Various ages, genders, ethnicities, sexualities and cognitive variances working in Europe, the US, the UK, Asia, AUNZ, South America and Africa have shared what it means to work as a creative maker today, as both a practitioner and a leader. These designers, engineers, developers, strategists, art directors, copywriters and creative directors are permanent and self-employed people working at tech giants, global and boutique agencies, startups, micro consultancies and client-side organisations. 

The study was designed and run by Tracy Brown. She has been a creative maker and leader in digital design, innovation and transformation work for over 25 years. She partnered with Barry Mowszowski to share the results in a podcast in 2019. 

Both Tracy and Barry realised that the conditions creative makers need to thrive are specific and not created through luck. As team leaders they knew that conscious organisational design goes into attracting and retaining the best creative-making talent.

They know that as creativity is essential for transforming organisations, brands and cultures, sought-after creative makers now have the option to choose employers who can best facilitate their needs as individuals. Many of the organisations they work with are losing that talent war. This is why they chose to transform the insights into a course in August 2020, also hosted by The Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

In 2021 the course was updated to include new insights about the impact that the previous year had on creative makers and their feelings about work. Whether they were an individual creative maker or a head decision-maker at an organisation, the Future of Doing course guided participants through how to design better workplace experiences for creative makers, the thinkers and doers that create the products, services and experiences that enable how we live.

Since then, founder Tracy Brown has written two books detailing the research from the study This eventuated in How We Talk About Work (2022) and How We Talk About Leadership (2023).

Access these and other tools to act on this rich world of creative-making insights.