More impact in less hours: creativity, constraint, and surprise
In my last post, I showed why I’m all about concise. Indeed, concise is one of four values that guide my company.
The other three you ask?
I’ve decided to share them with you over a series of occasional posts, so you see:
- how a core value can guide a company seamlessly, inside and out—from engagements with clients to operations within a team, and
- why it’s important to be specific and unapologetic in defining exactly how a value is given life in your personal and professional work.
Take for example, creativity—a second of my core values, and the topic of today’s post.
Alone, the word creativity is too vague or soft an idea to rally around.
After all, how many folks or companies would line up against creativity?
That doesn’t mean giving up on the idea—as creativity goes to the core of who I am, my education + training, professional success, and what I believe about how we make meaning and impact.
Rather, it’s owning it, defining the value in a way that's specific and unapologetic.
For translating a value into a guiding principle (or value-in-action), I love the simplicity of Tara Gentile’s approach:
“We will…..”
“We won’t….."
At Stacy Communications, it goes like this:
Creativity.
We will promote processes that let clients + our team surprise themselves. We make time for inspiration, and ask our clients to do the same. We love how constraint can spark, rather than hinder, creativity and possibility.
We won’t abide by false limits, challenging the assumptions on which the limits are based.
Advocating for surprise, dedicated inspiration time (clients included), and achieving more with less creates something specific and memorable in the market. It allows me to differentiate.
And it works because it's true to me, and the vision I hold for my clients.
I help professional health experts + practitioners create more impact for their right clients and themselves, in less hours.
I’m looking to show my clients how there’s more choice and creativity available in a situation than first imagined. And the opportunity for creativity is often hiding in plain sight. This value-in-action of creativity is one way Stacy Communications sustains healers at the height of their expertise, so they can increase their effectively hourly rate and avoid burnout. As health is integral to our common-wealth, this matters to us all.
This principle (or value-in-action) also guides the day-to-day, back-of-the-shop. I’ve gotten ruthless in filtering ideas, or opportunities and requests that arrive in my inbox through this lens.
Is it something that will allow me and my team to surprise ourselves? If so, it’s a yes. Is it a genuine, productive constraint? Then it’s also a yes. If it’s a request that puts a false limit on a project or idea in formation, then no.
This is how you bring the strategic into the everyday.
And it's liberating! Because you can make a decision almost effortlessly, and line up behind it.
Your turn:
Pick a core value you have.
How can you turn your value into a stance? One that is specific and unapologetic.
To our shared creativity and impact.