Speaking at this year's FUSE Brand Identity Conference, Cheryl Swanson (founder of 'brand strategy firm' Toniq) had this to say about creativity and the pressure for speed:
"Creativity tends to be flattened when we are harried, when we need to boil it down fast, get it done, get it good enough, and then move on to the next crisis, to the next item on the agenda, to the next project that must be completed in typical, under-budgeted, under-resourced, under time-lined fashion. This puts powerful pressures on us to deliver without going out on a limb, without tapping the true wellsprings of our creativity, doing just enough to get by. In fairness, speed ultimately disconnects us from the passions that fuel our creativity. One might call it 'succeeding by not screwing up too badly.'"
Of course, even Michelangelo had the Pope rushing him--but sometimes we need to resist the pressure to do it fast and take the time to get out of the usual channels of thinking and creating.
