Sep
21
2011
Harnessing Your Creativity
My job requires me to read, write, and edit. Off the clock, I’m juggling speaking engagements, teaching opportunities, and preaching responsibilities. All that output requires significant input. My goal is to provide teaching and resources that are spiritually edifying, theologically consistent, and biblically faithful.
Perhaps you are in a similar position. You’re a pastor expounding on the Bible three or four times a week. Or maybe you’re a blogger trying to post daily. Maybe you are a writer or an editor or an entrepreneur tasked with finding creative solutions to pressing problems. Whatever your job may be, you probably know the pressure of delivering good ideas at a moment’s notice, which means you are familiar with the days when your creative juices aren’t flowing very quickly. Like a shallow river that is parched during the heat of summer, the idea flow slows to a trickle. But other times, you can’t type fast enough. The creative juices are flowing fast and furiously, sweeping you up in the rush of inspiration.
If you want the latter picture to happen more often, then take a look at a new book by Todd Henry titled The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice
“Creative” as a Noun
Henry starts the book by defining the term “creative” as a noun and then applying that description to a broader group than you might expect. He writes:
“In some circles, the word ‘creative’ has recently morphed from adjective to noun. If you are one of the millions among us who make a living with your mind, you could be tagged a ‘creative.’ Every day, you solve problems, innovate, develop systems, design things, write, think, and strategize.”
He then points out the benefits and difficulties to being a creative:
“There are tremendous benefits to doing creative work. You get to add unique value, carve out your own niche in the marketplace, and watch your notions and hunches go from conception to execution; could there be any type of work more gratifying? But the flip side of this is that whether you are a designer, manager, writer, consultant, or programmer, you are required to create value each and every day without reprieve. The work never ends, and as long as there is ‘just one more thing’ to think about, finding time to rest can be difficult. Your primary tool, your mind, goes with you everywhere. If your job is to solve problems—to create—then you are always looking for new ideas. In addition, you won’t always have the option of going back to your desk to quietly brainstorm, vetting your ideas one by one. As a creative, you will regularly find yourself in situations that require you to generate brilliant ideas at a moment’s notice. This is no easy feat.”
Henry helpfully reorients our perspective on work and productivity. He shifts away from the hours you put in each day and emphasizes the value of your work. “As a creative worker, you’re not really paid for your time, you’re paid for the value you create.” Very true. And in most cases, this doesn’t lead to less work but more, since people are creating value even when they’re away from their desk. He criticizes some organizations for measuring the productivity of creative workers in much the same way they would measure the productivity of a copy machine. Harnessing creativity requires a new outlook on idea generation and implementation.
Structure and Creativity
The bulk of this proposal is directed to the creative, not the organization. The solutions Henry offers are structural. “Structure and creativity are two sides of the same coin,” he writes. “We are not capable of operating without boundaries. We need them in order to focus our creative energy into the right channels. Total freedom is false freedom. True freedom has healthy boundaries.”
Many creatives bristle at the idea of putting up boundaries, but we shouldn’t. Discipline is essential for maximizing one’s creative output.
Some of his suggestions are just common sense. For example, as a creative required to generate ideas, you should be purposeful about what ideas you are putting into your head. Likewise, creatives need to establish practices around energy management. Henry writes:
“If we are wise in our energy management, we will find that ideas emerge when we least expect them. Our minds are constantly working in the background to solve whatever problems we give them.”
Though much creative work takes place in solitude, Henry recommends that creatives “systematically engage with other people, in part to be reminded that life is bigger than your immediate problems.” Relationships are key in the creative process, both in the collaboration stage and the need for companionship.
Assassins of Creativity
Once he has offered some basic suggestions, Henry identifies the three assassins of the creative process: dissonance, fear, and expectation escalation. By “dissonance,” he is referring to the difficulty of working in an environment in which the “why” of work doesn’t line up with the “what” of day-to-day activity. He writes:
“One of the first signs of the decline of many great companies is when they fail to recognize the ‘why’ behind their day-to-day activities.”
And then this:
“A lot of wasted creative energy goes toward figuring out the system rather than toward the actual work of the organization.”
These obstacles aren’t insurmountable, however. Dissonance just needs to be minimized so that good work can move forward.
Henry is also right to mention “fear” as an assassin of creativity. Sometimes creatives can fear success as much as failure, since the bar gets moved higher with every successful endeavor. But Henry is wise to remind us: “A lifetime of mediocrity is a high price to pay for safety. Paranoia undoes greatness.” It’s better to stretch. “Know your comfort zone and work hard to stay out of it,” he advises.
Conclusion
All in all, The Accidental Creative is one of the most helpful business/leadership books that I’ve ever read. It was immediately practical to my current situation in a variety of ways. I’ve already made some changes in regard to energy management and relationship-building as a direct result of Henry’s advice. This book is a great reminder that “tremendous value can be created in incredibly small amounts of time. You invest your time, focus, and energy in important problems, and you reap a return on the other side.” Hear, hear!