Page 23 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

14 INTRODUCTION

regional professional business organizations in the United States and
abroad. And I wrote on the topic of creativity for one of the leading
publications in the field, Communication Arts.
In the early 1990s I made a career shift into an emerging field in
which I foresaw a great need—creative coaching. I left my job as pres-
ident and executive creative director of my ad agency, Leonard/Mona-
han, to start Before & After, Inc., a company dedicated to helping
people in business grow creatively. In the ensuing years I have worked
for an impressive list of companies, among them Ralston Purina, Com-
paq, 3M, McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines, Viacom, and many others.
My workshops have taken me from Hong Kong to Iceland and many
points in between. One thing that has become very clear to me is that
creativity, both the term and the concept, has come out of the corporate
closet. My first business cards read “Creative thinking and problem
solving,” because I sensed a reluctance on the part of clients and
prospects to embrace the term creativity. Today the cards read “creativ-
ity in business,” because more and more leaders at more and more
companies see the need for fresh thinking to keep pace in today’s fast-
changing, dynamic business climate. The concept of “creativity in
business” may still be viewed as an oxymoron, but it’s out in the open.

Today, creativity, as a codified process and conscious skill set, is
nearly as high on the corporate agenda as “Total Quality” was dur-
ing that movement’s emerging years.

ADS BACKWARD

Originally, I set out to bring the secrets of creativity on demand from
the ad business to the general business world, and I did just that, work-
ing with major companies in non-advertising-related areas right out of
the gate. In the past few years, however, I have found that more and
more advertising practitioners and the companies they work for have
been using my company’s services. Lately, it seems that the advertising
business is being pressed to be more creative two basic ways, one from
within the industry and one from outside. Inside, this historically com-
petitive business has become even more competitive. The industry is
undergoing greater change than at any time since the advent of the TV
era. The beliefs and skills that carried the most successful people for
years are being replaced by the ability to embrace new media options,