On creativity
I love it.
∞
My daily life revolves around creativity. Partly due to my job. Partly due to my inclinations and interests that led me to this job to begin with. Mostly due to happy little accidents.
I have as many thoughts on creativity as I have on the rest of my day-to-day life.
In creative work, experience can be as much a hindrance as it can be valuable.
To be creative means to create something new. Relying on proven patterns or recreating the path to success does not lead to good work. If anything, it makes a stale outcome more likely.
I think a fair rule of thumb is this: If your creative work ceases to be a struggle you are not on the right track. Get off the path.
Without being inside of my head this might read negative. It is positive to me. It’s a kind of struggle that feels right. And I do believe this specific word is the right choice for what I am trying to say.
define: strugglemake forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction.
This is the definition google offers. I like it. Creative work wants to be free. And it needs constraints to fight for that freedom in order to create. These constraints can take a variety of forms. From the most fundamental laws of nature to social architecture and everything in between.
What is special about the kind of creativity that I get to employ daily is that it is always in the form of a service to someone. Which brings along it’s own set of constraints.
Time
Budget
The Client’s Taste
Loads Of Opinions
Corporate Strategy
Legal
Prior Work
Goals & KPIs
Etc.
Dear clients: Do not rob me of my constraints. I need the struggle. If you tell me to “just be creative” or to “tackle this project freely” and to “go smoke a spliff – or whatever you agency people do to get going” without stating a problem, a goal, something to solve for. You will not get the best output. Best case you get something I like. Worst case you will get something I think you will like.
Your biggest gift to me is a problem. A problem that I can struggle with to find (creative) solutions. Some problems are too big to tackle. Others are too small. Let us try.
This is why in agencies the brief has such fundamental importance.
Still, this starting position is somewhat common and it isn’t really as bad as I made it sound. If you let me, I can create constraints. This is a major part of my job as a strategist. As a matter of fact it is the only value of the various methods we deploy in agencies. They provide clarity and friction. Never forget: they are a means to an end not an end in itself.
If you can only provide me with one piece of information before I dive into my work – answer this question for me:
What statement about the world do you want to be true when the work is done, that isn’t true today?
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What really gets me though is one particular piece of feedback.
“This is too creative.”
Happens quite often. But what does it even mean? Underlying this statement is a deep misunderstanding of creativity.
Thanks to open peeps for the modular character design!
Creativity is the act of creating something novel and useful.
Creativity, in it’s nature, is effective and inefficient.
Creativity is not magic. It’s an activity. It’s work.
Still, the magic happens when all the pieces align and the work results in the creation of something novel and useful.
So what does “This is too creative.” mean?
From my experience it means “I do not like the work but I can’t tell you why”. Which is problematic because it doesn’t lead us anywhere but in a spiral. Whenever this feedback appears I know the constraints were either not correct, not explicit enough or not there to begin with.
In work terms: It’s time for a rebrief.
“Explicit is better than implicit.”
As strategists 93 % of our work is to find the implicit, turn it into something explicit and make it actionable. This is hard. It is hard to do and even harder to teach. Most annoyingly there is no other way but doing it. Writing helps. So do some methods – which I will write about in more detail in articles to come.
One of my deepest convictions is this: There is no such thing as “too creative”.
Creativity is a practice as much as it is a skill set. I might miss the mark. Actually, I will definitely miss the mark from time to time.
“Failure is always an option.”
And when I do miss the mark I want you to tell me. Feedback is invaluable.
Just don’t tell me it’s too creative – if anything it isn’t creative enough!
Look at the work. Judge it. Let me know. Be explicit.
We are in this together 🫰
