Creative Teamwork is Like a Marriage?

Last evening, we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.

By December 17, 1988 it had been over 4 years since we met and we had been working together, almost 7 days a week. That included work on our first book, the related seminar tours and trade shows, and even the opening of a Manhattan studio.

What have we learned? In a word: “teamwork.”

At some point, around 34 years ago, we stopped being 100% our own selves. We had many,  many projects to do, and we tackled them as a team. In retrospect, even our wedding was an event we created together.

The creative process has come a long way, since. There were many players who were part of a project. Each jumped in and out of a project as it evolved. By way of example, if an advertising campaign needed a photograph, a photographer may have shot, on film, that one image without even knowing who the client was, much less how the photo was going to be used.

Creatives were somewhat isolated, then. We were working on team projects, at the time. Many thought that was a crazy idea.

A few years later, Whole Food announced that rather than having traditional managers, they were going have “team leaders.” In all candor, we were not sure that was going to work. Also around then, the Holiday Corporation (a.k.a Holiday Inn) was developing Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, and Homewood Suites (now, all of them are Hilton brands). Rather than the standard hotel jobs, they were going for the team concept, which sought to create total guest experiences. Just like how the Whole Foods innovation has become the way of life at many grocery stores, the hotel team concept is baked into how Hilton and IHG hotels work.

In all honesty, we didn’t set out to bring our marital life into our business life, or vice versa. It just happened.

Somewhere along the way, illustrators began painting in Photoshop. Photographers became retouch artists. Eventually, many of us became integrated players in teams.

Just like a successful marriage needs to be a harmonious team, to be successful in our careers, it’s all about great teamwork. We have learned to inspire others to joyfully come together to do great creative work. How about you? Has successful teamwork become more of an integral part of your creative career?