Management of Extreme Situations

22The Routines of Creation: From Artistic Direction to Collective Exploration

22.1. Introduction

What funny species creators are! They spend their time distinguishing themselves, inventing a personalized universe conducive to imagination and creation, but now they have nothing better to do than to work together to create. The inevitable collaboration and the necessary confrontation with the other imply a form of organization of creation, which, at times, can lead the creator to shout aloud: “Hell is other people”. Despite this, it is impossible to avoid it because without others, there can be no singularity and without collaboration, creation remains an impossible activity (Becker 1982).

Even if it means collaborating and facing the difficulties that this implies, it is better to organize the modalities to facilitate the coordination of these activities. This reflection is particularly relevant in the creative industries (publishing, fashion, cinema, architecture, design, etc.) whose main resource is the talent that needs to be managed. Management, defined as “the practice of organizing everyone’s collaboration with everyone and the well-being of the community” (Déry 2007, p. 76), thus appears as the discipline that supports this reflection on the problems posed by collective creation.

Therefore, this observation allows us to look at creative enterprises and to explore the interactions between creative individuals and organizations. While at first glance “routine creation” ...