The Myth of the Creative Rockstar and What Having an A-Team Does to Your B-Team

Of course, much has been written about commercial creativity by those who know—the ones who have first-hand experience. From Rory Sutherland’s brilliant book Alchemy to Dave Birss’ many books and workshops about how creativity works, there are practitioners sensibly spelling out what makes wonderful creative work—and most importantly that there is a process you follow to get the good stuff. It’s not about a singular godlike figure from whom brilliant ideas burst forth fully-formed in some mysterious and magical way.

So what is creativity? It’s messy. It’s playful and experimental and it often doesn’t make sense until it does, beautifully, somewhere down the line. And most importantly it’s collaborative: award-winning work comes from great teams in agencies working with great clients who build a sense of shared psychological safety (or as David Droga would say “a safe place for dangerous ideas”).

And these teams are all willing to explore a whole load of “not-right” and discard a load of “right-but-dull” ideas to get to the one that ultimately makes it through, because the really great ideas don’t sell themselves at all—they feel uncomfortable. It’s only through partnership, a willingness to be absolutely honest without consequences and loads of positive energy and tenacity that a star idea is born.

It’s like fielding a brilliant striker (or 11 strikers) but forgetting you also need a goalkeeper.

Laura Jordan Bambach, president of Grey

We all know this to be true. And yet the industry seems hell-bent on destroying the proven and enjoyable method of getting to great ideas by playing up to the myth of the creative genius. One who needs no team around them, who can pull a firecracker idea out of a “meh” brief with “meh” insight, who can interpret feedback like a philosopher regardless of the account or PM crew around them and land that Gold Lion for any client without any kind of shared ambition or relationship. On any budget, with any producer.

This myth is not only a pipe dream but makes for a really unenjoyable experience and huge amounts of undue pressure on the creative people doing their best to make the best work. And it results in bad work that is not set up for success. To use a soccer analogy, it’s like fielding a brilliant striker (or 11 strikers) but forgetting you also need a goalkeeper—then expecting to win the league.

Consequences of the myth

So many creative people are being put in this situation more and more often. And that pressure (fear of having to get it right the first time and shouldering all the responsibility in the agency or clients’ eyes) leads to average work. Strategically right, but creatively starved. Not wrong, but certainly not right.

If you’re leading an agency, everyone in the business should be on your A-Team. Like any decent sports manager, you’re putting the right people in the right positions for the right games.

You understand that some players might be injured or not performing to their best ability and that there are magical partnerships between others that you need to grow. And you certainly make sure that your “creative superstars” are balanced with the energy and lateral thinking of younger teams who you’re also investing in to develop into the strikers of the future.

And if you’re leading a brand, don’t ask for a creative guru to lead your business. Ask to know the people who really do the work; you’d be surprised by the “unknown” talent that helps your brand to be successful.

Adweek’s Creative 100: The Most Inspiring Talents of 2021