Stirring up those creative juices.

• Position: Marketing News - Six tips on stimulating your creativity - Brief Article

If you work in marketing, you are expected to be creative, says Stephen Manallack a communications consultant and author of the recently released book, "You Can Communicate: PR Secrets for Personal Success." Yet, many marketing managers admit they sometimes have difficulty thinking "outside of the box."

Manallack offers six tips on stimulating your creativity.

* Rebuild an open mind. When you were a kid, everything was new and you had an open way of looking at everything. It's worth going back and remembering what it was like facing the world with that child-like attitude.

* Don't censor yourself. Manallack says one of his colleagues would be the one to say, "I know this is a dumb question, but..." He would ask the very question that was on everyone's mind. You are not expected to know everything, so you'll lead better by being the first to say, "I don't know."

* Move on from mistakes. Manallack once watched a creative team of art director and copywriter working on an advertising campaign. Some of their words and ideas were clearly ridiculous. As they talked, one or the other would come up with an awful line or a weak joke. They just moved on. They were confident of the final results. They just kept moving forward. They were not afraid of making mistakes. Nor should you.

* Keep active, be involved. Creativity needs feeding...