As always, but perhaps with more intensity than ever, creative agencies feel the uncomfortable itching of old skin to move. It is not nostalgia. It is survival instinct.

We know that our value does not lie in the endless reports, or in presenting campaigns such as who presents balances. Our value, the authentic, are the ideas. Ideas that can be born strategically to impact the business from the nucleus, or arise from tactical actions that end up mutating in long -distance strategic insights. It doesn’t matter the way: without ideas, there is nothing.

In this context, our two great missions are clear:

• Generate impact through memorable ideas
• Accompany with empathy and excellence in the service

Now: if we pretend that ideas really flow, it is crucial that we understand that we are all creative. It is not a professional privilege; It is a universal human potential. More than elite athletes, the agencies of the future will be creative gym monitors. Our task will not only give birth spectacular campaigns, but also, motivate others, to give tools and create propitious environments so that the ideas of all sides arise: customers, users, fans, haters … Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the psychologist behind the famous theory of the theory of Flowhe already warned us. Creativity does not occur within a single head, but in interaction with a cultural system. This “Creativity triangle” It consists of:

• A culture that defines rules and expectations
• Creative people who propose news
• Guardians of the domain that validate and recognize innovation

Here is the trap: sometimes, who should break the rules (the agencies), we end up becoming inflexible guardians. The famous “do me something fresh” of the customers is the SOS to escape from that invisible cage. The conclusion is clear: Creativity is not a matter of divine inspiration. It is a matter of systems, culture and courage.

How to train this creativity in organizations? How to become these gym coaches of ideas? It goes for strengthening four areas:

• The context and culture of your organization (the first and most important)
• The daily development of your interpersonal creativity
• The clear definition of challenge or challenge
• The intelligent use of tools and methods

If I could only choose one, I would not hesitate: I would start with culture. It doesn’t matter if you sell cars, detergents or NFTS: Without creative culture, innovation is smoke. Let’s look at the ingredients of that culture:

Leadership and real example

You cannot preach creativity if your leaders continue to think as accountants. The daily reference of the leaders defines whether the creative culture is real or posture of LinkedIn. Leadership must normalize creative vulnerability, as Brené Brown already pointed out: we only really lead when we dare to expose ourselves to error and uncertainty.

Processes: few, sacred

Creativity needs minimal structure and maximum freedom. Sometimes there is nothing less agile than trying to kick methodologies such as scrum in environments where creative flow rules. Let’s not confuse execution efficiency with efficiency of creation. The real agile in creativity is not doing Sprints on medium cooking ideas; It is validating rapid hypothesis, protecting exploration times, and launching imperfect versions to iterate later. Adaptive flexibility matters more than mechanical frameworks.

Absolute Mantra: The idea is the center

This mentality implies giving up other priorities and working very hard so that the idea is the company’s totem. The great agencies of the twentieth century had something in common: everything revolved around the greatness of ideas. Sometimes today, we mimic the frantic rhythm from outside and dedicate ourselves to an occurrences that react in the short term and forget that it is a great campaign or a small social action, The important thing is always that the idea is memorable, generates impact and makes strategic sense.

Microexites and living memory

I have realized the time of the importance of celebrating every little creative victory. Before moving directly to the following, it has a huge impact on the creative culture of any organization to celebrate, thank, communicate this success, however small it has been. We believe a narrative of successes, even if they are tiny. The legacy is also built from guerrillas.

Real spaces and times to create

ATTENTION HERE: We do not always need three months to have a good idea. Besides, let’s not fool ourselves, we don’t have them. What we need is focus, protected spaces and agile rituals for:

• Define the challenge
• Communicate it well
• Incubate ideas without trial
• Create in divergence
• Converge and evaluate
• Share fast
• Execute, iterate, learn

Creativity needs both divergence and convergence. Herbert A. Simon already warned that in the current economy “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention“: Protecting the attention of the equipment is to protect their creative capacity. In a wild multitasking environment, this is not optional, it is essential.

Fast launch: put ideas to ideas

Do you remember the “ET” bicycles? Well, like them, ideas need to fly to know if they work. Let’s show them even if they are imperfect. Let’s not stick to ideas. Ideas are neither created nor destroyed, they are redesigned. Sometimes creativity is counterintuitive: First comes the idea, then the solution. Validating early does not mean judging prematurely, it means respecting the flight.

Yes to complicate

The “This is not done so” is the first brick in the tomb of any agency. And it may even be of other companies or organizations. Yes to experiment. Yes to complicate us (well). The great creative jumps have always come from people who did not know that it was “impossible” what they were trying.

Science, Culture and Exhibition

Creativity needs connection with science, art, history and constant contact with the different and make our sensibilities visible. To generate these environments that take advantage of the innate creative potentiality of the equipment, we must reward the exhibition, not the construction of internal ghettos. Encourage. Thank. And create resilient vulnerability spaces and critical permissiveness. Means make visible the error from the leaders, allow the error of others and reward to prove, try, make mistakes. As Csíkszentmihályi’s systems theory points out, culture only changes when guardians validate new contributions that could previously seem errors.

Save the remains

No idea is garbage. TORchivar, classify, saving ideas is part of the work. What does not work today, tomorrow can be the spark of something incredible in a new project. Ideo, the design firm, systematically files failed prototypes that then transforms into unexpected successes. Making creative memory is strategy, not romanticism.

The silent enemy: soulless processes

Today we turn crazy redesigning equipment and processes … when real efficiency part of corporate culture, not organization charts or sprints. Nor of the indicators that must be at the service of the objective, not to be the objective in itself. The kpis problem is when they replace the Brief. If we let the cold measurement matte the essential question (“What problem do we want to solve?”), We are signing the death certificate of real creativity. We can “sell” the failure with objective data, but we will have lost the soul of the project. Data-misunderstood obsession is, today, one of the great risks for creative organizations (Morozov, 2013).

Flexibility in our structures

The future agency will be flexible and adaptable hyper or simply will not be. Not only structural flexibility (liquid equipment, freelance talent, open collaborations), but also mental, cultural and, ultimately, creative. Manuel Castells already pointed out that in the network society, adaptability is the only form of organizational survival.

Really agile creativity is not improvised. It is cultivated. It protects itself. He trains every day. We want organizations where ideas are not a “moment of inspiration” between the status meeting and the budget closure, but the vibrant nucleus of everything. What is the first step? Create a corporate culture where ideas are supreme priority and do it from references and leadership. It’s not about doing it perfect. It’s about making it real.