Leeds based creative marketing agency, Outside The Box, don’t believe that only a chosen few are ‘creative’. They believe that everyone has a creative side, so they’ve created an interactive online survey to put their theory to the test.
OTB have created a survey that is designed to highlight the creativity that lies within us all. Whether we are data-driven, abstract idea centred or far removed from creative tasks on a daily basis, their survey will uncover the traits which make us all inherently creative.
Whereas sex, race and religion come to mind immediately when discussing diversity in the workplace, OTB do well to remind us that diversity in thinking should be just as important to businesses. They argue that cognitive diversity should not be viewed as a nuisance or a ‘quota fulfilling’ exercise, but as an invaluable asset that any business can benefit from.
Dave Easton, Creative Director at OTB said “diversity in thinking is essential to how we operate as a creative marketing agency. If all our staff thought in exactly the same way and approached client briefs in an identical manner, we wouldn’t be very effective as a creative agency.”
Embracing cognitive diversity could reap great advantages for businesses of all sizes. They suggest that increased creativity and productivity, enhanced perspective and decisiveness are natural by-products from adopting a more inclusive approach to diversity among creative thinkers within your team. By welcoming difference in opinion, approach and thinking, your company could benefit from these tangible positives.
However, while there are numerous benefits, they warn that implementing cognitive diversity will throw up its challenges. Increased competition, communication issues and team harmony may be impacted, but these are potential pitfalls that they assure can be navigated easily with clear and strong leadership.
“Diversity in thinking is a critical apparatus which we should all apply to ourselves, if not to understand our own strengths and weaknesses more coherently, but to also to better understand those of our colleagues.” – Mark Davies, Managing Director at OTB
