After experiencing fantastic growth last year, our aim as always is to ensure that we are continuing to offer our clients the best possible service while maintaining the steady growth that’s put us in such a great position for the year ahead.
When we set out our strategy for 2020, Nigel’s bywords for the team were “no complacency, more creativity.”
Complacency can quietly creep into any organization, even those that claim to operate with creativity and innovation at their core. It can be very easy to follow the ‘same old routine’ without putting much thought into the long-term repercussions of such an approach.
Companies can easily become blinded by success and the fancy numbers that follow in its footsteps. In this situation, fresh, new ideas are frequently disregarded because agencies want to play it safe – assuming that clients won’t like something that’s ‘outside the box’. As a result, employees are not encouraged to be creative, instead following a tired formula to create something simple that they know the client will like.
If you are churning out the same thing day after day, it can suppress innovation and creativity. Not being challenged to create your best work can have a detrimental impact on the creativity of an organisation as a whole.
As soon as a company is successful, it is easy to stop fighting for bigger and better things because there can be a belief that it has achieved enough already. Complacency is a side effect of comfort and if people simply comply with the status quo, it can be damaging on future performance and results.
Fear can also be an unwanted side effect of success, causing rigidity and an inability to push boundaries and change or evolve anything that made the business the way it is now – I mean, why fix something that isn’t broken, right? But, the creative industry is constantly changing and businesses need to evolve with it in order to meet client requirements and stay at the forefront of their industry.
“Creativity comes from the ability to see a gap in the market that no one else can and the courage to risk a loss for massive profit”
The same thought process can be applied to popular music. In recent years, people have been wondering if chart music is a form of creative expression or a market commodity. Popular music is said to be a commodity, a means of making money and dominating a market – so it tends to follow the same generic formula to make a profit. Many arguments suggest that anyone can be a star by following this formula and that you don’t need to be creative to be a successful music artist.
Complacency can be a major issue for many companies. It isn’t something that can be fixed immediately but over time if certain measures are taken into account, it can be nullified. It’s worth considering the following to avoid this slippery slope:
- By creating meaning, illustrating the wider purpose of the project and the ‘why’ behind what the team or individuals are doing, excitement and engagement is created for employees involved
- Empower one another – complacency can be the result of a lack of motivation! The key to fighting this is to build a sense of direction for the company and it’s employees – encouraging them to perform to the best of their abilities
- Set new goals! Even after successfully completing one, don’t stop there – aim to motivate and encourage employees to strive for more.
- Create competition to fight complacency by either a healthy competition amongst each other or as a team to surpass goals from previous projects and years
We’re carrying these measures with us throughout 2020 to ensure that Nigel’s vision comes to fruition. I mean, what’s a Creative Agency without its creativity!? And there’s certainly no space in our office for complacency – dirty word!