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Bounding Creativity.
Paul Fairweather 2020
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams
This was our mantra when we were at university.
For me, though, it was more of a case of the sound of deadlines hurtling, seemingly out of no-where, towards me.
I recently had a conversation with Dani Venn, a celebrity chef who holds the dubious honour of been voted out of the Masterchef kitchen twice, both times whilst holding an immunity pin. Dani’s journey in becoming a self-taught chef gave me great insights into her creative process under pressure. I loved that Dani’s secret sauce was to be a bit quirky.
Our discussion was a catalyst for me to think about boundaries in creativity. In a self-directed creative process, or when you are leading a team, boundaries for time, scale, medium and theme of the project are essential. It is time, the deadline, that is one of the defining boundaries in Dani Venn’s Master Chef experiences.
I think of creative boundaries as the Goldilocks and the Three Bears of creativity. The boundaries need to be not too broad or not too tight. They have to be just right.
Paul Fairweather 2020
One of my favourites takes on leadership is that you want your team to think that they achieved success all on their own. The reality is that as a leader, you must gently nudge them along in the direction you want the team to go, preferably if they are unaware.
Paul Fairweather 2020
If you are new to practising creative leadership, then you might take the seemingly contradictory approach of starting with narrower boundaries. Think of the bumper rails used in kids’ 10-pin bowling. You can let the ball ricochet all over the place, but ultimately keep it going in one direction, knocking at least one pin down. Now and then you can drop the bumpers to see where the ball goes.
There are two types of creative pressure once a project is underway. One is the…
