Be More Creative By Thinking Slowly

I recently attended the ICCM show, or the International Call Center Managers, conference here in Las Vegas. The focus of this show is to help call center professionals develop customer-focused business processes and “bolster” professional success. ICCM attracts thousands of professionals annually and provides an opportunity for them to network with the world's leading organizations while actively looking for products and solutions to drive revenue and increase efficiency. So what does this have to do with selling? Read on and I believe you'll figure that out when you are done.

Like most conferences and expos, this event was organized into tracks, namely – People Management, Operations Management, Business Planning and Customer Service. What impressed me the most was the way they developed a theme around these tracks. They called it, “The 5 D’s.” The 5 D’s stood for; Define, Design, Develop, Deliver and Discover. The first day was focused on Defining your problems and Designing solutions to those problems. Day two’s focus was on Developing the solutions and Delivering the results to your organization. Finally, day three focused on Discovering the results of the solution and its implementation in order to measure the outcome. All the tracks and sessions fit into this theme which was very well done.

I personally related to this sort of organization since it’s aligned with the strategies I recommended in my first book, CRM For The Common Man (see www.PeakSalesConsulting.com for planning your CRM implementation. Before doing anything, you first must define your problem, then design your solution. It’s the same as building a house – regardless what tools you may have or will get, you still need an architect’s plan before you begin. Yes, this show was well organized and on track for providing good, solid advice and education for the attendees.

The Keynote speaker for ICCM was John Cleese. Yes, thee John Cleese of Monty Python fame. Mr. Cleese is a world renown comedian, actor and, yes, business lecturer. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t know if I was going to hear a stand-up routine or see a skit from Faulty Towers. What I did hear was an extremely informative and insightful speech on the importance of innovation, creativity and communication, delivered to several hundred customer contact center professionals in a very humorous fashion.

Mr. Cleese had some very perceptive and profound thoughts on creativity and thinking. His speech concentrated on our ability to be creative by thinking more slowly. Research has shown that creativity is not related to intelligence. But that is counter-cultural to what we call “thinking” because we must always “look” busy and not get caught staring out the window day-dreaming. Slowing down to think and ponder is not what we are used to nor something we are comfortable with. Our natural instinct is to quickly analyze a problem and solve it analytically and logically. This is typically a result of being under pressure or stress, but it doesn’t always yield the best solution.

The following is an excerpt from Mr. Cleese’s presentation on creativity entitled, “Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind”:



“If you’re going to focus on identifying ways to improve customer service and workforce performance to have a real and measurable impact on your organization’s bottom line in this current, fast-paced environment, you’re going to need a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. Because the thing that we human-beings are worst at, is tuning out all the urgent and often squeaky wheels going on around us to engage in what others may view as self-indulgent quiet time. It’s a highly creative thing to be able to do, and you can’t do it while you’re dashing around, hurried and anxious, because all your old automatic thought patterns will get in the way.”

By taking our time and pondering a problem and thinking it over, we will often yield a more creative solution. More complex problems actually benefit the most from slow, creative thinking. Have you ever “slept” on a problem and the next morning found a really creative and good solution? Of course you have. This is what Mr. Cleese was talking about. Note that this doesn’t require thinking harder, just more slowly. You have to give yourself time to think slowly. Both types of thinking are needed, however, depending on the type of problem you are working on. In fact, usually when we come up with a solution slowly and intuitively, we then validate it with more logical and rapid thinking. But remember, unconscious gut feelings don’t always have to have a logical explanation. Sometimes we just “feel” that this is the right answer.

So, when a customer says, “I have to think it over,” this may have some validity. Just make sure you keep them on track and don’t let them think it over forever.

Good Luck & Good Selling!

Russ Lombardo

Be More Creative By Thinking Slowly - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.

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