Limits on Creativity
“If I had more time, I’d have written you a shorter letter.” – Winston Churchill British Prime Minister, Author (1874 – 1965)
“Talk doesn’t cook rice.” – Proverb
Here’s a thought: Without limits, creativity is merely uncontrolled daydreaming – imagine a car without brakes…
Life – we’re in it together, which imposes all kinds of structure: jobs, families, and the demand for outcomes. All these responsibilities can depress the creative spirit we need for innovation. These other people need schedules, and who’s to pay for dinner, and then there’s always the mortgage. It’s easy to lose vision when to manage calendars, payments, agendas, and deadlines – you need bifocals.
Here’s the thing: A writer, a speaker, a painter, all must engage with the world. So sooner or later, an “idea” comes off the “Cool Concept” list and becomes a “Hot Work in Progress.” Then it gets evaluated (against a standard of expectation), refined, polished… and published.
The Standard: It’s got to be useful, engaging, concise, practical, and if you’re really good, everything connects. Substance often gets lost without those pesky style points. We know limits are, well, limiting, but without them it’s just Me Thinking Out Loud. And YOU won’t put up with that for long.
These “Limits on Creativity” also go by other names: Creative Standards, Publication Guidelines, Editorial Understandings, Brand Descriptors, Corporate Character, Culture.
There are also names for people who recognize and adhere to the guidelines: Employed, Published, Known, Respected!
Without the constraints of commerce, creativity might never flower. If it were easy, why were you hired to solve it?
A message to those of you resenting the demands and limits on your creativity: “Grow Up! Show some discipline!”
Practical Advice:
The discipline inherent in Fusion’s proprietary “Ready, Set, Go!®” organizational system puts you directly in touch with what’s required to run a meeting with a recommended outcome, create a presentation with a next step, write a document with an execution schedule or conduct a sales call with a negotiated business partnership agreement.
And there are creative standards built into the “Ready, Set, Go!®” process:
- An outcome…The Next Step.
- A way of getting a handle on what it’s about…The Opening/Subject.
- An Audience Analysis so you speak with people, not at them.
- A defined, explicit structure, which allows the audience to make sense of and recall the material…The Body (Agenda, Details, Summary).
Deadlines, Outlines and Results: It’s a good thing we have all these limits on our creativity!
So don’t just think – Do! There’s rice to cook.
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