To find out more what bravery means to the creative industries, and how it might impact the work we produce, Now Go Create and creative agency Unity conducted research amongst almost 200 UK marketing professionals before we ran our bravery workshop at Cannes Lions last month.

26% of respondents work in design, the same again (25%), were from the PR industry, 12% work in advertising and 15% in marketing teams, with the rest working in digital,

According to our research, 41 per cent of marketers thought that creative bravery was about challenging the status quo, while 36 per cent thought it was about taking risks. A third (32 per cent) said creative bravery constituted not being afraid to fail.

Fear of failure which is suffocating our creative potential. 44% said fear of failure is the number 1 reason to avoid taking a creative risk, followed by fear of looking foolish (33%), and fear of judgement (30%). This could be why only one in five say that they are creatively brave ‘all the time’.

So we set out to understand what constitutes creative bravery, to help people face – and fight – their creative fears.

From facilitating our session these were some key observations that I took out of the session and the comments from our fearless attendees:

1. Face your fears: Everyone has to face their fears at different points in the creative process and it’s important to understand which ones are your specific demons. Don’t let them hold you back
2. One team one dream: Knowing your team has your back counts for a lot, so building relationships is key
3. Build trust with others: Build a ‘reserve’ of trust with key people for when you need it. Don’t just hope it’ll be there at the crunch point – it’s a marathon not a sprint
4. Build trust with yourself: Before you can ask others to trust you, you need to learn to trust yourself
5. Don’t be put off if things don’t go smoothly: Even the most senior and prolific CDs and ECDs from some of the most respected agencies feel their bravery gets eroded. It’s an ongoing exercise in standing up for yourself and your point of view as well having a plan for when things don’t go right.

We undertook a whole range of activities in our 90 minute session, from working out what stops us being creatively brave, to facing some of our fears and trying to switch off our inner critic with improv exercises and collaboration.

Anecdotally people told us: “In a large organization like a Fortune 500 it is often not just about creative courage of an individual/team or agency, but also about leadership courage, trust and empowerment from leaders (those who hold the budget, the reporting line, or those who ultimately need to sign off on a “risky” campaign), including the CEO.”

“It is hard to separate creatively brave from just being brave enough to do something different or that hasn’t been done before. I think that qualifies as creatively brave.”

“I’d like to believe that PR agencies tend to foster more creativity, but there needs to be an atmosphere/work culture that allows employees to make suggestions and mistakes without fear of being reprimanded if the slightest things go wrong. Knowing that you have unconditional support for an idea makes taking the first steps to bringing it to life so much easier.”

“No one ever got anywhere by playing it safe.”

If you want to find out more or have us come to run a creative bravery workshop for your business please contact lucy@nowgocreate.co.uk

The post What does creative bravery really mean? first appeared on Now Go Create.

Forty one per cent said it was about challenging the status quo, while 36 per cent thought it was about taking risks. 32 per cent said creative bravery constituted not being afraid to fail.

However, 44 per cent of respondents cited a fear of failure as the chief reason for not being creatively brave more often.

This was followed by 32 per cent who avoided being creatively brave for fear of looking foolish, and 30 per cent who feared judgement. A further 22 per cent said they were not creatively brave more often for fear of damaging their reputation.

Gerry Hopkinson, co-founder of Unity, said: “Fear is hard-wired into us and has served us well as a species, protecting us from harm, but in the creative industries it’s a killer.

“There’s a difference between being brave and foolish. Bravery is about understanding the risks but having the courage to take them for a greater good. Figuring out how to execute bold ideas is our job and if anything, the future is going to demand more, not less bravery from all of us.”

Asked if they had ever been creatively brave, 77 per cent of survey respondents said they had been, while one in five said they were creatively brave all the time. However, nearly 40 per cent being said they were creatively brave only once in the last 12 months.

Now Go Create founder Claire Bridges said: “Having interviewed creatives at the top of their game, one thing stands out: they take risks, do things differently and challenge the status quo – not for the sake of it but to increase the impact and effectiveness of their communication.”

The workshop, called ‘#lambstolions: The Five Questions Every Creative Leader Needs to Ask’, will explore what it means to be creatively brave, how to overcome fears, strategies for achieving creative bravery, and lessons that can be learned from creative ‘heroes’ such as Elon Musk and Picasso, Unity said.

This article first appeared on PRWeek.co.uk on 20th June 2017

The post Fear is holding the creative industries back first appeared on Now Go Create.