This is a workshop given to the marketing team at Kimpton Hotels.

1. Demystifying creativity:!
A user guide for left brainers.
David Murphy
Founder & Serial Thought Provoker
wikibranding

2. Common refrain of left-brainers.
• I’m not creative.
• I don’t have time to be “artsy.”
• I’ve got to make the numbers.
• I’m not lighting candles and incense in my office.
• I don’t know how.

3. Today’s goals
• Demystify creativity.
• Provide a useful framework for creating ideas.
• Apply this framework to Kimpton.

4. Kimpton’s culture of creativity.
“We think diverse people will lead to diverse creativity.” ~ Michael
Depatie
“We celebrate the tries, even if they don’t work.” ~ Michael Depatie
“If you’re not willing to laugh at yourself and be silly, then we’re probably
not the company for you.” ~ Niki Leondakis

5. My teachers through the years.

6. My teachers through the years.

7. What is creativity?

8. Do we know what creativity looks like?
• Which company do you feel is the most creative marketer?
• What has been the most creative product or service in the last 10
years?
• Who is the most creative person you know?

9. Creativity is not
torture or punishment.

10. Creativity is not a
hollow exhortation.

11. Luck?!
A dark art?!
Serendipity?

12. Think of creativity this way: !
It’s not art – it’s counter-intuitive problem solving.

13. Click to launch video.

14. Creativity in a business environment must be a
defined, repeatable and measureable process...

15. …albeit one that is counter-intuitive and freely
defies conventions.

16. What if beer was marketed like a punk band?

17. What if we ignore the water and focus on the
bottle instead?
Click to launch video.

18. What if we re-
imagine jewelry as
a mouthwatering
indulgence?

19. What if we think of
a sneaker as a
fashion accessory?

20. What if we don’t get too clever and instead focus
on what’s hiding in plain sight.

21. Step one: Remove the self-inflicted obstacles.!
How many can you spot in this video?

22. Click to launch video.

23. Stop!
• The 16 page “brief”
• Poor customer focus
• No prioritization
• Marketing-speak
• Ignoring the simple solution
• Involving too many decision makers
• Losing sight of the original goal

24. Creativity killers.
• We accept assumptions – solve the wrong problem.
• We know what we know – perceptual narrowing / well-trodden
mental paths.
• We don’t pursue multiple solutions – divergent thinking.

25. Use any of the symbols to
make this correct.
I0 I0 I0 = 9.50!
( × − + ÷ )!

26. Use any of the symbols to
make this correct.
Answer: Why assume this
is a math problem – 9.50
is ten minutes to ten.
I0 T0 I0 = 9.50!
( × − + ÷ )!

27. A woman parks her car outside a hotel and realizes that she’s
bankrupt.
Explain.

28. A woman parks her car outside a hotel and realizes that she’s
bankrupt.
Answer: A properly populated
brainstorming team would
expose the problem to a wider
range of perspectives and
experiences.

29. By moving only one
glass, make both rows
the same.

30. By moving only one
glass, make both rows
the same.
Answer: Why accept the
assumed definition of
“move” – pour a full glass
into the empty glass.

31. A man walks into a bar and asks for a
glass of water. The barman pulls out a
gun and points it at the man’s head. The
man thanks the barman and walks out
without receiving his drink.
Explain.

32. A man walks into a bar and asks for a
glass of water. The barman pulls out a
gun and points it at the man’s head. The
man thanks the barman and walks out
without receiving his drink.
Answer: Surrounding yourself with
relevant knowledge helps unlock new
ideas. People also drink water to cure the
hiccups!

33. A framework for creative
problem solving.
• Define
• Know
• Collaborate
• Invert

34. Define Know Collaborate Invert
“Give me the freedom of a
tightly defined problem.”
Norman
Berry

35. Define
• Create a ruthlessly well-honed statement of the problem.
• Be specific about what you want to achieve.
• Challenge assumptions and the very definition of the problem to be
solved.

36. Goal:
Make it easier for bikers
to grab their water bottle.

37. Goal:
Make it easier for bikers
to grab their water bottle.
Tighter goal:
Make it easier for bikers
to drink water.

38. The Five Whys.
• Quickly determine the root cause of a problem by asking a
series of five whys.
• Reveal the true problem that needs to be solved.

39. The Five Whys.
The assembly line keeps shutting down
because we’ve got a problem with the
fuses in our machines.

40. The Five Whys.
Five Whys
Root Cause
1. Why did the machine stop?
It blew a fuse.
2. Why did the fuse blow?
The fuse was the wrong size.
3. Why was the wrong size fuse
in the box?
The engineer put it there.
4. Why did the engineer do that?
The supply room issued the wrong size fuse.
5. Why?
The stock bin was mislabeled.
Solve for this!

41. Brainstorm.
“We have a problem getting the second
visit from around 80% of our guests.”
Employ the Five Whys.
What’s the true problem to be solved?

42. Illustration of The Five Whys.
Five Whys
Root Cause
1. Why aren’t we getting more
second visits from InTouch
guests?
They only sign up to get free wifi.
2. Why is that the case?
It’s the only tangible benefit at check-in.
3. Why aren’t we winning them
over with an emotional
experience?
The It takes two or three visits before you experience a
Kimpton moment.
4. Why can’t we demonstrate
love on the first visit?
We don’t capture enough insightful and useable
personal information at the time of booking.
5. Why?
Our booking system isn’t designed to do this.
Solve for this!

43. Radical word pairings.
• Challenge the problem statement. Underline key words in the statement.
• Choose a pair of main words – e.g., adjective & noun or noun & verb.
• Develop synonyms for each. Use these to inspire new word pairings.
• See if this unlocks a fresh way to redefine the problem.

44. Radical word pairings.
We don’t get steady attendance at the InTouch training sessions.

45. Radical word pairings.
We don’t get steady attendance at the InTouch training sessions.
Continuous participation
Ongoing learning
Active buy-in
Strong commitment
Inspiration festival
Motivation show
Me time
Knowledge jam session

46. Radical word pairings.
Continuous participation
Ongoing learning
Active buy-in
Strong commitment
Inspiration festival
Motivation show
Me time
Knowledge jam session
Should it even
be a “training
program” or is it
a steady stream
of motivational
tips?
We don’t get steady attendance at the InTouch training sessions.

47. Brainstorm.
Use radical word pairings to further refine
the second stay challenge statement.
How would this restate the challenge?

48. Define Know Collaborate Invert
“A man paints with his brain
and not with his hands.”
Michelangelo

49. Know
• Creativity flows from knowledge, not guessing.
• Exposing yourself to new information disrupts preconceived solutions.
• Institutional knowledge is helpful, but only as guidance, not rules.
• Toyota approach to innovation – Kaizen. Learn from mistakes…
continuous improvement.

50. Facts can make a big difference.
Original brief:
Create new Grand
Marnier cocktails.
Grand Romance
Grand Cool
Grand Crush
Grand Tropical
New information:
The most commonly
ordered drinks:
Margarita
Rum & Coke
Vodka & Cranberry
Bloody Mary
Jack & Coke
Vodka & Tonic
Scotch & Water
New Grand Marnier
cocktails:
Grand Marnier & Tonic
Grand Marnier & Cranberry

51. Three boxes.
Turn data dump of information into areas of focus.
Must Haves
Historic
Balls & Chains
Our Ideal future.
Bucket relevant knowledge into three categories.
Ideal mix is 33%/33%/33%.
Brainstorming can now focus on (1) ideas that eliminate historic barriers and (2) ideas
that move toward the ideal.

52. Brainstorm.
Thinking about the challenge to get that
second visit…
What information do we need?
What are some examples of
information that would fall into the
three buckets.

53. Define Know Collaborate Invert
“We > Me”

54. Collaborate
• Practice collaborative creativity.
• Creativity is the collision of disparate ideas, perspectives, experiences
and people.
• Are you an idea catalyst?

55. Six Hat Team
• Use Edward de Bono’s “six hat” model for lateral thinking.
• Disrupt “perceptual narrowing” and locking in too soon.
• Populate brainstorming team with people designed to fulfill
designated brainstorming roles.
• Switch up roles in follow up meeting to keep ideas fresh.

56. Six Hat Team
Team Member
Role
Contribution
Blue Hat
Facilitation
What process will keep the team on track?
White Hat
Information
What do we need to know to solve this problem?
Red Hat
Emotions
How will the idea make people feel?
Yellow Hat
Positivity
What is good about the idea?
Black Hat
Risk
What are the possible pitfalls and how can we get around them?
Green Hat
Growth
What’s the ideal? Can we make this idea even bigger?

57. Discussion.
What would be an ideal six hat team to
solve the second stay challenge?
Why type of expertise should be on that
brainstorming team?

58. Define Know Collaborate Invert
“Imagination is more important
than knowledge.”
Albert
Einstein

59. Invert
• Practice lateral thinking…disrupt mental routines.
• Look at the problem from a radically different perspective.
• Think beyond your specific relationship with your customer. What are
the other passion points in your guest’s life – epicurean, technology,
discovery, health, etc.?

60. Turn lemons in to lemonade.
• Start a brainstorming session by developing a list of bad ideas (e.g., what
would be the worst way to design a welcome kit?).
• This creates comfort and early participation.
• Ask the group to then brainstorm ways to fix the bad ideas and turn
them into great ones.

61. Category role play.
• Think beyond your specific relationship with your customer. What are the other
passion points in your guest’s life – epicurean, technology, discovery, health, etc.?
• Imagine you are in a completely different category. How might you approach the
problem if you were:
– Amazon
– Nordstom
– A kid’s lemonade stand
– An indie corner coffee shop

62. Moons, planets and suns.
• Write down your initial ideas as fast as possible. These are moons.
• Step back and observe the how some of these ideas my intersect.
Combine them. These are moons.
• Keep looking for intersections and opportunities to make a big
creative leap.
• Combine these planets until you arrive at a Sun.

63. Moons, planets and suns.
Inner Circle Amenities
Greeting
Make guest feel good

64. Moons, planets and suns.
Inner Circle Amenities
Greeting
Make guest feel good
First impression
Fun
Appreciation

65. Moons, planets and suns.
Inner Circle Amenities
Greeting
Make guest feel good
First impression
Fun
Appreciation
Memorable moments

66. Moons, planets and suns.
Inner Circle Amenities
Greeting
Make guest feel good
First impression
Fun
Appreciation
Memorable moments
Send singing telegrams!

67. Parallel brainstorms.
Break down the problem into distinct parts – e.g., customer insights
vs. brand values. Brainstorm each individually. Then combine
disparate ideas into something larger.
Dasani Drops Value:
Spontaneity
Customer Insight:
Seek inspiration
Flash
mobs
Random
acts
Skywriters
Street
teams
Surprise
par>es
Scavenger
hunts
Mo>va>onal
speakers
Emo>onal
affirma>on
Op>mism
Posi>ve
people
Children
Art
Daily
affirma>ons
wriEen
in
the
sky
(in
the
Dasani
fruit
colors).
Street
corner
mo>va>onal
speakers.
Flashmob
a
kids
chorus.

68. Brainstorm.
Think about the challenge to get that second visit…
Break down the challenge into distinct parts.
Brainstorm ideas for each part.
Combine into larger ideas.

69. A framework for creative
problem solving.
• Define
• Know
• Collaborate
• Invert

70. Try some things that make you
uncomfortable.!
Find a style that works for you.

71. Thank you.