Part II: Comedy producer Simmy Kustanowitz on becoming more creative

For those not accustomed to thinking of their work as creative, the create process can seem like a black box—mysterious and inaccessible. Yet most roles in business call on our ability to create ideas, offerings, and other solutions to problems. Creativity is a skill we’d do well to learn.

In this continuation of our last post on creativity, Simmy Kustanowitz—founder of creative consultancy Clock Tower Innovation—talks about learning the creative process by watching other creative people at work, in the comfort of our homes. He also shares his thoughts on the value of brainstorming.

Jove: How effective are brainstorming sessions? What place should they have in the creative process? 

Simmy Kustanowitz: Brainstorming sessions are a double-edged sword.

An efficiently run brainstorming session can be fantastic. But if a bunch of people get in a room just to spitball ideas—no guardrails, sky’s the limit—that’s a recipe for procrastination and inefficiency. I try to give teams the guardrails they need to run effective brainstorming sessions.

But it's also important to recognize that different people approach the creative process differently. Some are very good sitting in a room and batting around ideas. Others listen and then go back to their desk or their couch and can generate far better ideas working alone than in a group.

So effective brainstorming not only involves guardrails, but allows for people to go off and work on their own.

If you approach brainstorming that way, it can be very effective. But if brainstorming is not approached the right way, it can be a complete waste of time.

J: The creative process itself is a narrative, and one of the best ways to learn the creative process, or—if you’re an experienced creative—to improve your process, is to immerse yourself in someone else’s creative process. Books, movies, articles can all be ways to do this.

One of the best I’ve seen recently is Peter Jackson’s three-part series, The Beatles: Get Back. Did you see that?

SK: I started watching it and then I stopped. 

J: A lot of people stopped. If you're not a musician I think it's hard to stick with, but for me, it was a fascinating window onto a particular creative process.

Mad Men is another.

SK: Definitely.

produced by jove and image creator from microsoft designer (dall-e 3)

J: Which episode? I don’t think it’s “The Jet Set”— Don Draper’s trip to L.A. and Palm Springs.

SK: I’d say “The Wheel,” where Don pitches Kodak on the idea of the Carousel.

J: Right. He turns a piece of technology into a memory book—a time machine.  

SK: It’s a great example of landing on a brilliant idea where you least expect it. You spend hours generating all sorts of ideas. But then suddenly Draper has an epiphany, and it goes in a completely different direction. I love the unexpected nature of some of Mad Men’s episodes where you get to see the creative process unfold.

J: And how it’s different for different people. If I'm remembering correctly, a lot of ideas would come to Draper in the pitch itself. So you have the adrenaline and the need to perform and your idea of the ticking clock all coming together. 

Then I think of Sherlock Holmes, where it seems like with almost every episode the first two thirds is basic shoe-leather investigating. He's combing the crime scene. He's interviewing suspects. He's doing all that normal detective stuff.

And then he goes to the National Gallery to look at art. And you think, OK, he’s taking a break, whatever. But it’s purposeful—he’s resting and letting his subconscious do the work. Sherlock’s form of taking a shower, or like leaving the crossword puzzle and coming back to it. Letting your mind relax. A lot of creatives do this, and I know it’s part of your process.

SK: Right. Everybody's brain works differently and everyone has different bandwidths for focusing. I believe in short-spurt brainstorms.

J: It’s like you never know where the where the idea is going to come from. You just try to create the conditions for it to appear. 

SK: Exactly. When I was head writer for the comedy MTV game show Silent Library, the writing team had to generate a ton of ideas on a daily basis. And I used to say to them, go take a walk. Go to the Dollar Store, which was a few blocks away in Times Square, just walk up and down the aisles and see if something inspires you. Or just take a walk around the block.

We would literally go on field trips, these grown men and women, and then come back to our desks. And invariably people had new ideas when they got back.

I’m also a big believer in changing locations. There's a Hebrew saying, “meshane makom, meshane mazal”—different place, different luck.

J: That that makes me think of Draper driving across the country in the last episodes of Mad Men and eventually to the ashram and coming up with the classic early ‘70s Coke campaign while sitting in the lotus position at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

SK: Maybe Don knew some Hebrew.

Check out part I of our talk with Simmy Kustanowitz. If you’d like to reach Simmy, contact us or email him at simmy at clocktowerinnovation dot com.