Creative Thinking Strategy 3: Thinking Fluently

When thinking creatively it is imperative to think fluently, without mental blocks. This means allowing your stream of consciousness to flow free from impediments in order to generate lots of ideas. Second guessing and immediately killing ideas based on preconceived notions are strongly discouraged. Writing a letter to one’s unconscious can be a good technique to get your subconscious thinking about a problem. When you’re most relaxed, ideas and solutions will come to mind.

Letter to Self

Dear Self,

What’s up? How are you doing? I’m sure by this time you have a solution to your problem. I hope. The problem you were faced with a few days ago was this: figure out a creative solution when it comes to recruiting for CAPs. How do you solve the recruitment problem? How do you make an organization that is essentially a part-time job appeal to students in a fun way? Is there a way we can market to students that CAPs is both fun and valuable from a professional development standpoint?

One obvious problem is that we just don’t do enough marketing during recruitment. We do plenty of marketing for CAPs as a program, but very little is done when trying to recruit the next class of mentors. So what should we do marketing-wise? Obviously, our social media presence needs work, but what else can we do?

Also, how do you market to students effectively? We aren’t looking for a specific student per say, but we have requirements that need to be met. Our marketing strategy will need to be well-planned and though out. Think about that for a couple days. Good Luck!

--Self

Results, lessons learned, identified solutions:

It’s weird, but this technique works. Just knowing in the back of my mind that I had a goal to achieve in a limited amount of time made my subconscious go to work. Anytime I would think of an idea I would just write it down in my phone notes, and after thinking about the questions posed in my letter for a few days, I’ve had a few good thoughts.

First, when I was thinking about fun I kept coming back to hosting social events. Right now we only do one social event in the spring and turnout last year wasn’t stellar because of limited marketing. Instead, I think we should host an event in the fall and an event in the spring. An event towards the end of fall would be a good way to get the word out there about recruitment early on, it would get people who are looking to apply excited, and it would spread the word a little before we really get into the full-out recruiting in the spring. These social events could be at a local bar or hangout, we could do a day at Lake Wahlberg, or maybe we just Netflix and chill. Whatever the case, more social events allows us to reach out to more students, keep the buzz going about CAPs, and allows potential applicants to meet with mentors on a less professional and more social level.

Second, I came up with a couple marketing ideas. I think we should definitely have a CAP Mentor newsletter. This newsletter would be sent out to anyone who signs up to our listserv (I would expect a lot of students who have met with a mentor before, but also just students who aren’t very involved). One of the best things about getting into some of the more prestigious organizations in the business school is that you get to be “in the know” when it comes to career advice. Administrators and advisors who are in charge of Heavener career and leadership development programs will send out emails in regards to any upcoming involvement or employment opportunities. But what about those students who aren’t involved with any of those student organizations? How do they hear about potential opportunities within the business school or with companies who recruit hear. There really isn’t a way to know. So I think that the CAP Mentors should develop a listserv that anyone can join and be a part of. The newsletter would include any recent news within the college, have any job opportunities in there, and of course, when it comes time, market that CAPs is recruiting for next year. CAP Mentors are extremely involved in all areas of campus so I think a newsletter that has advice, or opportunities, would be valuable and highly sought after by many students.  

Next, as I was thinking about reaching out to students who would already qualify for CAPs because they’ve completed a study abroad or internship, I thought about what all those students have in common. First, all study abroad students are in a system and there’s actually a listserv that emails are sent out through. Using this listserv would be valuable in spreading the word about CAP Applications. Second, students are required to register for GEB 4945 (The internship course that students take simultaneously with your internship). Surely there must be a listserv here we could use as well. My hope is that by utilizing all of the email listservs we can, we will be able to broadcast to many more students about the program and about the role we are recruiting for.

  

           Finally, create a membership committee that is dedicated to finding new ways to bring in new and qualified mentors. (i.e. recruitment committee). This committee might also create a survey that current mentors take in order to determine what benefits are most valuable to them. Those beneifts should be emphasized when marketing to potential new mentors. Also ask current mentors what they’d like to see change. Think WIIFM ("What's In It For Me?") when marketing. That's what prospective mentors are asking themselves.