Creativity Is a Hedgehog
So Stop Trying to Pet It...
Sir John Hegary dropped:
“Great creativity sometimes does take a bit of anger”
..on LinkedIn this week, and it sent me into an inspired spiral of thought as per usual... In particular, I was trying to decide how I could describe creativity, and in my madness I figured it out... It's just. like. a hedgehog.
Hear me out
We’ve started treating creativity as if it’s some soft, obedient little creature. Something you can stroke gently, coax politely, and keep perfectly tame. But real creativity isn’t a puppy. It’s a hedgehog. Spiky. Prickly. Defensive. It bristles when something’s wrong. It curls up when it feels threatened. And it sure as hell doesn’t roll over because someone in a meeting wants things to be “a bit calmer”.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: great ideas come with spikes.
Creativity needs emotion, the full chaotic spectrum of it. Anger, frustration, confusion, obsession, impatience, fear, fire. These aren’t “unprofessional”. They’re the spikes on the hedgehog’s back. They protect the idea while it’s fragile. They push it forward. They signal that something matters.
But we’ve drifted into an industry mindset that treats emotion like a health and safety hazard. Anything that isn’t smooth, pleasant or perfectly neutral gets labelled as “inappropriate”. Show frustration? You’re “difficult”. Challenge something? You’re “abrasive”. Feel strongly? You’re “too much”.
We’re so busy trying to ‘pet the hedgehog’ that we’ve forgotten what it’s for.
Emotion isn’t the enemy of creativity. Sanitising emotion is.
Because without frustration, you won’t push the idea further.
Without doubt, you won’t interrogate it properly.
Without anger, you won’t challenge the lazy thinking that keeps us average.
Without irreverence, you won’t dare to break anything worth breaking.
Creativity has always been spiky. It’s supposed to be. It has edges for a reason.
And let’s be clear: feeling something doesn’t make you an arsehole. It makes you human. The idea that we should all remain perpetually calm, endlessly agreeable and “emotionally appropriate” is exactly why so much work ends up safe, bland and forgettable.
You can’t disrupt the status quo while politely tiptoeing around it.
As Hegarty says, you have to fight for ideas. And you don’t fight with a smile plastered on. You fight because something inside you is scratching to get out.
Creativity isn't gentle.
It isn’t tidy.
It isn’t polite.
It’s a hedgehog: small, fierce, spiky, determined and brilliant when you let it be what it is.
So stop smoothing the spikes.
Stop apologising for emotion.
Stop confusing intensity with misconduct.
If we want great work, we need to let the hedgehog be the hedgehog. (thats a phrase thats gonna stick i can feel it)