Care Is Harder Than Chaos
I used to think creativity was about brilliance. Ideas. Sparks. Big visions.
But over time, I learned brilliance means nothing if it isn’t paired with care.
Care is harder than chaos. Care is harder than talent. Care means showing up when you’re tired. Listening when it’s inconvenient. Obsessing over details nobody else notices, not because they’re pretty, but because they matter.
Care isn’t decoration. It’s discipline.
And it’s the one thing that separates work that gets noticed from work that gets remembered.
The Problem: The Absence of Care
We live in a world optimized for speed and output.
Agencies crank work like factories.
Corporates prioritize efficiency over empathy.
Creatives burn out chasing volume instead of depth.
The result? Slick but shallow outputs. Campaigns that look fine but feel empty. Brands that are polished but soulless.
What stats say:
- Edelman’s Trust Barometer reports that 81% of consumers need to trust a brand before buying, but most companies underinvest in authentic care.
- Gallup shows that only 32% of employees feel cared for at work, and disengagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually.
- Harvard Business Review found that leaders rated as “caring” drove higher retention and performance than those rated merely “competent.”
Care is missing. And without care, creativity collapses into noise.
Personal Anecdote: Caring Beyond the Brief
One project that taught me this was with a healthcare client. The brief was technical: slides, compliance, messaging.
Easy to treat it mechanically. But I knew the stakes were human. Behind every regulation was a patient. Behind every slide was a story.
So I cared beyond the brief. I rewrote jargon into human terms. I obsessed over imagery that honored patients’ dignity. I spent hours with the client team, asking questions about their challenges, not just their deliverables.
At the end, a doctor pulled me aside and said: “Thank you. You reminded us this isn’t about compliance. It’s about people.”
That’s the power of care. It doesn’t just improve the work. It changes the way people see the work.
Framework: The Discipline of Care
Caring isn’t random. It’s deliberate. It’s a discipline.
Here’s how I practice it:
Care About People.
Listen deeply. Empathize with clients, teams, audiences.
Care About Process.
Respect the grind. Systems are how care scales.
Care About Craft.
Sweat the details, not for vanity, but for meaning.
Care About Purpose.
Always ask: what impact will this have? Who will it serve?
Care About Yourself.
Burned-out creatives can’t deliver care. Rest is part of discipline.
Care isn’t a mood. It’s a choice you make, over and over again.
ADHD and the Double-Edged Care
For ADHD, care is paradoxical.
On one hand, we care too much. RSD (rejection sensitivity dysphoria) makes us hyper-attuned to feedback. We obsess. We over-deliver. We carry weight others don’t even notice.
On the other hand, our restless energy can look like carelessness. Missed details. Forgotten emails. The very opposite of what we feel inside.
But I’ve learned to channel it. To turn “caring too much” into an advantage. My ADHD makes me sensitive, yes, but also empathetic. It pushes me to design with humanity, not just polish.
The discipline of care isn’t about suppressing that sensitivity. It’s about owning it.
Data: Why Care Wins
The science is clear:
A Wharton study found that employees who believed their leaders cared about them were 55% more engaged and 40% more loyal.
A Journal of Consumer Research study showed that customers respond 2x more positively to brands perceived as empathetic.
Deloitte’s 2022 Human Capital Report concluded that empathy and care are now core competitive advantages in leadership.
Care isn’t soft. Care is strategy.
Personal Shift: From Chaos to Care
Earlier in my career, I thrived in chaos (see Post #11). I loved the dopamine rush of fixing broken decks, salvaging projects, and improvising under fire.
But chaos alone doesn’t build trust. Clients may love the rescue, but they don’t return for firefighting forever.
What keeps them coming back is care. The sense that you’re not just delivering, you’re holding their story with the same weight they feel.
That shift, from chaos alone to chaos plus care, is what made me not just a designer but a leader.
Actionable Takeaways
If you want to practice the discipline of care:
Ask Better Questions.
Not just “what do you need?” but “why does this matter?”
Audit Your Touchpoints.
Does every interaction show care, emails, decks, visuals, meetings?
Balance Craft and Humanity.
Don’t polish for vanity. Polish for meaning.
Show Empathy Explicitly.
Say: “I hear you.” “I get it.” “Here’s how I’ll help.”
Care for Yourself Too.
Boundaries, rest, and saying “no” are part of sustainable care.
Conclusion: Care as the Edge
At the end of the day, creativity without care is hollow. It may win awards, but it won’t win hearts.
The real edge, the one that makes your work undeniable, is care. Care for people. Care for craft. Care for purpose.
Because brilliance fades. Chaos excites. But care endures.
And the discipline of care? That’s what transforms creativity into leadership.
