As well offering plenty of opportunities for lying about in the sun (if you can stand the heat), summer is also a great time to take stock and think about your future. Don’t worry, we are not suggesting you actually do any work, just think about what you want to achieve.
For Jay Williams, director of strategy, the only thing that really matters is making sure your creative skills are up to scratch: “Never mind a ‘career audit’. Anybody who takes creativity remotely seriously should be constantly open to the review, improvement and innovation of our stock-in-trade – ideas.
Test your ideas
“We’re in the ideas business and serious stock-taking needs to be hard-wired into the process. We need to test our ideas to destruction, because if we don’t, the media surely (and gleefully) will. Too many PR projects fail because they were not subjected to enough difficult questions in the planning process.
“As Edward de Bono said in his 1992 masterpiece Serious Creativity: ‘Creativity is not simply a way to make things better. Without creativity we are unable to make full use of the information and experience that is already available to us and is locked up in old structures, old patterns, old concepts, and old perceptions.”
Get excited
If this is making it sound that being creative is a lot of effort, Williams points out that coming up with ideas isn’t a chore, it’s invigorating: “A new idea can be the most exciting thing in the world.
“In the latest season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (Netflix), one of Jerry Seinfeld’s guests is Neal Brennan, who writes for the peerless Dave Chappelle. When asked what he values most, Brennan replies, without a beat: “New ideas are the only thing I care about.”
Taking time out is one way to boost your creativity, so a lot of summer lazing could be just the thing. Whilst relaxing on a lounger, your thoughts may also turn to other aspect of your job, such as getting some training.