Making Beautiful Music – How Making It Harder For Your Team Can Unlock Creativity

Comedian James Acaster has a joke where he started in a four-person band, but it didn’t work out so he moved to a three-person band. That also didn’t go as planned so his next musical venture was a two-person band.

This again failed so he ended up going alone and being in a group of one, or more specifically, being a stand-up comedian.

After lots of success in the comedy game, he has voyaged back into the music world where he is creating and producing an album in collaboration with a 40-strong musical collective called Party Gator Purgatory by Temps.

Direction

Acaster wanted to work with many musical acts that he liked and was surprised that they wanted to work with him.

Elated that people said yes to work on his project, Acaster just told them to do what they wanted.

They refused.

They didn’t want to do anything, they wanted direction on what he was looking for.

Constraints

What the artists were asking for is constraints.

Creativity doesn’t come from being able to do anything, it comes from the lack of options. The removal of resources is what enhances creativity.

It is not taking away the box, but being put in a box that helps.

The artists knew it. They knew if they could do anything, they would do nothing, and especially nothing of value.

Acaster was nervous because he felt out of his element and didn’t want to restrict anyone, which created the problem.

Build a Great Box

To learn from Acaster, you want to give clear direction on the place your team can play.

Where are their restrictions, resources, and most importantly, goals for the project.

Then you step back and let them play. If you built a good box you will either get the outcome you wanted, or you will learn from the failure of the process.

Assumptions will be confirmed or proven false. These revelations will help you build a better box, and so the process continues.