You manage a small advertising agency that employs two illustrators, two copywriters, and two account executives. Business has been down lately because of the economy, and your employees have been a bit nervous about possible layoffs, citing that because there are two of each of them in these respective roles that it is possible the agency may have to reduce the staff by at least two specialists in the coming months. You have noticed stress in the office, including everything from office fighting, to stealing creative ideas from one another, to higher-than-usual absenteeism.

At a recent campaign review with your premier client, CheapThings.com, you found out that the copy and graphics of several proposed ads needed to be recrafted. You found out that the client is unhappy with the campaign, noting that it is stale and uninteresting and does not represent what the company is doing online: selling all types of cheap things that people can buy at a discount.

On second look, you understand what the client is saying. Interpersonal communication skills are essential in your client and staff relationships. Although you understand that advertising campaigns often need to be tweaked to deliver what the client wants and needs, you believe that the employee problem may be masquerading as a business problem. You start to see that stress in the office is starting to reveal itself in your agency's creative work. This is a huge problem because the agency cannot afford to lose a client or possible future projects. You decide to research some possible creative process theories for this situation to solve the business problem.

• State the business problem and why you believe it is the core problem. For example, are people creatively burned out? Is there a communication problem between the client and the account executive?

• Analyze three creative processes that could get the agency back on track with on-point client deliverables.

o For each, briefly explain what the process is and why it fits the stated business problem.

• Select what you believe to the best creative process for this situation.

o Explain how you will implement your chosen creative process.

o Explain your prediction on how your chosen creative process can help start to solve some of the problems.

• Analyze new and creative ways to think about problems and change