What are you convictions?
An interesting article has emerged via CNN about the necessity of
conviction in the creative process. Creativity without conviction
rarely is successful. As a creative class, we are full of ideas and
wonder. We love the challenge of creating. But, how much conviction do
we feel about seeing our ideas come to life? Is the problem in our
organization a lack of ideas or a lack of people willing to make their
ideas reality?
The Harvard Business School recently performed a study of 238
executives that uncovered what most creative people have known for a
long time – projects without passion rarely produce our best work. We
love projects that make progress towards meaningful. These type of
projects make us get up and come to work excited. As creative
professionals, we should always be looking to connect through our work
with this concept. People who do not find this type of connection to
their work will never have the conviction necessary to see their ideas
succeed.
We want to share their vision for our ideas, not just produce from a
checklist. We all desire to be involved in something bigger than
ourselves. We desire to work on stuff that matters and to work inside
of a system that celebrates our diversity, rather than penalize us for
being unique. These are the type of scenarios that breed environments
where creative people passionately can have conviction about their
work.
Without conviction our ideas…our creativity…never will force
change or development. Conviction powers ideas to execution. We have
all gone through seasons where the pressure and pace of our lives,
jobs, and responsibilities have sucked some of the conviction out of
our effort. Fear also attempts to prey on our conviction. What if it
does not work? What if we make a mistake? What if our plan fails and
costs us time and momentum? All of these fears could come to fruition.
But, what if our idea is the next game changer? What if we change
church culture with our next idea? What if having the courage and
conviction to fight for our creative idea is just what our
organization needs to go to the next level? When we have conviction
behind a great idea, there is only one rule that matters – don’t
abandon it.
Unfortunately, we sometimes end up in situations where the conviction
we once felt for what we do and what we create has left us. When we
realize we are in this space, we need to be willing to do the
necessary and difficult task of either refueling our convictions or
moving on. We will never succeed if we’re unable to pair conviction
with our ideas. There are just too many ideas fighting for a small
window of space, time, and resources. Conviction is mandatory for our
most important ideas.
