The ICE Flow: Creating a Process Which Encourages Creativity and Excellence
Plus a case study with Reuben Morgan & his incredible songs
( PSST… We are going to reference some tools in this article that will help make your team better! All of these tools and diagrams are available for PDF download at the bottom of the article. Happy reading! )
When we were first married, Cass and I didn’t have a lot of furniture. There was the old green sofa that Cass’s family kindly donated to us. And someone gave us an old black-and-white TV that mysteriously turned color one day… That was a good day!
We had very few things that we actually bought ourselves. We were just young, we didn’t have much money, and we were okay with that. And as with many other young, married couples, we purchased a few things from IKEA.
The infamous flatpack.
Some people love them, and other people hate them. And the instructions that come with them are self-explanatory to some people and may as well be in a foreign language for others. I’ve heard countless stories of husbands and wives having trouble assembling IKEA furniture together. It’s a cliche of modern preaching.
But personally, I like the process of putting IKEA furniture together. I like following the instructions. I like finding all the pieces and seeing them all come together step by step. But I realize other people don’t enjoy it. They would rather not use the instructions, don’t follow the steps, and find the whole thing frustrating.
We’re all different and uniquely created, which is a very good thing.
If you are following along with the Academy, you have probably read our article ‘The Creative Process: Why We Need It and Where to Start’ (if not, you so should!!).
To be honest with you all, that is one article I second-guessed even posting. I worried that the thought of “systematizing” creativity may be off-putting for you all.
This self-doubt probably started because I’m the type of person who likes to follow the instructions in IKEA furniture, and knowing full well that others don’t (even some people I share my desk with **cough-cass-cough**). In fact, I’m painfully aware that for some people, the idea of creating a formula or a process for creating things is “anti-art” or even “anti-Holy Spirit.” They, or perhaps you, prefer to go with the flow and see what happens.
We all see the world through our own eyes and
think the way we see it is the right way to see it.
We’re all unique and have “a way” of going about the things we do. The reality is you can’t help the way you go about things, and neither can I.
For me, it’s easy to embrace systems and processes and to see how they help get things done and create a predictable outcome. The downside is I sometimes find it more difficult to embrace “going with the flow.”
However, when Cass first read my ‘The Creative Process: Why We Need It and Where to Start’ article, she was basically in the fetal position in the corner. She felt I was risking dumbing down creativity into a four-step machine. Or worse, encouraging people to churn out art, following a process, leaving no room for genuine creativity.
I know I can be too rigid, but on the other hand, Cass can be too fluid. So how do we work together? We can find the perfect blend at the intersection of our strengths. Where my strengths end, and hers begin, and where hers end and mine begin, that’s where the magic happens.
I understand that figurative unicorns exist, but an individual rarely has a complete set of skills and talents that an idea needs. Therefore…
We need each other!
It wasn’t easy when Cass and I started working together, overseeing a creative department. Although our hearts were right, we struggled to embrace each other’s creative process. I was frustrated by the meandering and inefficiency, and Cass was frustrated by the rigidity and what felt like squeezing the life out of her creativity.
Ultimately, we found a way forward by allowing each other to play to our strengths. For example, I tried to change my language and approach to getting things done. Cass agreed that a framework for managing all of the outcomes we had on our plate would be helpful, especially for the people we led and who were often impacted by her lack of process and desire to wait for the right ideas to “drop.”
Cass and I didn’t formalize everything, but we did put some guardrails around our creativity to keep us on the road, heading towards our goals and agreed outcomes.
