Is your business in need of creative consultants? Do you wonder whether creative consultants could really be the answer to moving your business forwards, or is the whole idea of hiring a creative consultancy little more than the lure of a fashionable quick fix solution with little substance?
Many businesses tend to suspect that this is the case, and will avoid hiring creative consultants simply because they fear the unknown, and would rather fix their own problems from the inside rather than exposing their fears, troubles, concerns and weaknesses to outsiders.
Quite where these ideas come from is hard to judge, but certainly there are plenty of small business owners who have expressed both the need to move the business forwards or in new directions, but also the fact that they're not keen on hiring creative consultants either because they view it as wasted money or a fad.
So what is the truth, and could a creative consultancy be the right solution for your business? The first thing to realise is that creative consultants are not there to take over your business, direct it in ways you're not happy with, alter the face or nature of your business or take any direct action at all which may affect your business.
Instead, a creative consultancy is more like a catalyst where ideas can be generated, expanded, developed and discussed. Although they're not likely to thank you for it, consider a creative consultancy as being like a bag of compost.
You supply what looks like a handful of dead stuff, stick it in the compost and add an afternoon and plenty of refreshments. The result could well be quite astonishing - but more importantly, it's a process you're in control of the entire time.
Most consultants will agree that for the vast majority of the time the new ideas generated through a creative workshop are not their own - they have already existed within the business, or are developed by those within the business itself. After all, it makes sense that those closest to the problem will be able to work out new ways of tackling it.
But of course, as with anything in life, the closer you are to something the harder it is to see it properly. What creative consultants can do is to provide an opportunity to stand back from the daily problems, and can present opportunities to develop ideas and concepts, offer new tactics which can help those within your business to see things slightly differently, and can encourage an atmosphere of trust, respect, creativity and enthusiasm which can be virtually impossible within the closed daily ritual of the normal working day.
Have you ever seen that optical illusion which looks like a vase printed in white on a black background? No matter how much you stare at it, all you can see is a vase. The harder you look, the more like a vase it seems - there's just no way it could ever be anything else.
Until someone tells you to look at it a different way - don't see it as white on black, but black on white. Suddenly it's like a light is switched on, and instantly you now no longer see just a vase, but you can see it as two faces in profile looking at each other. A vase, or two faces, two completely different images yet suddenly you're able to switch between the two in your mind quite easily.
It just took that door being pushed open slightly. That's sometimes what creative consultants can offer - when all you can see is the single vase, it just takes someone to offer you an alternative way of looking for you to see the door, take a few steps and suddenly see your business in new ways, with new opportunities.
Just like the vase, sometimes you can be staring at your business, and at the challenges and problems as though they were facts - immovable, stubborn facts. But just as it is a fact that a sheet of paper has two sides, it is also a fact that a Möbius strip results in a sheet of paper with only one side.
If you've been anxious about the idea of hiring creative consultants, and have suspected that a creative consultancy is a fad which offers little substance, ask yourself whether this might just be another of those stubborn little facts, or whether there's sometimes another way of seeing things.
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