Positioning clients at the forefront of business in 2017 means that PR agencies must anticipate, plan and deploy creative solutions on behalf of their clients.
In addition to linear strategic practices, many innovative businesses are employing the concept of design thinking to pre-identify solutions to potential quarterly and annual challenges. This means uniquely evaluating scenarios with the goal of improved future outcomes.
According to OpenForum, both businesses and their respective PR teams need to take time away to creatively assess not only immediate goals and productive to-do lists—to alternate perspectives by turning problems on their head and looking at them from varying viewpoints.
In this realm, art in the form of inspiration meets science in the realm of business practice. Long within the purview of architects, this approach of applying design thinking to everything from technological innovation to urban planning is being embraced at all levels of leadership. It frees teams to do their best work, often communicating and ideating outside the confines of the office—or the systemic “group think” that is endemic to so many forecasting meetings that result in tunnel vision or inconclusive outcomes.
According to an article from Creativity at Work, by leading and implementing design thinking, you can reinvent the way you manage, create and innovate. Design is more than how it looks, it’s how it works. In the bigger picture, we must look at everything as design, everything around us has been designed to function and enhance human cognition. It is to ultimately improve quality of life through efficiency, therefore promoting the most influential competitive edge in the workplace.
In fact, a recent Harvard Business Review piece asserts that design thinking should lead business innovation. It encourages the “creation” of ideas and innovation as competitive advantage, and leaders are looking to integrate design thinking throughout the workplace in all functions.
Forbes, long a champion of looking at business through a unique lens, encourages business and PR teams alike to innovate through creative thinking and problem solving, as doing things the same way leads to statistics. As stated in the article, design thinking allows individuals to have a proactive mindset focused on solutions, as opposed to a reactive mindset focused on the problem.
Allowing employees to think in the workplace is mentioned to be such an obvious element, however it has been increasingly more overlooked. By combining elements of creative and critical thinking, there is ample time to address client issues and meet client needs with organized information and ideas, decisions to be achieved and situations to be improved.
As we head into 2017 and jump start new PR campaigns let’s continue to embrace creativity in by leading within our industry as the ultimate solution providers; driving business into successful new realms of opportunity.
This article is contributed by Courtney Lukitsch, Founder of Gotham PR, a boutique Marketing PR Agency in New York and London. Specialized in design and development, retail and technology, the firm celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2017. With a global client roster in 25 world cities, Gotham PR will also publish a book on mentoring and coaching, featuring years of collected client and agency success stories.
Gothamite New York 
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