In the first post of our mini-series on SE10 values, our UK account director Hannah Kitchener shares her personal take on how creativity doesn’t always happen under pressure, but rather when you’ve stepped away, quieted the noise, and allowed your subconscious to connect the dots.
A client conversation last week got me thinking about one of our core values here at SE10: creativity. We talk about it a lot, but what does it actually mean to us?
Let’s be honest, in industrial B2B communication, ‘creativity’ isn’t always about brainstorming a huge, flashy PR campaign. More often, it’s a quieter, more determined thing. It’s the craft of finding a new angle on a familiar topic. It’s the persistence to find a simple solution to a complex client challenge. It’s the discipline of looking critically at a piece of work we were proud of last year and asking ‘how can we do even better?’
I know colleagues will have their own perspectives on this. Our VP in the U.S., Damian Joseph, in particular, has a process for finding that spark. For me, I’ve come to believe that true creativity can’t be forced. It’s a bit like trying to spot a shy animal; if you stare at it too hard, it disappears. It almost never arrives when I’m stretched, juggling five tasks with my inbox pinging relentlessly. That’s the paradox of our always-on world: we’re expected to be more creative than ever, but we’re given less of the one thing it needs most – space.
Boredom is the soil of imagination
I’ve found my best ideas don’t come when I’m chained to my desk. They show up when I’m out for a walk or a run or travelling by plane or train and — crucially — when I’ve left my headphones at home. Giving my mind the freedom to wander, without the input of a podcast or a playlist, seems to be the key. It’s in that quiet space that the subconscious starts to mull over a challenge and connect the dots in a way that doesn’t happen consciously. We recognise this is a challenge for every client team, which is why at SE10 we build in distraction-free blocks of time and leverage technology to handle routine tasks, freeing staff to focus on big-picture thinking.
My grandmother used to say ‘only boring people get bored’. As a child, I thought she was just telling me to stop complaining. But now I think she was handing me a profound piece of wisdom: boredom is the soil from which imagination grows. If we fill every spare second with content, we never give our own thoughts a chance to surface. In industrial B2B communication, it’s what allows our brains to digest engineering specifications or distil complex technical topics into the simple narratives that drive business impact.
Blank pages and AI as a brainstorming tool
Of course, space alone isn’t enough. There’s the other side of the coin: the terror of the blank page. My mother, an English teacher, gave me the advice that has probably been more valuable to my education and career than anything else. When I was stuck, she’d say ‘just write something’.
Staring at a blank screen, waiting for the perfect sentence, is a recipe for paralysis. Her point was to write anything, even if it’s terrible. Because once it’s on the page, it’s no longer an intimidating void. You can see what’s wrong with it. You can react to it. Knowing what you don’t like is often the first step to figuring out what you do want.
This is where I think AI can be a brilliant brainstorming tool. Let’s be realistic, most of the ideas it generates are not great. But that’s precisely why it’s useful. It gives you that first, ‘bad’ draft instantly. It provides a jumping-off point. In seeing what’s wrong with its suggestions — the cliché angles, the generic phrasing — your own, better ideas start to take shape in opposition.
This simple act of starting, of just doing, often leads to unexpected discoveries. You begin writing an article one way, and halfway through, you realise there’s a much more interesting path to take. You start trying to solve a problem head-on, and in the process of wrestling with it, you uncover a simpler, more effective solution you hadn’t considered.
Creativity requires patience and discipline
For me, creativity isn’t a single lightning bolt of inspiration. It’s a patient process. It’s about having the wisdom to step away and create quiet space, and the courage to step forward and just begin, even when you don’t know where you’re going. It’s this disciplined approach that enables us to deliver creative strategies that mitigate risk and maximise impact for our industrial marketing and communications clients around the world.
If you’d like to explore how SE10 can bring thoughtful, creative thinking to your industrial communications challenges, let’s start a conversation.
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
