Creativity is hard. Let's rethink the way we view the process and understand the 'why' behind it all.
When that phrase is said, it basically means let go and and have faith that things will work out in time.
But so often in the creative process people can get a little frantic about the end product that they don’t realize or remember (or don’t trust) the process that is needed to get to a great, strategic end product.
Our Fishhook team has seen time and time again that when we don’t rush or put a lot of pressure on the process, we usually end up in places we might never have imagined if we bulldozed through.
Here are a few reasons why we encourage our clients to trust the creative process:
- We have to understand the context and the “why” in order to reach your goals. If we don’t understand what those are, we are more likely to miss the target. So humor us with our questions and don’t push them aside. Ponder them, ask leaders for input and take them seriously. If we start with the “why” … we can usually get to a great place.
- Moving through a process is all about learning a few things along the way that helps us share more deeply and thoughtfully. We want to let things percolate and bubble to the top. Whether this be in our content writing or visual design, when we learn things on a journey, we can dive in further and share and create with more depth.
- Thinking, pondering, dreaming, brainstorming, etc. all take time. If we rush through, we aren’t giving the creatives working on a project the proper tools for being creative. Excellence comes with preparation and if we aren’t giving the proper time to allow for all the things mentioned above, excellence is hard to come by.
In Todd Henry’s book,
Herding Tigers - Be the Leader the Creative People Need, he says we need to learn how to fight to protect the time, energy and resources creative people need to do their best work. If you are a Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor or a Communications Leader at your church, I’d encourage you to read this book.
Our team at Fishhook wants to do our best work because we know our work is used in helping churches build the Kingdom, and we take that very seriously.
We’d love to hear from you! What questions are you trying to work through for leaning into a creative process at your church? Where are you finding success? Where do you have room to grow?
