Creative freedom and respect – if you can answer “yes” to three questions
There is only one thing harder than managing creative designers; being managed as a creative designer. By nature we are artistic types whose work is often subjective, independent and fueled only by inspiration and a creative-friendly environment. Micromanagement has a negative association in most professions – it is however just about the most unproductive, inspiration-depriving, creativity-stopping management style for creative designers. And it isn’t necessary!
We are one of few professions who can justify starring into space as working. If you’re of the elite, the truly creative, you’re always working. You’re constantly looking around your environment, demanding inspiration from everything around you. Often times doing non-work related work can make us better employees; especially with in-house designers. How do you justify four hours of creative exploration when there is no tangible asset to show for it? How do you explain the need to flip through a few magazines, surf the web or take a walk outside for a couple hours before you can get out your pencil and notebook or open-up PhotoShop? The answer — you shouldn’t need to justify anything to anyone as long as you can answer “yes” to the following three questions anytime and every time.
- Have you done everything that was asked of you?
- Have you done everything in the time allotted?
- Have you exceeded expectations with everything you’ve done?
These are the only three things that will ever matter! As long as you never miss an assignment, always complete your projects on time and constantly deliver breathe-taking designs – you should have unlimited creative space and respect.
If you decide to leave work fifteen minutes early, play a computer game for a few moments during the day or even take an extended lunch – no one should be questioning those actions as long as you are delivering! If you’re able to answer “yes” to the crucial three questions – does it really matter if you’re checking your personal email at work? Does it really matter if you’re chatting for five minutes on instant messenger to a friend? We can’t always control our projects, our clients or our timelines – but we can take control of our work environment. So, the next time you’re being micromanaged and you feel the deep stare of prying eyes from behind your shoulder – take a deep breathe and remember you’ve got nothing to worry about because you’ve done all that matters. If you’ve answered “yes” to the three questions; how can anyone be unhappy with your performance?
- August 10th, 2006
- 20comments
- I am a proud member of the 9rules network
Nice post. I’d been struggling to explain this to myself and you’ve done it in a great, straight-forward way. Thanks!
Kevin, I am glad I could be of some help.
I’ve worked as a designer, art director and creative designer — so I’ve seen it from all sides. I love Google’s model of having 20% of your time allocated to side-projects — that is how we spawn creativity!!
I have to say, this all relies on self-management. The moment you aren’t able to answer “yes” to those three questions — you sort of lose the right to demand creative freedom and respect (your almost touting the fact that you need to be micromanaged).
Unquestionably I agree with your statement: “Micromanagement has a negative association in most professions.” As a professional, this style of management is an easy cop-out and ultimately a bad habit — and it’s toxic to working relationships.
I agree with your comment that micromanagement can be “toxic” – and that it’s often a misused, even abused, management practice. I will however mention that I do believe there are groups of people who demand and only strive while being micromanaged — it has its place. I personally feel as though “micromanagement” should be a management tactic only used when deemed necessary – not a tactic used on the group as a default.
As a fledgling freelance designer, I cannotyet say “yes” to all three. I do, however, agree with the results of being able to answer all three. Good post.
echoing Shawn’s comment, as long as you can usually meet all three, then you should be justified in doing what you’ve done, even if you have been checking newsvine every fifteen (or five) minutes.
I agree totally, but I don’t feel it should be limited to those on the more creative side of the fence.
Ooble –> What do you mean by
“I don’t feel it should be limited to those on the more creative side of the fence.“
I was sort of hoping by only having 3, it was less limited and more friendly to a creative environment.
Basically, what I meant was that it’s not just artists that need this sort of freedom. It’s everybody. :-)
I’d be very happy if our creative guys at the agency can answer yes to 1 & 2. 3 happens, but very seldom. time pressure is such that just getting in 1 & 2 is hard enough.
I will definately forward this to them. Thanks.
Remember, it is sometimes to the manager to ensure expectations are realistic and reasonable. If I were in a situation that demanded 100 designers in 10 days and they all had to be amazing and unique — that isn’t a very realistic goal.
I don’t really know your situation — but I would say it seems as though you might be putting yourself in a situation that really demands more resources. If you are getting things done and completing them on time, but still not putting out a quality product — have you really done your job?
My point being: it is to the creative to ensure they are doing their jobs and not placing themselves in a situation that demands micromanagement. It is to the management to ensure objectives, goals, and expectations are reasonable, achievable and realistic enough to not completely strip the designer of their creative freedom (or you end up with unhappy designers, poor creativity and eventually low retention).
Great article and you are lucky to have a job that inspires creativity. Ooble raises an important point though and one which is a major problem in America’s schools and corporations. Their structure stifles independent thought and creativity.
From a corporate standpoint, it happily allows small business the opportunity to outperform with fewer assets or resources. It is the juice that lets entrepreneurial spirit flourish and be rewarded by success.
These conformist mindsets have institutions organized not to make you think, but to measure how well you perform within narrow parameters. They look to how closely you execute exactly what was detailed. While that is a great way to run a military unit, in our educational system it is disastrous.
It yields a population unable to see differently, unwilling to challenge the status quo and eager to accept the notion that time spent dedicated to free thinking is wasted time. It too often holds up as the brightest, those who best demonstrate they have learned what they were taught to think, rather than acknowledging those who do not.
Thinking creatively, questioning critically and looking for what is not there, exploring your imagination and expecting that everything you see can be explored, explained and represented differently may be traits rewarded in a narrow area of work but we as a Nation would be far better served if they were recognised as goals in every area. Think what could be done to change the broken Government bureaucracy Martin’s way.
Pamela –> Interesting thought. From what little I know of how the Government works — simplicity and efficiency are not top-of-mind. What a world it would be if it were though.
True enough.
Maybe I was a bit , er negative there. But we don’t micromanage creative here, in fact they got PS2 and Foosball and Cable TV. Only thing is that they don’t have enough time to play games!!
I’ve found that staring into space often equals thinking - really thinking - about the problem at hand. Something almost every organization could probably use more of.
Without taking that time to really think it through, we all tend to be strictly reactionary, dealing only with whatever fresh crisis has landed on our laps that moment. Which sounds like way too many organizations.
hey martin, you still work at the fool?
Jeff!!! Yeah — hanging in strong, going on 9 months now; can you believe it’s been that long? You made a good choice man (for you), 4 people in the department have left since you were here last; similar reasons as far as I can tell.
yeah i think i did make a good call. i seriously couldn’t get up that early.
my new company is sending me all over the place. san fran, atlanta, and i just passed on a trip to Istanbul. (its all for medical conferences.)
Glad to hear you still hanging in there. I thought for sure you would be outta there in a month.
HA HA. I think a lot of people would agree with you. Lets just say … I am taking this job one day at a time.
ahha i totally agree