Using a Mental Scale to Balance Your Creative and Analytic Thinking

I can’t recall a time in my radio career - as Programmer or Consultant - when I didn’t think that the PD's chair was the best seat in the house.

The PD's office remains the place where magic happens (or should). It's the place where the merging of analytic and creative thinking produces an offspring called "awesome radio."

It's a daily tightrope walk. Too much left brain and the station is boring. Too much creative and the station isn't strategic. 

But with the right balance, "awesome" and "magic" can happen with regularity.

Unfortunately time and personnel pressures have a way of delaying or even derailing things - especially creative thinking.

If you find yourself balance-challenged, try imagining a "Content Scale:" methodological or systematic on the left, over-the-top creative on the right. Compare your project's optimal position vs. where it now stands, then take action if you feel the present position too static or if the creative is blurring something important. 

You can make a mental scale for anything.

Predictability	Surprise and Delight
Position	Emotional Impact
Selling	Connecting
Communication Blasts	Individual Acknowledgement
Fact	Stories
Details	Vivid mental images
Comfortable Execution	New listener-station interactivity
Silo	Interwoven

Of course you won't likely be using an actual scale.  But the scale imagery is a reminder to check your balance of left vs. right brain thinking and actions so you can be strategic but not clinical, and fun and fascinating without losing your brand's vision and essence.

If this has put you in the mood for more creative thinking, here are a few related posts you might enjoy:

Polishing Your Brand With Shared Values

A 5-Point Filter for Evaluating Opportunities

Raising the Content Bar

The Kings of Radio: How Listeners Define a Great Talent