Ideas
Creative makers seek out employers that allow them to do excellent work, enabling them to come up with great ideas and to make them happen through exceptional levels of craft.
In many ways, this is the most significant pillar. Being able to do great work allows creative makers to pursue meaning and purpose. It gets to the heart of who they are and how they differ from other employees.
However, although this is the crux of what it means to be a creative maker, there are a number of conditions that influence their ability to flourish, which we explore in the other 5 pillars.
Our participants have shared that many employers respond with fear and micromanagement when required to innovate, which constrains creative-making talent and creates disillusionment. In these scenarios, creative makers look elsewhere for employers that allow them to use their skills freely. With such a pressing need to differentiate, organisations can’t afford not to create the means for teams to do so.
Key questions
Do you offer reasonable autonomy?
Are you enabling your creative makers to define how they work and think, which includes allowing them to define the approaches that work best for them, how they are briefed and how they collaborate?
Are you honest about creativity and innovation?
Are you transparent about when there are real opportunities for creativity and innovation vs trying to position work as more creative and innovative than it is? Do you manage expectations accordingly?
Do you have leaders who define and impart standards of excellence?
Do you have experts who are solely employed to set and communicate high practice standards and to train creative makers to deliver excellent work?
“Is it going to do what we actually need to do? And then the secondary layer I will always put on top of that is, is it going to make people smile in the process of it? It’s not good enough just to solve the problem.”
— Creative Director, UK