Comments on: Why Coaching Matters to Creative Companies

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:20:50 +0000

Eamon - my experience is that it really depends on the individual creative company. Some places are quite happy to use the ‘coaching’ word, others get quite uncomfortable with it so I sweep it under the carpet

I can see quirky job titles working for some people but I’ve not thought of anything that works for me. Actually, ‘poet’ is quirky enough for some people. Sometimes it feels like introducing yourself as a Stegosaurus.

By the time I’m talking to people about working together, we don’t really bother about the labels, it’s much more interesting to talk about ideas and actions.

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:10:59 +0000

Hi Will, thanks for stopping by and sharing your informed perspective. You’re absolutely right of course - it’s virtually impossible to put an objective value on a concept like creative capital.

I do think Howkins has a point, in that there’s definitely ’something’ of value in the collective imagination of a company, but it’s the same problem as valuating any complex intangible quality - such as brand, intellectual property, reputation, tacit knowledge - the value is too context-dependent and volatile to fit easily on a balance sheet.

One of my current projects addresses this issue in relation to a different kind of complex intervention - I’ll be blogging about it here (and elsewhere) before long…

By: Will

Will — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:34:20 +0000

Hi Mark. Great article on coaching. With respect to your citing Howkins concept of “Creative Capital”, therein lies the difficulty of properly valuating it. As an accounting student, the concept of properly valuating human resources (or creative capital) has been rammed down our throats since day one.

It’s one of the issues that has been widely debated amongst the Accounting Professionals’ community. How you can accurately valuate what’s “inside the minds” of your creative workforce is a conundrum in itself.

Will’s last blog post..Fitness Update #2 - Don’t wish me to “break a leg”

By: Eamon

Eamon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:20:55 +0000

Hi Mark. How about a job title such as ‘Creative Untapper’, or no job title, or a quirky title, or a title that gets them to thinking creatively before you introduce yourself, that sort of thing. Of course, ‘coach’ works perfectly, as i said before, for the IBMs of this world (especially for people in marketing and business management). And, it might be fine for a lot of creative organizations, too, but not, i think, for some, such as the Saatchi and Saatchis and so on.

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:06:06 +0000

Hi Eamon, thanks for your comments. My experience certainly fits your statement that we need to be wary of using the word ‘coaching’ with creative people. They often view it with suspicion as they associate it with corporate management-speak.

On the one hand, I could respond that I have coached people at Channel 4 and creative agencies - but on the other, I know exactly what you mean by having to change the language/style in approaching them. This blog is part of my attempt to present the ideas and techniques of coaching to a creative industries audience in an appropriate (i.e. non-corporate) style. I’ve toyed with the idea of using another word to describe it but haven’t so far come up with an alternative that doesn’t have some kind of baggage.

I go into these issues in more detail in my forthcoming research paper about coaching in the creative industries - I’ll let you know when I publish it on this blog.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:14:01 +0000

PS I am not saying you can’t offer services to the sort of organizations I have mentioned (I certainly think you can) but I just think you have to slightly change the language / style in approaching them (compared to the IBMs / HPs etc ..). I think (might well be wrong ..).

By: Eamon

Eamon — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:11:40 +0000

I think this is a spot on article. However, I would be wary of using the word ‘coaching’ perhaps with creative people in advertising and media. You can coach business managers in large corporations such as IBM or HP but I am not sure you can ‘coach’ advertising account planners or advertising copywriters and so on in agencies such as Saatchi and Saatchi or TWBA or ‘coach’ TV producers / writers / directors in companies such as Channel 4 / Talk Back and so on.

Eamon’s last blog post..Recession and Job Prospects for Graduates

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:29:15 +0000

Thanks Andre, and a very interesting point about the added value created by a coach. As I’m a coach, people expect me to say that kind of thing, so it’s good to hear an independent voice speaking up for us!

Could you say a little more about how you structure sessions with and without a coach?

By: Time Management for Creative People: The Growing Life E-Book Review | The Growing Life

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:26:05 +0000

[...] Mark McGuiness begins his free e-book, Time Management for Creative People with a stereotypical "day-in-the-life" depiction of a designer trying to work on a creative project but facing disorganization in all of its facets: distracting emails, interrupting phone calls and important files lost on a messy desk. One might argue that this is a stereotype — that most creatives can handle a bit of basic organization, but there is a grain of truth in there somewhere. There are plenty of creative professionals who could do with some organization. [...]

By: Andre Laurin

Andre Laurin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:44:57 +0000

Great article Mark - we are in the Idea & Innovation space - we implement Innovation processes and technology for mostly Global 1000 companies. In every instance where a Coach profile is used as facilitator, the incidents of idea approval outpace those of ideas without a Coach by a margin of 2-1 and the dollar values implemented by a whopping by 46%. Yet getting the client to beleive in the value that a Coach brings to the process is always a hard sell - and we don’t even generate revenue from the recommendation - we just recommed the approach knowing that it’ll make the client’s process that much more successful.