Are Creative People Still Crazy?

"Do the creatives in an organization need special handling? In a word, yes."
--Jack and Suzy Welch

While watching the TV show Mad Men I was reminded how most of advertising’s top creative people used to bill their time. They didn’t. Creative made money for the agency by driving media placements — for which agencies collected a standard 15%. This avoided a lot of subjective back and forth about how much great ideas were worth — or even whether an idea was worth anything at all. Presumably, if an idea were killer, it would pull. And if it pulled, it would then be in the natural self-interest of the client to see that idea executed as broadly as possible — hence more media buys, and more money for the agency.

And generally this method of compensation worked well for everyone involved. It also saved a lot of time and prevented a lot of tension. Sure, agencies and clients might argue about whether a particular idea was worthy. And ultimately most campaigns probably performed better or worse then the agency or client expected. But over time subjective differences canceled out and creative got what it deserved.

Hence, the term “mad men.” Crazy behavior — as viewed by others — could be tolerated (even encouraged) in an era when “square” behavior ruled. It was accepted that squares could not produce great creative or the great profits that came from it. And since clients weren’t billed for it, no one cared how these nonconformists spent their time.

So what about today — when creative output is sold by the project if not by the hour? Do creative people still have to be crazy to be successful? Is that even permitted?

Human personality types don’t evolve over a half-century — even if technology, business models and societal norms do. And business still needs creative personalities. In fact it needs them more than ever in this era of mass commoditization of both content and product. Genuine creativity — by definition — can’t be commoditized.

So what do we do with these people? With so much of the rest of humanity no longer so square, even the most creative types among us tend to blend in. But that doesn’t mean they’re like everyone else — which is why efforts to commoditize them along with the rest of the workforce always fail. So don’t try. Just give them a good reason to help you stand out even more from the crowd.

As Jack and Suzy Welch wrote last September, creative people are different and should be treated that way — not because they’re different, but because it works.