You Need Creative Friends not a Creative Team

October 06, 2010

I have 2 jobs that I love very much. My first job pastoring a church in Louisville KY. My second job is to run a design company. Oddly enough these 2 worlds are very connected because I do most of my design work for churches, and my responsibilities at the church are very interwoven with all things creative.

 

I guess it was about 8-10 years ago when I first heard the idea of a creative team from Ed Young, the pastor of Fellowship Church in TX. I was blown away, inspired, and determined to create my own creative team. I've done it off and on since then in different ways, but after 10 years I'm confessing that I think they are overrated, and I'll tell you why.

 

Let's start with the positives and why it would be important to have a creative team:

1. 2 heads are better than 1, and so on. You will have better ideas the more ideas that are thrown out.

2. If left up to you, your ideas will probably all have the same look, feel, and style.

3. It incorporates other people in the process and gives ownership to whatever you are creating.

 

 

With some legitimate experience under my belt, let me share a couple of reasons why I think creative teams are overrated:

1. I have found that many creatives don't collaborate well. In my experiences true creatives are very introverted, and being a part of a group isn't the best setting for their creativity to spew out.

 

2. True creatives don't have good ideas on the spot. Many of the creative meetings I've been a part of (even the ones I've led) there was no information given out before the meeting, so you sit down cold turkey and are asked to produce something brilliant in 45-60 minutes. Doesn't happen. Honestly for the real good creative weirdoes (and I mean that in the best way) after I've brought up an idea, and sought creativity from them, about 2 weeks later after I moved on, they tell me they've got something.

 

3. 2 heads are better than 1 but after about 3 heads it just creates a headache. Have you ever opened up the floor for ideas, and gotten 5 ideas in completely different directions. Yep, that sounds about right. I've found that 1 on 1 brainstorming gets way more accomplished.

 

So what's the answer to this dilemma? Just do everything yourself and don't involve others in the creative process? Nope, not at all. You need to be surrounded by creative people in your life. You know the good, the bad, and the ugly. The weirdos, the emotional wrecks, the ones that don't bathe everyday, all of them (I'm kidding of course..kind of) The next time you have an idea and you want to add some creativity, call them up or take them out and talk to them about it. Don't set up a formal meeting, and try to produce ideas outside the lines, when you are on a schedule in a room with no windows. The best ideas come when they are not forced. I have a creative team of about 5 people, and we never get together in the same room. (maybe once or twice, but hardly ever) Some of them don't even know each other, but when ideas come to my head, depending on which direction that idea is taking me, I pick up the phone, or shoot an email, and usually focus in on 1 maybe 2 of them.

 

I'm actually not that creative, but my friends are!