Keep Your Creative Team Inspired

This week, in honor of my husband’s work trip to Nashville, I rewatched the TV series Nashville.

There’s a scene that stayed with me. Two musicians are driving together when one of them suddenly pulls the car over and tells the other to get out and take an hour for himself. No real explanation. The other guy is annoyed at first, confused about why they are stopping when they have somewhere to be.

But eventually he wanders through the trees, lays down in the grass and stares up at the sky for a while. Somewhere in that quiet moment, he reconnects with himself, with what he wants and with the creative energy he had been too overwhelmed to hear.

It made me think about how often creative teams are expected to produce inspired work while running on completely depleted energy. Most days are filled with meetings, notifications, revisions, approvals and production pressure before people even have a chance to think clearly. We spend a lot of time talking about productivity, efficiency and output, but very little time talking about replenishment.

Keith Yamashita often talks about protecting creative energy and asking “beautiful questions.” I have always loved that idea because creativity rarely shows up through force or urgency alone. More often, it emerges through curiosity, reflection and openness.

One of the healthiest practices creative people can build is doing something creative every day before the workday begins. Not for a client, not for social media and not because it needs to become productive. Just something small that reconnects you with your own imagination. Journaling, sketching, photography, writing poetry, collecting imagery, playing music or simply walking outside without your phone all count.

And honestly, try doing it before coffee. Before email. Before Slack. Before the world starts asking things from you.

If you work closely with a creative partner, bring the practice to each other. If you lead a team, think about how moments of inspiration can become part of the culture itself. Maybe it starts with a question during stand-up, a favorite lyric, an image someone discovered, a short walk around the block or even a quiet minute before the meeting begins.

Creative energy is not an unlimited resource. It needs space, attention and care.

And when the work feels especially difficult, stop and ask a beautiful question. Instead of asking how to get something done faster, ask what you are really trying to make someone feel. Instead of asking for the safest answer, ask what might surprise you. Beautiful questions open doors to possibility and invite imagination back into the room.

Sometimes the best thing a creative leader can do is pull the car over for a minute and remind people to look up at the sky.