Ep 121: Leading Without Crushing Creativity

Written By Dustin Pead

The 80-20 Principle That Transforms Creative Teams

SUMMARY

Most creative professionals think they need more freedom when what they actually need is better structure. Not more structure, better structure. And there's a big difference between the two.

As creative leaders, we often face a paradox: how do we provide the structure our teams need to be productive while preserving the creative freedom that drives innovation? The answer lies in understanding the 80-20 creative structure principle that can transform how you lead creative teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • ⚡️ Structure Creates Creative Freedom: 80% structured work builds the margin and resources needed for meaningful 20% creative exploration time.

  • ⚡️ Constraints Spark Innovation: Clear boundaries and defined problems force innovative solutions and eliminate creative paralysis from unlimited options.

  • ⚡️ Relationship-First Leadership: Caring about the person behind the creativity, not just project outcomes, unlocks higher creative performance and team engagement.

NOTABLE QUOTES

  • 💬 "Intention creates the conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge."

  • 💬 "Professional creatives don't wait to feel inspired. They go get inspired, and the 'go get' is the intentional part."

  • 💬 "Your creatives don't need more freedom. They need better intentionality that serves their creative process."

EPISODE RESOURCES

TRANSCRIPT

Most creative professionals think that they need more freedom when what they actually need is better structure. Not more structure, better structure. And there's a big difference between the two. Today we're going to explore the 80-20 principle that transforms how you lead creative teams and why putting creatives in a box actually unleashes their best work. Let's get into it.

Taking creatives from chaos to clarity. Welcome back to Creativity Made Easy, the podcast for creative professionals who want to take their business or their teams from chaos to clarity. I'm your host, Dustin Pead, creative process coach and consultant, founder of Chief Creative Consultants, and I help creative professionals know themselves, their process and their teams so that they can move from chaos to clarity. If you're tired of the feast or famine cycle and ready to build a creative business that works as hard as you do, you're in the right place.

Listen, let me tell you, I love structure. I think structure is intentional and I like to be very intentional with my time because time is the one asset that we cannot get more of. It's here and then gone. I believe that structure makes us more creative and we're going to talk about that, but it can be taken too far and often squash our creative flow.

So I've come up with this principle to make room for creative adventure and spontaneity. Most things in life revolve around some type of an 80-20 rule. Every time we talk about something, it's really more about the balance. And the balance usually is not 50-50. The balance is usually somewhere 80-20. And that's no different in today's episode.

The 80-20 creative structure principle. 80% of your creative work should be highly structured and 20% built for flexibility and immediate inspiration. I just actually restructured my week to match this. What I was noticing about a hundred percent of my creativity being structured was that I would get to the end of the week and I felt like I had no room to really be creative.

And so what I've done recently is I've changed up my Fridays to have no tasks on my plate. Now I know not everybody has that luxury, but maybe you can move towards it as much as you can or pick a different day of the week. I have no scheduled tasks for Friday now. I have calendar items, but I have no scheduled tasks for Friday.

And there's a couple of reasons for this. One, I want to be able to have margin at the end of the week to be able to catch up on some things that I maybe didn't have time for because things happen. But I also want to have the flexibility to go create something at the end of the week because I want to end the week on a creative high. And so I think it's super important for all of us to understand this balance of this 80% structure, 20% freedom as much as I am practicing it as well.

And I want to say too that I think a lot of creative teams get this backwards. Most of them spend 80% of their time chasing inspiration. I just have to create the right environment. I have to have the right amount of sleep. I have to have the right amount of caffeine. I have to have the right music playing at the right temperature and the right candle burning and all these different things to chase inspiration. And they only get about 20% of their time structured. And that is a mistake because they're waiting for a perfect moment instead of creating some type of consistent output. They're mistaking chaos for creativity and structure for constraint.

Now there's power in structured creativity. This is where I talk about in the intro about being inside the box. 80% of structured work creates predictable progress and deliverables. Structure actually builds the financial and time margin needed for true creative exploration. You need to be able to afford the time and the money to explore those things. So I'm going to keep my week structured Monday through Thursday and Friday is going to be a lot less structured as much as possible.

Structure also provides the foundation that makes 20% flexible time actually valuable. It's not just sitting around twiddling your fingers, but you've done what you need to do and now you can create something truly unique and valuable.

So here's how to implement the 80-20 split. Structure your processes, deadlines, and communication rhythms, whatever that works for you. For me, it's Monday through Thursday. It could be from 9 to 2 is going to be super structured, and then from 2 to 5 is going to be a little bit different, whatever the case may be. But structure that with your processes, structure it with your deadlines and your communications.

Because if you don't structure it, let me just say this for a second. I know you're hearing like too much structure, too much structure. Structure is nothing but intentionality. That's all it is. It's I'm being intentional to choose what I'm going to do with the one asset that I can't get more of which is time. I'm gonna make every moment count. I'm gonna make every moment count towards the thing that I want to create instead of just like if a hundred percent or if it was vice versa where 80% of your time was open to creating the right environment in the moment, you're going to get to your end of your week and you're only going to have a 20% success rate at the most because that's the part that was actually structured.

And so I think if we can build in these intentionalities, let's replace the word structure with intention. If we can build our week intentionally, then we can protect certain time blocks for exploration and inspiration and we can actually be more creative by using the 80% structure to fund the 20% inspirational flow time.

This is why we talk a lot about the DO versus DUE framework because it creates that margin that makes this 80-20 split possible and it does that by eliminating the last-minute rushes that consume creative exploration time. If you build this 80-20 intention into your work or your team or your department or your agency, but you're constantly waiting until things are DUE to get them done, then you're not gonna have that. It's gonna eat up that 20% that you built that you work so hard for.

So download the DO versus DUE framework on dustinpead.com slash free. Look at all the stuff out there that I have about it. We talk about it pretty regularly on this podcast.

Let's talk for a second about building inspiration instead of just sitting around waiting for it. I think there's a myth that we think that inspiration hits. It doesn't just hit. Inspiration builds through consistent creative habits and a structured practice. This whole idea of I'm just waiting to feel inspired, it actually kills creativity and it kills any chance of getting anything done.

The most successful artists and creatives in the world don't wait to feel inspired. They go get inspired and the go get is the intentional part. And that's the difference between being motivated and being disciplined in your creative work. We need both. We need both motivation and we need discipline. But professional creatives, they show up regardless of how they feel and they're willing to put in the work.

So inspiration is actually a byproduct of the habits that you create, the intentional habits that you create. Consistent creative practice trains your brain to generate ideas at a moment's notice. Structure creates the condition where inspiration is likely to emerge. Let me say that again and replace the s-word. Intention creates conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge. Maybe that's all you needed to hear today. Intention creates the conditions where inspiration is more likely to emerge.

Regular creative work builds creative confidence and flow state. I believe Todd Henry said it best in his entire work of his first book, The Accidental Creative. And his research shows that structure actually enables rather than inhibits creative breakthroughs because it's intentional. You're intentionally feeding your creativity. You're nurturing it. You're giving it what it needs so that when it's time to be creative, you can be creative. You don't have to wait for inspiration to hit.

I want to be clear. Putting creatives in a box does give them clarity. It gives them clarity. I know you can't see anything when I'm in a box. But I'll tell you what you can see. You can see the boundaries. You know exactly where to push the limit. Without boundaries, you can't push boundaries. And all creativity is pushing those boundaries. Giving them the box gives them clarity to be creative with purpose rather than with confusion.

There's a paradox here of creative freedom. Unlimited options, no box often leads to creative paralysis. We've talked about this before. It can handicap your creativity. Clear boundaries force innovative solutions within defined parameters. Different constraints can actually spark your creativity by eliminating all of the irrelevant possibilities. If anything is possible, then I don't know where to even go with this. But if you give me, it's like great improv, they'll give you a scenario. You're walking into a grocery store, great, and walking into a grocery store and now I can take that and be creative with it.

That's why improv exists and that's why improv is one of the most creative forms of art that exists because you can take one simple idea. That one simple idea is a box and now you're off to the races with it.

So create empowering constraints and you can do this by defining the problem clearly. We talk about this all the time about painting done from Brené Brown, but define the problem clearly before asking for creative solutions. If you don't know what problem you're out there trying to solve then you can't solve it the best way.

So set specific parameters while leaving methodology open. It's not how we're gonna solve it, it's just what we're trying to solve. If you know that, then you can provide context and purpose for every creative project that you have.

Now I do want to say there is such thing as helpful creative boxes and limiting boxes. And this is where we have to be careful as leaders. A helpful creative box is clear objectives, it's a defined target audience who are we speaking to, and there are specific outcomes that we want to see on the other side of it.

Now a limiting creative box is filled with micromanagement. It's every little step of execution. There's no room for creative process. So don't limit creatives. Give them clear objectives, defined audience and specific outcomes. Constrain focus constraints on the what while freeing up the how. That's how leaders lead creatives the best way.

I think we'd be remiss if we don't talk about the relational aspect when we're really when we're leading creatives. Effective creative leadership comes from caring about the person more than the project, especially since creatives are driven more by emotions and feelings than your average other leader or business profession. Traditional management fails here with creative professionals because creatives are more invested in their work.

Now I'm not saying this is always the most healthy but you need to understand where they're at in order to kind of lead them towards what might be best. Their identity is often tied to their creative output again not necessarily healthy but understanding where they are will help you lead them and creatives standard performance metrics don't capture the creative value that they bring.

If someone walks in the room and you immediately feel more creative because they're there, that's some value that can't be tracked from regular standard performance metrics. And so you need to understand that. You need to understand that by building a relationship with them first.

There's power in this relationship first leadership. It's not about the outcome. It's not about the project. It's about the person. It's shepherding the heart of the creative. That's what we love to do at Chief Creative Consultants. We are all about shepherding the heart of the creative person through building these structures, building these intentions around their creativity so they can unleash their best work.

So understand what motivates them. Get to know them on an individual level. Recognize creative work as a personal expression not just deliverables and build trust by doing that you will build trust. Build trust that allows for creative vulnerability. The more vulnerable a creative can be the more creative a creative can be every single time.

So make sure you're having one-on-ones with your creatives. Not just quarterly progress reports on evaluating every little thing that they do, but make it about what they're feeling and what they're going through. Ask them about creative challenges, not just their project status. Understand their process and honor it as much as you possibly can. There's always somewhere to meet in the middle. Focus on removing obstacles so they can present their best creative work.

What are some things that we're doing with our systems and processes or with our communication or with our culture or with our leadership that are creating obstacles for their best creative work? Now understand that sometimes they don't know what's best for their creative work so take it with a grain of salt and understand that what they're giving you is a little piece of themselves. That's addressing those emotional aspects of creative feedback and the iterations that they bring every single time.

There's been much research on creative motivation that shows that autonomy, mastery, and purpose, that's what drives creative performance more than any other traditional incentives. So focus on autonomy, focus on them mastering their skills and focus on the purpose behind what they're doing.

I do have a guide on my website, dustinpead.com slash free. It's called the creative guide, the creatives guide to effective one-on-ones. You can download that. I'll be speaking on that topic this fall at the salt conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

So let's get into what now, what do we do? First thing you need to do is you need to map out what's your current state of this 80-20 split. How much time is your team spending on structured work versus creative exploration? Give them time to explore. Most teams need to flip this ratio to become more productive and more creative.

Number two, create daily creative habits. Establish a non-negotiable creative practices for your team, even if it's just for 15 minutes. Do not wait for inspiration to hit. Build the creative habits now that create inspiration later.

Thirdly, define your creative constraints for your project, for your audience, for your team, whatever it looks like. Start asking what those constraints are so that you can give better solutions every single time.

And lastly, schedule relationship building one on ones. Ask each team member what would help you do your most creative work this week? Find out what they're struggling with, what's going on in their lives. Focus on the person, not just the project status.

I want to remind you a couple of feature resources that we talked about in this episode. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is essential. It's on my website as one of my essential readings. If you go to the resources and tools section there as well. I also have the DO versus DUE framework and the creative guides, the creatives guide to effective one-on-ones available at dustinpead.com slash free. There's many other things there as well that can help you build intentionality without crushing creativity.

Remember, creativity isn't about having unlimited freedom. It's about having clear purpose with defined boundaries. When you build the right structure, you build the right intentionality, and you provide meaningful constraints and lead them through relationship rather than just through project management, then you can create conditions where creativity naturally flourishes. Your creatives don't need more freedom. They need better intentionality that serves their creative process.

If you're ready to transform how you lead creative teams and build systems that actually enhance creativity, visit dustinpead.com to learn more about our consulting services or connect with me on social media at dustinpead. I'd love to hear from you on how you're implementing the 80-20 principle in your creative work.

Next week, we're tackling the number one complaint I hear from creative professionals. It's this, I have more tasks than time to complete them. And we're going to dive into all of that through the focus funnel and systematic approach to eliminate, automate, delegate strategic procrastination to reclaim your creative energy for the work that actually matters. If you're drowning in your task list, the next episode will give you the roadmap back that you need to create your best work. I cannot wait to talk to you all about that. Until next time on the creativity made easy podcast, have an amazing week.

Dustin Pead
Next

Ep 120: The Beauty of Completing