Kill the creative department? Well…yeah.

It all comes down to fighting a duck the size of a horse.

Early in this talk, we were asked by Michael Lebowitz the CEO of Big Spaceship, to stand up and introduce ourselves to a complete stranger. Then we are asked to solve a problem with them: Would we rather fight a horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses? He lobbed out this odd experiential metaphor to make many points: none of us asked each other what we did for a living, we just dove into solving the problem together. Suddenly teams are now more important than ever. Consider the velocity and complexity of the problems we are called on to solve every day, couple that with how time expectations have contracted. If you think the only way to solve it is the run around and corral the creative department, you need to think again.

Creativity is an obligation, not a vocation. You should harness the diversity of thought, experience and wisdom of everyone in your agency, not just the creatives. Kill the archaic structure of the creative department, not the department itself. Share a problem with the bigger group and the collective knowledge you get in return amps up the game, especially digitally.

Thank you Michael. You’re singing our song.