stuck with a name I dislike or no longer fits in a few months or years down the road. What advice can you give on branding your blog?

In 2004, rather than coming back to Washington, DC for my first semester of my junior year in college, I took off from Boston’s Logan Airport headed for Amman, Jordan, where I would spend my fall semester. It wasn’t an easy choice to leave behind the center of our political universe (and my academic and social life) for a Middle Eastern country I had never been to before and a place where I didn’t speak the language (but that’s a story for another day).

I arrived in Amman in the middle of the night, anxious and excited, ready to start learning right away. Once I was picked up by our program director, my first question was “What’s the most important word I need to know?” Surprisingly, the response was not the Arabic equivalent for a greeting, nor for ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. What my director said was “Wasta”.

Loosely translated, wasta means influence, connections, pull, or power through people. In the Middle East, as well as around the world, who you know gives you as much, if not more, power than money. After all, even if you lose your money, you still have connections. The more personal and professional connections you have, the more clout you gain. The same is true for wasta. Wasta, however, refers both to the amount of power and pull you have, as well as the connections with those people. Wasta is your network and, in Arabic culture, the more wasta you have, the better off you are.

I would say the same is true for our culture. It is especially true in this crazy city of Washington, DC. If I were to do a poll of my friends, nine out of ten would tell you that they were introduced to their job, apartment, or significant other by a personal (or professional) connection. While some may complain that this ‘system’ of connections is unfair, it really is all about who you know. But more importantly, it’s about how you treat them.

With social media networking becoming the next big thing and people making connections online in a more social, rather than strictly professional, arena, it is increasingly important to build full relationships with people. Networking isn’t just about the work you do or the money you pay; networking is also about the way you interact with people. The more reciprocal the relationship, the better off you (and your connections) are.

Tips on how to improve your Wasta:

• Shake hands (with a good, firm handshake). I know this sounds corny, but it shows you are professional and friendly.
• Smile genuinely as often as possible. A positive attitude can do wonders if you let it!
• Always send a hand-written thank-you card when appropriate.
• Return phone calls and emails in a timely manner. This demonstrates that you are attentive, concerned, and timely.
• Use niceties, such as ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘you’re welcome’. Even the littlest things can make a huge difference.
• Join Twitter, follow people in your field or whose Tweets (or updates) you find interesting. Listen, respond, engage.
• Be careful not to engage in sarcasm or snark around people who don’t know you well. This prevents people from mistaking your dry sense of humor for rudeness. (Be especially careful not to use sarcasm or snark online, since tone is not as obvious without your voice or body language.)
• If you read blogs often, comment with a link back to your own blog to encourage interactions.
• Give before you take. Don’t ask for something unless you are able to give something in return.

So, why is wasta important? Not only can it bring about fulfilling personal relationships, but you never know how personal networking will come into play when thinking about other aspects of your life. Think of every connection and contact as a potential ally, business partner, or friend.

In learning much about social media networking and rapidly growing a fabulous community of friends, colleagues, acquaintences, resources, and other connections via Twitter, I have come across many a marketing strategy. In addition, people often reference the ways they find others to follow using this rapidly growing networking tool.  There are some who follow based on wefollow.com, others who use MrTweet, but I have found the most effective and rewarding way to follow new friends who are engaging, helpful, and great resources: Word of Mouth Tweet.

The best connections I have made on Twitter have come from adding people whose @names I see on friends’ Tweets. If I see someone’s name frequently, it means that they are engaging with others that I frequently interact with. If someone often recommends links or RT (retweets) someone’s links, perhaps that means I should follow him/her, as well. I have all but completely given up on the #followfriday hashtag because there are so many people who Tweet their follows without any rhyme or reason. However, if a connection of mine Tweets that someone should be followed, I will often check out the person’s profile.

That being said, I have a very short and simple process which I follow on deciding whom to add to my follow list on Twitter:

1. Is this someone I know personally? If not, is a friend or acquaintance of someone I know?
2. Is this person someone who works in a field that interests me and/or my followers?
3. Does this person post interesting original content in form of Tweets or links?
4. Does this person RT interesting content or links?

If I’ve aswered yes to one or more of the questions, I will follow that person. If, for some reason, I feel that their Tweets no longer benefit me in any way, I simply unfollow. No harm done. However, though I have unfollowed many from the MrTweet and wefollow recommendations, I have rarely unfollowed anyone I found through the Word of Tweet method.

What are your thoughts? What methods do you use to decide who to follow? Has that worked out for you?