Creativity Vampires
I Can’t Believe I Thought of This Analogy 2 Weeks AFTER Halloween!
There is nothing that sucks the blood out of professional creative work more than a Creativity Vampire. There are multiple types. Let’s identify a few of the worst.
Submissive Vampires
Over the years, I’ve had more than one encounter with a leader who has hired an extremely docile and passive person as their #2. Once I dig into this leader’s story a little, I’ll find out it’s usually an overreaction to an experience in their past when they’ve felt threatened, manipulated, or let down by someone they trusted to hold their creative vision with them.
Although Submissive Vampires are well-intentioned, the problem is obvious. When you intentionally blockade yourself with people who won’t push back, any idea you have becomes the best idea, a dangerous premise, especially if you’re in a season of Overcompensation and Self-preservation (two vampires we won’t get to in this essay but deserve their own takedown).
Balloon Popping Vampires
The flip-side to surrounding yourself with yes-people is surrounding yourself with those who can’t turn their skepticism off. These vampires are known to walk around popping creativity balloons with their fangs while you’re left holding the string. This is different than offering constructive feedback or raising red flags. This is a lifestyle of severe party-pooperism. We all know friends, co-workers, and bosses who stifle creativity by poking so many holes that it never has a chance to get off the ground.
This is especially frustrating when you’re forced to work on a team with these vampires, or worse, they control your budget and priorities. That’s when a good-old-fashioned “heart-to-fang” often comes in handy. Do not be afraid to challenge these vampires back. Use their love of logic to remind them that you’ve been hired to fulfill the function of creativity which demands a certain amount of risk and slack. The possibility of failure or something going sideways is built into the role. Otherwise the role won’t function to produce the outcomes actually desired. In short, “either stop popping my balloon or stop saying you value creativity.” Not having a value is ok. Being disingenuous about it is not.
Shiny Object Vampires
There’s a secret among creative professionals. We will often get paid A LOT of money to work on projects that never really go anywhere. Why? Because someone with some corporate sway saw something REALLY COOL and suddenly got FOMO. Next thing you know, they’re making sure their own company is “getting in the game.” Creative leaps without infrastructure to support them, however, are often dead on arrival.
This often leaves creative professionals in a precarious situation. Do we accept the work knowing some very important steps haven’t been thought through OR do we risk coming off as vampires, pushing back and thinking bigger? Sometimes the best strategy is to ask ourselves, “Does this gig need to be anything more than a gig? Will it reflect poorly on me if it’s not deployed well?” Sometimes the answer to both these questions is simply “no.” Often, all that’s expected of us is to come in and do our part. Once in a while, however, you may find an opportunity to help Shiny Object Vampires think through the larger journey, benefiting both them and you, especially if you can help them deliver those results.
Viral Vampires
The opposite situation happens when creativity is beholden to a committee with unrealistic expectations. “How does this go VIRAL?” is the kiss of death question these vampires love to bestow. If creativity is locked too tightly into a strategy it can’t move about freely in, it simply becomes “content.” It exists merely as a means to an end. Fresh, bold, paradigm-altering ideas don’t happen because they stuck to a template, they happen because they broke one.
Russian Vampires
One of the most undercover vampires I’ve encountered is the vampire who becomes overly precious, doubling-down on the wrong creative premise. These are people who fall madly in love with an idea without taking the time to decipher if it’s the right idea to begin with. In short, they rush in (get it?). Russian Vampires are the opposite of Balloon Popping Vampires. No matter how strong their work ethic or skill level might be, their impatience and inflexibility get in the way of creating REMARKABLE work in favor of work that’s just OK. I, myself, am a recovering Russian vampire. For me, collaboration, curiosity, and the courage to pivot early on are like the creative equivalents to sunlight, garlic and a crucifix.
Kill the Monster!
Here is the scariest thing about Creativity Vampires: They have a knack for producing Creativity Frankensteins, end results that feel mangled, forced, and stitched together—more like monsters than masterpieces.
We all know creativity vampires. We’ve all been a creativity vampire at one time or another. Perhaps a little easier now to identify (you’re welcome in advance), we can begin to root out their vicious, conniving ways in favor of work that makes a genuine difference (and perhaps avoids a disaster).
Ordinary Meditations
A new Ordinary Meditation is live as of this morning. It’s a reflection on the American Dream and how we might reimagine it in our own lives, especially as we head into this season of Thanksgiving and incarnation of peace. Listen here.
Been there. Done that. Livin’ the Dream! 🤣