Kelly connects with longtime BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson to talk about his new book: “The Creative Shift: How to Power Up Your Organization by Making Space for New Ideas.”  

You highlight a misconception that people have about creativity and talent and it’s the myth that those qualities are innate – you are either born with it or not – and that’s just not true. 

“That’s exactly right. The data on what happens to us as we grow up in terms of our ability to be creative is absolutely horrifying. There was a guy called George Land who was commissioned by NASA in the 60s to identify which of NASA’s many, many, many brilliant engineers were the most creative. And it always makes me think that that’s the one place in the world where you can say it’s not like it’s rocket science, but it actually is. And he developed a methodology for measuring creativity that proved to be very, very effective. And he then went on to do the same test with children aged 5, 10, 15, and 20, the same cohort of kids moving through. And at 5, 98% classified or tested as creative geniuses. By the time that they were 10, it was down to 40%. By the time they were 15, it was down to 12%. And by the time they were 20, it was down to 2%. 

At Second City, we’ve kind of upended the idea of focus groups as we work with brands and use our improv actors to elicit feedback – basically using comedy as a way to glean insights. 

“There’s that great line: a fool with a tool is still a fool. I don’t have a problem with focus groups per se. I have a problem with focus groups that aren’t well moderated and properly run by highly skilled individuals who can use them to get what you want out of them. If all you’re doing is sticking something in front of 8 or 12 people and asking them what they think of it, I don’t think you’re going to get what you can and should get out of that group, which is much more diagnostic and deeper into the psychology of the individuals in the group. And that requires, A) like all of these things, much more preparation and B) a very, very skilled moderator. I just don’t think there are as many of those around as there are focus groups. And that means that I think you can end up with some pretty shallow and frankly pretty meaningless conclusions from just shoving something in front of eight people and asking them what they think.” 

I love that your relentless focus on creativity is key to almost all your business solutions. 

“The way you solve big problems is with creativity and work that people connect with. So, I think we’ve had a singular focus on that. A lot of people will talk about it, but there’s a difference between talking about it and it genuinely being the focus. It’s the basis that you make decisions every single day, big ones and small ones. Is this going to make work better or not? And if the answer is ‘yes’, then we do it. If the answer is ‘no’, we don’t. And I think that if you focus on that, and don’t get distracted by whatever’s the latest conference headline or the latest trade magazine diatribe or whatever it is, then you will continue to deliver results for your clients. And if you continue to deliver results for your clients, there’s a much better chance that they’re still going to be with you in, you know, next week.” 

Photo Credit: Leigh Keily