Stop Renting Your Creative Process

19 snips

Jan 20, 2026

Greg Hawks, an author and speaker on workplace ownership, shares insights from his book, *Act Like an Owner*. He explores the nuanced differences between 'owners', 'renters', and 'vandals' in organizations. Hawks discusses the dangers of offloading creative processes to technology and how that can dilute our unique voice. He highlights the importance of emotional logic in decision-making and offers strategies to cultivate a more engaged and accountable work environment. Reducing toxic behaviors is critical to enable all team members to reclaim their ownership.

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INSIGHT

Emotional Logic Defines Creative Voice

Offloading thinking to AI risks silencing your emotional logic and unique voice.
Todd Henry warns this makes you a curator of machine output instead of a creator with judgment.

ANECDOTE

Designer Stopped Starting From Scratch

A designer told Todd she hadn't opened a blank canvas in months and started from AI mock-ups.
She admitted the work "doesn't feel the same," illustrating lost attachment to craft.

ADVICE

Delegate The Drudgery, Keep The Judgment

Offload grunt work and repetitive tasks but keep decision-making and sense-making.
Todd Henry recommends being intentional about what you delegate to AI so you don't hollow yourself out.

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Episode 92: Ownership

Daily Creative

In this episode, we dive into the nuanced meaning of ownership in creative work and leadership. As the landscape is rapidly transformed by AI and powerful new tools, we explore the temptation to offload not just labor but also the very thinking that gives our work its unique signature. We unpack what it means to retain genuine ownership of process, relationships, and output—moving beyond merely curating machine-generated results and instead staying empathetically engaged in the creative process.

Our guest, Greg Hawks, joins us to challenge the difference between “owners”, “renters”, and “vandals” in organizations. He brings fresh perspective on why many disengage, how environments subtly encourage or discourage ownership, and what teams and leaders can do to foster a climate where true creative engagement thrives.

Some of the themes we touch on include:

The fine balance between leveraging technology for efficiency and maintaining our emotional logic in creative decisions
Why struggle and friction are the crucibles of meaningful, resonant work
How organizations inadvertently suppress ownership—and how to change that dynamic
Concrete strategies for shifting from a renter to an owner mindset
The powerful impact of reducing toxic “vandal” behavior on overall team engagement

Five Key Learnings:

Offloading too much of the creative process—especially decision-making—can hollow out our unique voice and intuition.
Emotional logic, shaped by lived experience and intuition, is irreplaceable and differentiates meaningful work from mere output.
Vandals—self-centered, divisive team members—can demotivate large segments of an organization, and removing them often unlocks higher engagement.
True ownership requires us to understand the personal “returns” we seek (emotional, financial, relational, opportunity, growth) and articulate them courageously.
Struggle and friction aren’t just obstacles—they’re where creative insight emerges and individual judgment is strengthened.

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