Constraints Can Unleash Your Best Creative Powers

How many times have you heard someone say: “If only we had the freedom to do it the way we want to, without worrying about ____  (here you can fill in the blank with “time,” “budget,” “compliance,” “upper management,” “government regulation,” and so on)?

But the truth is that more often the pressure of having to work within constraints is what makes it good.

Take the example of the show Arrested Development, which debuted in 2003 as a weekly half-hour series on Fox. It ran for 3 seasons and then, despite 6 Emmys and a Golden Globe Award, was canceled in 2006. In 2013, responding to demand from a huge cult following and encouraged by considerable critical acclaim in the aftermath of its first run, the creators brought back the original cast for more shows, this time on Netflix.

At first blush, you’d think the new format, with no time limits or commercial breaks, would enable the creators, writers and actors to be free to make the show even better.

But that’s not what happened. Here’s a review from the Daily Beast that explains the negative impact of the newfound “freedom” on the creative process:

“The Fox show had to clock in at 22 minutes or thereabouts because of ad breaks, but with no commercials on Netflix, the show isn’t organized around act breaks or indeed acts. Without this necessary structure, these episodes drag on, sometimes running at 35 minutes long. Which would be fine, if they were brimming with humor, but these episodes often felt plodding and rudderless, in need of significantly tighter editing.

The original Arrested Development had to be inventive in order to get past network censors, wary advertisers, and indeed the format of a half-hour broadcast network comedy. But without those limitations, it feels like Season 4 has run amok, with Hurwitz being able to put seemingly everything on the page into each episode. There’s power to be found in having to choose.”

Make no mistake: This show is quite good in all of its incarnations. But some time when you have a couple of hours, go back and watch some of the originals and compare them for sharpness, timing and pure laugh-value with the Netflix ones.

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USE IT TODAY: Look at some recently-completed projects in your workplace. Compare the situations where there was intense pressure created by time, budget or compliance. Assess the effect of those constraints on creativity.

What constraints are you facing right now? Take a look at this article that gives some examples of how to use them in a positive way to move your project forward.