Blogs, Insights

Nurturing creativity: how diverse hobbies fuel our team’s imagination

By Emma Johnson, PR Assistant

I challenged the lovely team at Farrer Kane & Co to tell me what they do to keep their minds fresh and their ideas flowing!

In today’s fast-paced world, creativity is not just a desirable trait but something essential for development. Whether you’re in a creative industry or not, fostering a culture of free thinking within your team can lead to breakthrough ideas and unexpected connections. At Farrer Kane & Co, we think that our team embracing a diverse range of hobbies is a powerful way to fuel our creativity and maintain a vibrant and dynamic atmosphere. From playing piano to painting, writing novels and even knitting, here’s how we stay creatively inspired.

The piano: harmony in diversity

Music has long been recognised as a powerful catalyst of creativity. Studies have shown that playing an instrument, such as the piano, simultaneously engages multiple areas of the brain, enhancing cognitive function and boosting creativity. Learning to play the piano can improve your working memory and the executive function of the brain, all of which are essential for creative thinking. With pianists, guitarists and singers in our number, our people are embracing their creative side outside of work, and putting their memory to work inside the office.

Painting for perspective

For some, painting is a form of meditation whether that be painting pottery, abstract art or even ‘squiggly lines’ (thank you Catherine!). It’s a form of self expression and it exercises creative muscles, which can be brought into the office.

Similarly, among our team we have novel and poetry writers who use their spare time to engage in creative writing – something that aside from the numerous cognitive benefits that writing has, also presents a brilliant opportunity for individuals to write from different perspectives. This is a valuable skill working in the communications industry.

Learning from others

Members of the team also embrace their creative side by immersing themselves in the city’s culture: going to the theatre, watching live music and going to art galleries. These are all great ways for the team take inspiration and absorb inspiration from their surroundings. This same creativity is adopted in the office, whereby our hybrid working arrangements and fluid teams, allow everyone to learn from colleagues and take inspiration from their ideas.

Breaking routine

I heard from the team that breaking habits and doing something different from their normal routine proved an excellent way to generate new perspectives and creative thoughts.

This is an ethos we adopt at the agency in making sure each of us works on a diverse portfolio of clients and industry sectors, whether that be law, property, or financial services.

The Farrer Kane & Co team displayed a variety of different hobbies but one thing I have taken from it is the numerous different ways in which people remain creative outside of work. One colleague even takes part in trapeze classes! If high flying is not your thing, other members of the team have demonstrated a more grounded approach to how they remain creative such as knitting, crocheting and reading. For me, I like to make my routine weekly ginger shots, but I think the office has well and truly heard about that enough!