Creativity Through Structure: Finding Fresh Insight in Familiar Frames

Part Two in a Series on Creative Thinking in Multifamily

Creativity in multifamily often hides in plain sight. While our industry doesn’t always look like a creative space, we actually are. We’re balancing renewals, NOI, occupancy, capital improvements, and tech platforms. It is an industry absolutely dependent on innovation. Whether you’re managing communities, leading a leasing team, building brand awareness, or launching a new asset, the real work lies in finding better ways to connect with people and solve problems. And that takes creativity.

But here's the myth: creativity isn’t about waking up with a stroke of brilliance. It’s about having a system that invites new ideas.

In The Art of Creative Thinking, John Adair makes a case that real creativity doesn’t need chaos—it needs form. “Creativity thrives best within constraints,” he writes. That’s a truth I’ve seen play out again and again in my own work developing content strategies and crafting narratives that connect with the multifamily audience.

Over time, I’ve come to rely on creative structure not as a limitation but as a launchpad.

The Seuss Structure

In the first article of this series, I wrote about the unexpected power of Dr. Seuss. His playful rhymes and tight meter weren’t just entertaining, they were also deeply structured. And that structure created freedom. I used that principle to shape a LinkedIn content framework that helped me show up consistently and creatively. The idea: short, rhythmic posts with a clear theme, takeaway, and tone. The style did half the lifting; the story did the rest.

That Seuss-inspired format gave me a framework to build on.

“This Day in History” — Another Creative Engine

When I didn’t have a product announcement, case study, or conference recap ready to go, I wanted a way to keep publishing without forcing ideas. That’s where This Day in History came in.

This simple structure of anchoring a post around a historical event from the day became a flexible, evergreen framework. And more than that, it pushed me to find patterns between seemingly unrelated ideas: past events and current trends, historical figures and modern challenges, culture and leasing.

Here are a few examples from posts that brought that structure to life and how they can carry lessons for the multifamily world:

1. The Mona Lisa’s Marketing Lesson

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by three Italian handymen. The painting, relatively unknown at the time, became an overnight global sensation. Why? The story.

The media frenzy that followed didn’t just return the painting, it turned it into an icon.

The Multifamily Parallel: We often emphasize product specs: floor plans, amenities, finishes. But the most valuable properties are the ones with stories. What makes your building unforgettable? What’s the emotional thread that turns a listing into a lifestyle?

Just like the Mona Lisa, your brand may need a story, not just a spotlight. Marketing is no longer about what you offer, but what you mean to your audience. And sometimes, that meaning is best told through narrative.

2. Paul Revere & AI

On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere took his midnight ride. What stood out wasn’t just his bravery it was the way he used fast, decentralized communication to spread an urgent message.

I paired that historic ride with the rise of generative AI (a modern revolution of its own), drawing parallels between the spread of information in 1775 and the pace of digital transformation today.

The Multifamily Parallel: Communication is the heartbeat of community management, especially during transition or crisis. Whether you’re rolling out a new AI tool for virtual tours or managing after-hours maintenance alerts, the clarity and speed of your message matters. As Revere taught us, one clear voice, well-timed, can move an entire system into action.

This post also opened conversations about how individual leaders in multifamily can explore AI tools: not with fear, but with curiosity. Revere didn’t wait for consensus; he saw urgency, took action, and sparked change. That same mindset will separate those who thrive from those who stall in this next phase of tech adoption.

3. Elvis Presley’s Final Show

On June 26, 1977, Elvis performed his final concert in Indianapolis. That day, I reflected on his famous lyric, “It’s now or never,” and how it perfectly captures a mindset we all need in sales.

The Multifamily Parallel: In leasing, timing is everything. We hesitate, overthink, delay decisions—and miss windows. But when teams act with urgency, energy, and confidence, they move the needle. That applies to lease-up strategy, end-of-quarter performance pushes, or even leadership moments.

Elvis’s lyric isn’t just poetic. It’s practical.

In an industry where every day counts and every conversation could close the deal, urgency isn’t pressure—it’s presence. It’s the decision to show up, take action, and trust your prep.

The Bigger Picture: Pattern Recognition as a Skill

These examples aren’t about clever connections. They are actually about creative discipline.

In The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp says, “Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box.” For me, This Day in History is that box. The constraint creates room to explore.

Steven Johnson, in his TED Talk Where Good Ideas Come From, introduces the concept of the “adjacent possible”—the idea that innovation happens when existing ideas are connected in new ways. That’s what these posts are doing: finding relevance in history and remixing it for today.

And Austin Kleon, in Steal Like an Artist, puts a bow on it: “Creativity is subtraction.” The magic often happens when you remove the pressure to be original and focus instead on drawing powerful lines between things that already exist.

A Creative Challenge for Multifamily Pros

So, here’s a challenge for you or your team this week:

Find two things. Make a connection. Share the insight.

Examples:

• Take a moment in pop culture—Taylor Swift’s tour, a Marvel Entertainment release, a sports upset—and connect it to resident engagement.

• Look at a classic business story (e.g., Netflix’s shift from DVD to streaming) and apply it to how your property team is adapting to changing renter expectations.

• Study how a hotel brand builds loyalty and ask what your resident experience team could borrow.

You don’t need to be a historian or an artist to do this. You just need to start looking for patterns, not just projects. Parallels, not just procedures. That’s where creativity lives.

Creativity in multifamily isn't optional. It's Strategic.

We’re in a moment of rapid evolution in multifamily: AI, amenity wars, digital leasing, ESG priorities, economic uncertainty. And in this moment, creativity isn’t just a value-add. It’s a necessity.

But the good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch.

Start with structure. Start with story. Start with history—even someone else’s.

Then make it yours.