I don't know how to do everything. Even though I've been doing "this" for nearly 14 years, there's a lot that I still don't know. In fact, with technology improving at an ever-increasing pace and with life demanding more of my time, you could make a case that I will know even less five years from now.
In the Creative field, this means that the era of the generalist is over.
This has actually been true for a long time in creative fields. But with the explosion of affordable hardware and software over the last ten years, it's become impractical that one person can be an expert on many different fields or platforms.
Enter the specialist.
A specialist is a creative expert in their field, someone who practically knows infinitely more than the manager in their particular niche. To excel in the creative world, you have to employ the best specialists you can find. But there is a problem: many creative directors can feel insecure allowing high-capacity experts onto their team. Why is this?
My experience over the years has been that the best creative managers don't function out of ego or insecurity. They are comfortable not having all the answers. They frequently ask a lot of questions, and they regularly lean into their teams. Ultimately they know that if the team wins, everyone wins no matter where the best ideas come from.
Some of the worst manners I've had over the years would start off by saying "I don't really know how to do your job." Then they'd spend the next fifteen minutes telling me how to do my job with solutions that I already knew wouldn't work.
So if you manage people, actively seek people better than you. Constantly ask questions. Let the experts on your team live in their expertise. You'll be surprised what a fully engaged creative team can accomplish.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Summer Music Challenge
Yesterday, the creative team at Calvary Church met with Terry Sanderson to discuss our next series "Magnify." The series starts this weekend. The creative team has spent most of this week working on this eight-week series including striking the previous stage design and working on the implementation of a new one. One of the things that excites me about this upcoming series is that we're relying on music to carry many of these services. For a series that focuses on the character and attributes of God, it just seems to make sense.
A lot of churches put their service programming into auto-pilot for the summer thinking that the numbers will be down, better to pull out all the stops when the Fall season kicks off. We don't believe in that philosophy at all. Just last week we had nearly 2600 people attend our services throughout our campuses. And we had several families try out one of our services for the very first time. I doubt God is packing it in until the Fall. In fact, I believe that God has incredible things planned every weekend where His people gather. What a great opportunity and privilege we have in serving Him!
If you are on one of our worship teams at Calvary Church, I challenge you toward excellence this summer. Our church is relying on us to deliver inspirational, Christ-centered worship. I know, with His help, we will do just that. So what can we do to prepare? Below, I've listed every new worship song and special that is planned through the entire "Magnify" series. I encourage you to start listening to each song even on weeks you're not scheduled. You know how summer scheduling goes, you might just find yourself playing or singing after all! In either case, it would be good for you to familiarize yourself with everything our team is being asked to accomplish. As we get closer to the services, we'll post the charts on Planning Center Online. Don't wait until Wednesday or Thursday to start preparing. Our goal is to cover each of these songs as close to the original as possible.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to drop me a line: alatina@calvaryonline.cc
1) Psalm 13 by Shane & Shane, follows a video of personal testimonies on the Faithfulness of God, June 27
2) Like A Lion by David Crowder, new worship song, July 11
3) Shine by David Crowder, message support, July 18
4) Everything Is Different Now by Stellarkart, message support, July18
5) With Everything by Hillsong, new worship song, July 25
6) The Beauty Of The Cross by Fee, communion song, July 25
7) Show Me Your Glory by Third Day, message support, August 1
8) Micah 6:8 by Charlie Hall, new worship song, August 8
9) Only Hope by Jon Foreman, message support, August 15
10) Faithful Over Us by Casey Darnell, new worship song, August 15
Aaron
A lot of churches put their service programming into auto-pilot for the summer thinking that the numbers will be down, better to pull out all the stops when the Fall season kicks off. We don't believe in that philosophy at all. Just last week we had nearly 2600 people attend our services throughout our campuses. And we had several families try out one of our services for the very first time. I doubt God is packing it in until the Fall. In fact, I believe that God has incredible things planned every weekend where His people gather. What a great opportunity and privilege we have in serving Him!
If you are on one of our worship teams at Calvary Church, I challenge you toward excellence this summer. Our church is relying on us to deliver inspirational, Christ-centered worship. I know, with His help, we will do just that. So what can we do to prepare? Below, I've listed every new worship song and special that is planned through the entire "Magnify" series. I encourage you to start listening to each song even on weeks you're not scheduled. You know how summer scheduling goes, you might just find yourself playing or singing after all! In either case, it would be good for you to familiarize yourself with everything our team is being asked to accomplish. As we get closer to the services, we'll post the charts on Planning Center Online. Don't wait until Wednesday or Thursday to start preparing. Our goal is to cover each of these songs as close to the original as possible.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to drop me a line: alatina@calvaryonline.cc
1) Psalm 13 by Shane & Shane, follows a video of personal testimonies on the Faithfulness of God, June 27
2) Like A Lion by David Crowder, new worship song, July 11
3) Shine by David Crowder, message support, July 18
4) Everything Is Different Now by Stellarkart, message support, July18
5) With Everything by Hillsong, new worship song, July 25
6) The Beauty Of The Cross by Fee, communion song, July 25
7) Show Me Your Glory by Third Day, message support, August 1
8) Micah 6:8 by Charlie Hall, new worship song, August 8
9) Only Hope by Jon Foreman, message support, August 15
10) Faithful Over Us by Casey Darnell, new worship song, August 15
Aaron
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Pixar Excellence
To celebrate the Oscars picked up by the latest Pixar movie, "Up" Sunday night, I sat down and watched the movie for the second time tonight. Throughout the film, I was moved by so many things that I'd waste time listing them all. Once again, Pixar struck movie gold and took me on a ride that few stories have in a long time. The Academy agreed, nominating "Up" for Best Motion Picture (in addition to Best Animated Film)-an honor given to only one other animated film ever, Beauty and the Beast.
I've been thinking a lot about brand for the past few weeks. Tonight I began to think quite a bit about the brand of Pixar. Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. 15 years, 22 Academy Awards, 6 Golden Globes and 3 Grammys. There's a certain level of expectation that I feel when I see Luxo Jr. jumping on top of the modest "PIXAR" logo and replacing the "I". No matter what the story, I know that I'm in for one of the best movies of the year--each and every year. I have never been disappointed.
That, plain and simple, is brand. A lot of people think that branding is the act of creating a cool logo and sticking on everything that goes out of the office. A consistent look to everything and everyone else will know who you are and what you stand for. But I believe that branding is so much more than that.
Every person has a brand, every department, every organization. When people think of you, what comes to their mind? Dependable or erratic? Hard-worker or lazy? Collaborator or lone ranger? Excellent or inferior? Every day, with every decision you make, with every discussion you have, with every product you produce, you are building your personal brand--one that will stick whether you like it or not. If you're building a good brand, there are likely good opportunities on the horizon. Build a bad brand and it's difficult to overcome. That's why companies often find the need to "re-brand" because their current brand isn't working like it used to. But how do you re-brand yourself? Most people move to get a "fresh start" assuming that their environment was the problem. Unfortunately, after a while they learn that they carried themselves with them.
There are so many different options available to us these days that we don't get very many opportunities to build or destroy our brand. I will not buy another Dell because I've had such a terrible experience with my laptop even though I've only used one in my life. I will never shop at a certain online music store again because the only representative I ever talked to on the phone gave me the run-around to preserve a sale. But, I will spend good money to take my family to see a movie that I've never seen before simply because of one word-- PIXAR.
Aaron
I've been thinking a lot about brand for the past few weeks. Tonight I began to think quite a bit about the brand of Pixar. Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. 15 years, 22 Academy Awards, 6 Golden Globes and 3 Grammys. There's a certain level of expectation that I feel when I see Luxo Jr. jumping on top of the modest "PIXAR" logo and replacing the "I". No matter what the story, I know that I'm in for one of the best movies of the year--each and every year. I have never been disappointed.
That, plain and simple, is brand. A lot of people think that branding is the act of creating a cool logo and sticking on everything that goes out of the office. A consistent look to everything and everyone else will know who you are and what you stand for. But I believe that branding is so much more than that.
Every person has a brand, every department, every organization. When people think of you, what comes to their mind? Dependable or erratic? Hard-worker or lazy? Collaborator or lone ranger? Excellent or inferior? Every day, with every decision you make, with every discussion you have, with every product you produce, you are building your personal brand--one that will stick whether you like it or not. If you're building a good brand, there are likely good opportunities on the horizon. Build a bad brand and it's difficult to overcome. That's why companies often find the need to "re-brand" because their current brand isn't working like it used to. But how do you re-brand yourself? Most people move to get a "fresh start" assuming that their environment was the problem. Unfortunately, after a while they learn that they carried themselves with them.
There are so many different options available to us these days that we don't get very many opportunities to build or destroy our brand. I will not buy another Dell because I've had such a terrible experience with my laptop even though I've only used one in my life. I will never shop at a certain online music store again because the only representative I ever talked to on the phone gave me the run-around to preserve a sale. But, I will spend good money to take my family to see a movie that I've never seen before simply because of one word-- PIXAR.
Aaron
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Creativity Quirks
I have a weird habit. In fact, I don't even remember how it got started. But if you're like me where you have to be creative on a deadline, you can't sit around and wait to feel creative.
Coming out of college, it was one of those ideas that no one ever really prepared me for. But for my first job I realized early on that I had to be creative whether I felt like it or not. People were depending on me to get the job done, and I couldn't sit around and wait for that amazing idea to jump into my brain.
So what do you do if you can't think of anything to write? You start writing. Then you write some more. And in that process of writing, good ideas begin to emerge. Not every single time. But consider throw-away ideas the process of your brain making room for better ones.
But what happens when I get writer's block? My weird habit emerged somewhere along the way. I get up out of my chair and walk around. No particular direction or plan. I just get up, grab a drink, walk a hallway. Walk it again. Talk to a friend. I don't usually move on to a new project because I'm not really stopping. I think my brain just needs to fill up again. The distraction works. I sit back down after a couple of minutes and start writing again.
It's not even a conscious thing for me anymore. You can probably tell how much trouble I'm having with a project by how many times I get up and walk around. Weird? Maybe. Does it work for me? Definitely.
Have any creativity quirks you'd like to share?
No one will think you're weird. Promise.
Aaron
Coming out of college, it was one of those ideas that no one ever really prepared me for. But for my first job I realized early on that I had to be creative whether I felt like it or not. People were depending on me to get the job done, and I couldn't sit around and wait for that amazing idea to jump into my brain.
So what do you do if you can't think of anything to write? You start writing. Then you write some more. And in that process of writing, good ideas begin to emerge. Not every single time. But consider throw-away ideas the process of your brain making room for better ones.
But what happens when I get writer's block? My weird habit emerged somewhere along the way. I get up out of my chair and walk around. No particular direction or plan. I just get up, grab a drink, walk a hallway. Walk it again. Talk to a friend. I don't usually move on to a new project because I'm not really stopping. I think my brain just needs to fill up again. The distraction works. I sit back down after a couple of minutes and start writing again.
It's not even a conscious thing for me anymore. You can probably tell how much trouble I'm having with a project by how many times I get up and walk around. Weird? Maybe. Does it work for me? Definitely.
Have any creativity quirks you'd like to share?
No one will think you're weird. Promise.
Aaron
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
10 Minutes of Excellence
What is excellence? It's been a hot word in creative circles for a long time. Many creators and producers quip that excellence is a personal core value. But what is excellence? Is it a word, like "awesome" that has been overused to such a degree that it has lost its meaning?
Dictionary.com defines excellence: "to surpass others or be superior in some respect or area; do extremely well" That doesn't really help me that much.
In creative circles, I don't completely agree with the concept that to be excellent means that you must be superior in some respect or area. That means that nothing that comes in second can, by definition, be excellent. Are the actors nominated for Oscars all excellent, or just the person who wins. Does my 11 year-old daughter have to be superior to all the other 1st-year violists to be excellent at her skill level and experience?
Instead of defining excellence in terms of how you compare with everyone else in the world, I believe that we should define excellence in a much more personal way. There are, in fact, degrees, of excellence. What rises to the level of excellence for me now is much higher than 5, 10, 15 years ago. Excellence is much more of a personal journey than it is a competition.
This post is called "10 Minutes of Excellence" because I am in the middle of a 10-minute project. We were three days away from our first rehearsal. Debbie Durso, our drama productions director and I had a discussion about this project. In the end, we both agreed that we should go back to the drawing board and have a scratch track recording ready for rehearsal. Now, in all honesty, our original concept was fine; it was good enough; no one in the seats would have known the difference. But I knew in my heart that it would not be excellent.
I spent the whole evening rearranging songs and rewriting lyrics. The next morning, I showed it to Debbie and we decided on a few edits. Then, I spent some hours recording a 10-minute rehearsal track in time for rehearsal. We made the deadline, but my work had just begun. The piano track would only cover for rehearsals, I had to go back to he beginning and produce a final orchestrated track for the performances. Again, I could technically throw something together and get close enough. How many people would truly know the difference?
Producing this performance track is time consuming. I estimate that it takes me about 2-3 hours for every 30 seconds of finished music. As I write this, I'm at time stamp 5:05 in the project. Why work this hard? One word: excellence.
Aaron
Dictionary.com defines excellence: "to surpass others or be superior in some respect or area; do extremely well" That doesn't really help me that much.
In creative circles, I don't completely agree with the concept that to be excellent means that you must be superior in some respect or area. That means that nothing that comes in second can, by definition, be excellent. Are the actors nominated for Oscars all excellent, or just the person who wins. Does my 11 year-old daughter have to be superior to all the other 1st-year violists to be excellent at her skill level and experience?
Instead of defining excellence in terms of how you compare with everyone else in the world, I believe that we should define excellence in a much more personal way. There are, in fact, degrees, of excellence. What rises to the level of excellence for me now is much higher than 5, 10, 15 years ago. Excellence is much more of a personal journey than it is a competition.
This post is called "10 Minutes of Excellence" because I am in the middle of a 10-minute project. We were three days away from our first rehearsal. Debbie Durso, our drama productions director and I had a discussion about this project. In the end, we both agreed that we should go back to the drawing board and have a scratch track recording ready for rehearsal. Now, in all honesty, our original concept was fine; it was good enough; no one in the seats would have known the difference. But I knew in my heart that it would not be excellent.
I spent the whole evening rearranging songs and rewriting lyrics. The next morning, I showed it to Debbie and we decided on a few edits. Then, I spent some hours recording a 10-minute rehearsal track in time for rehearsal. We made the deadline, but my work had just begun. The piano track would only cover for rehearsals, I had to go back to he beginning and produce a final orchestrated track for the performances. Again, I could technically throw something together and get close enough. How many people would truly know the difference?
Producing this performance track is time consuming. I estimate that it takes me about 2-3 hours for every 30 seconds of finished music. As I write this, I'm at time stamp 5:05 in the project. Why work this hard? One word: excellence.
Aaron
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
First Idea?
Last week, the Creative Team at Calvary Church set out to brainstorm our next series: Fixable. After hitting a home-run on a relatively easy series title (Behind Enemy Lies), I knew that we'd have to struggle through a set of topics that were quite a bit more vague.
The morning before brainstorming, I kept thinking to myself, "Don't settle for the first idea."
Usually there's nothing "wrong" with your first idea. But we've been taught all our lives as school children that you should always go with your gut instinct on a test; don't over-think yourself out of a right answer.
But successful creators are successful because they force themselves to exercise their creative muscles--to push themselves through and explore many different paths.
So what happened at our meeting? Our first idea was a close adaptation of something we had done before. We knew how to do it. It would "work". So we forced ourselves to brainstorm an entirely different idea from scratch. Then a third. Then even a forth emerged. We brainstormed for two hours, but it was clear to me that our team wasn't really sold on any stage design and didn't fall in love with any of the three logos. We could push for consensus, and leave the room with the box checked.
But we decided to sit on it for a week. In my mind, it was better to find the best answer than settle for a quick one.
Later that week, several guys from the team drew on my board a completely new idea (#5). It was elegant, symbolic and could stand on its own for ten weeks. It was passed around the team. Today the entire creative team approved the design.
Don't ever take your first idea first. Force yourself to brainstorm others--not adaptations of the original. Explore several different paths. In the end, you may select your first idea. But you'll never know if it was the best idea if you have nothing to compare it to.
A
The morning before brainstorming, I kept thinking to myself, "Don't settle for the first idea."
Usually there's nothing "wrong" with your first idea. But we've been taught all our lives as school children that you should always go with your gut instinct on a test; don't over-think yourself out of a right answer.
But successful creators are successful because they force themselves to exercise their creative muscles--to push themselves through and explore many different paths.
So what happened at our meeting? Our first idea was a close adaptation of something we had done before. We knew how to do it. It would "work". So we forced ourselves to brainstorm an entirely different idea from scratch. Then a third. Then even a forth emerged. We brainstormed for two hours, but it was clear to me that our team wasn't really sold on any stage design and didn't fall in love with any of the three logos. We could push for consensus, and leave the room with the box checked.
But we decided to sit on it for a week. In my mind, it was better to find the best answer than settle for a quick one.
Later that week, several guys from the team drew on my board a completely new idea (#5). It was elegant, symbolic and could stand on its own for ten weeks. It was passed around the team. Today the entire creative team approved the design.
Don't ever take your first idea first. Force yourself to brainstorm others--not adaptations of the original. Explore several different paths. In the end, you may select your first idea. But you'll never know if it was the best idea if you have nothing to compare it to.
A
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