The real key to creativity
A practical workshop with Mark McGuinness
Introduction
‘Motivation training’ conjures up images of a chest-thumping speaker yelling at an audience to get them fired up, like William Wallace in the famous scene from Braveheart.
Which is all very well if you’re about to charge into battle — but not so good if your success depends on achieving results day-in, day-out, over the long haul.
Whether motivating yourself or a team that you lead, you need to make sure the work is meaningful enough to make it worth putting in the effort. You also need to make sure everyone involved is fairly rewarded, and that they have enough at stake to push through the barriers to success.
And if the work requires creativity as well as effort and persistence, then the type of motivation you rely on becomes absolutely critical.
There is now a large body of research evidence demonstrating some surprising findings about the nature of creative work:
- When people are focused on extrinsic motivations – i.e. rewards and punishments – their creativity suffers.
- But when they are driven by intrinsic motivations – e.g. interest, meaning, purpose, learning, freedom – their creative performance soars.
So if you’re engaged in creative work, you need to be very careful to focus on the right kind of motivation – which is hard when you are under pressure to succeed.
And if you’re the manager or leader of a creative team, you can actually harm their performance by offering rewards! You need to forget the carrot and the stick, and find new ways to inspire them to do their best work.
I’ve created this motivation training workshop to help you with these complex challenges, and harness the four most powerful types of motivation to produce outstanding creative work – in yourself or your team.
There are two versions of the workshop:
- For Creatives – artists, artists, creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, etc.
-
For Leaders – leaders, managers, directors and facilitators of creative teams
The workshop is based on my popular ebook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).
“This was nothing like I expected and much better than I expected. Made me look at how I work and why I work, in a completely different way. Mark has a very laid back style which is great.”
Sarah Turner, turnerink.co.uk
For Creatives
Workshop for Creatives
This version of the motivation training workshop is for creative people of all kinds — artists, creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who takes their creativity seriously.
The writer Isaac Asimov loved his work so much that he couldn’t wait to sit down at his desk in the morning and had to be dragged away from it at night.
What difference would it make to your work — and your career — if you were fired up by that kind of motivation?
Let’s face it, creative work is difficult. It takes a particular kind of persistence to keep chipping away at it day after day, week after week, year after year. Motivation is often the critical factor that separates those who succeed from those who fall by the wayside.
The same applies to your career. Whatever we do for a living, all of us have days where the challenges seem overwhelming and we ask ourselves “Why am I doing this?” — so we’d better have a good answer ready!
And the research on creativity demonstrates that motivation is crucial to performance. Most creatives are motivated by a combination of love of their work and professional ambition — get the mix wrong and you risk blocking your creativity and stalling your career.
This practical motivation training will help you understand the four most powerful types of motivation and use them to achieve creative and commercial success.
It will show you how to:
- Boost your motivation
- Spark your creativity
- Balance your creative and career ambitions
- Influence others
- Stop suffering for your art — start enjoying it!
“I really liked the way you related the issues of the talk with stories which you almost acted out! It was interesting relating problems which you experience yourself to other people who have succeeded – it made it seem more achievable! I really enjoyed it, a really comfortable atmosphere was created and the group seemed to get on well. Thank you!”
Candida Bradley, candipops.com
Topics covered include:
* Why motivation is crucial to creative success
* The four most powerful types of motivation
* What Iggy Pop can teach you about inspiration
* Why focusing on rewards can harm your creativity
* How to write 47 novels before breakfast
* Why some people seem so weird — and how to deal with them
* The positive side of peer pressure
“The distinctions worked well, and gave me a different way of thinking about motivation. The material is interesting and well presented. An enjoyable and worth-while workshop!”
David Stevens, musicforspecialneeds.com
For Leaders
Workshop for Leaders and Managers
This version of the motivation training workshop is for leaders, managers, directors and facilitators of creative teams.
The Bad News
Traditional approaches to management often rely on ‘the carrot and the stick’ — offering rewards for good performance and penalising failure.
But when it comes to innovation, the carrot and stick don’t work.
Creative people have a well-earned reputation for being free spirits who hate being told what to do. So it won’t surprise you to hear that wielding the big stick will result in poorer work.
But did you know that you can do just as much harm with the carrot?
Research into demonstrates conclusively that extrinsic motivators – i.e. punishments and rewards – have a negative impact on creativity.
What really inspires creative people to do their best is intrinsic motivators such as working on interesting projects, having the freedom to do things their way, learning new skills, or having a chance to change the world.
So you can’t make people more creative by giving people orders, showering them with praise or paying them more money. Expecting people to do outstanding and original work ‘because they are paid to do it’ may sound perfectly reasonable — but it doesn’t work.
If your job involves getting top performance out of creative workers, you’re in a paradoxical position: on the one hand, your success depends on getting them fired up to do their best; but on the other, the traditional management ‘levers’ — money, status and privilege — may actually do more harm than good.
The Good News
Because creative people are not motivated primarily by money, it’s possible to get outstanding performance from them without a limitless budget.
And because there are no simple solutions to motivating them, it presents you with a very interesting challenge.
If you like the idea of an interesting challenge, it suggests that you too are a creative person. So the idea of finding imaginative ways to inspire and engage your team will probably appeal to you. That’s what this workshop is all about.
This practical motivation training will help you:
- Get inside the creative mindset
- Understand how motivation affects creativity
- Get better work out of creative people
- Avoid (inadvertently) crushing their motivation
- Use rewards effectively
- Understand and influence many different types of people
- Facilitate collaboration
“If you’re a creative director like me, Mark’s ebook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself) is a must-read.”
Tim Siedell, Fusebox
Topics covered include
* The four most powerful types of motivation
* Why motivation is crucial to creativity
* Why you can’t motivate anybody – but what you can do instead
* What Iggy Pop can teach you about management
* Why offering rewards can harm creative performance
* How to write 47 novels before breakfast
* Why some people seem so weird – and how to deal with them
* The positive side of peer pressure
“Mark’s ebook is the kind of reading that should be required for new supervisors as well as those in the creative professions.”
Steve Roesler, Roesler Consulting Group
How it works
How the motivation training workshop works:
1. Before the workshop
Tell me what you want to learn – I’ll e-mail you some questions about your current challenges and what you want to learn. Based on this feedback, I’ll tailor each workshop to address the challenges that are most relevant to the group.
2. The workshop features:
* Practical skills you can start to use immediately
* Stories and real-life examples
* Activities to help you apply the ideas to your own work
* Questions and discussions – ask me what you want to learn!
* Networking and learning from other interesting creative people
3. After the workshop
You will receive a copy of my ebook How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself) as well as articles and links to help you digest the material and apply it to your work.
About Mark
Mark McGuinness
I’m a poet who earns my living as a coach and trainer for creative professionals.
I’ve been coaching and training creative people for over a decade, and have worked with organisations including the BBC, Channel 4, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, Arts & Business and Cockpit Arts.
I’m the author of a string of successful ebooks, and write two of the most popular creativity blogs in the world: Lateral Action and Wishful Thinking.
“I can’t recommend Mark enough. His seminars are always engaging, useful and relevant. By the end of every session the seminar room is full of motivated and inspired faces. I can’t wait to work with him again!”
Sian James, Project Manager – Create KX
“Mark’s presentation and workshop was illuminating, entertaining and, most importantly, beneficial to my development team.”
Sean Kirkegaard, Development Executive – BBC Children’s Television
“Mark gave some excellent food for thought to the wide range of creative freelancers we work with. The seminar ended with the room buzzing even at 8pm at night after a long day’s work.”
Clare Hudson, Creative Industries Manager – Creative Leicestershire
Book
Book this workshop for your organisation
To enquire about booking the motivation training workshop for your organisation, please contact me using the form below.
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