Understanding and Managing Creative People

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Understanding and Managing Creative People
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Understanding and Managing Creative People

• Understand current theory regarding the character
  and measurement of creativity
• Understand some of the personality traits of
  creative people
• Understand the demographics and personal
  histories common to creative people
• Identify opportunities for leading creative
  people to do their best work
• Learn some specific managerial methods for
  motivating and keeping your creative workforce

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Human Brains

• Our brain evolved to handle specific challenges
  in our evolutionary environment
• There appear to have been two bursts in absolute
  brain size
• one 1.8 million years ago when our brains jumped
  to about 850 cm3 in volume and
• another about 150 thousand years ago when our
  brains reached the modern 1400 cm3 in volume
• The bursts appear to have been associated with
  climate changes in Africa which pushed man out of
  the forests and onto the more exposed and
  competitive savannahs

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Brains

• Our brain is a very expensive organ
• drawing up to 25 of an adults energy (and 60
  of an infants)
• As a percentage of body weight, it is 15-20 times
  larger than those of other mammals
• Much of that added tissue weight is dedicated to
• a society of murder, reciprocity, trust,
  hoarding and stealing
• that arose when early man was forced out into the
  more brutal environment of the savannahs
• (Per economist Paul Seabright)

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Creativity

• Creativity and abstract thought
• Arose out of the early savannah culture of of
  murder, reciprocity, trust, hoarding and
  stealing
• But creativity underlies the process of
  invention
• indeed a useful definition is that inventions are
  the end product of the creative process.
• As innovations are commercialized inventions, the
  whole process of innovation is more or less
  predicated on the activities of creative
  individuals.

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Three domains

• Creativity involves relations between three
  domains
• (1) the creative person
• (2) the domain in which the creative act occurs
  (e.g., mathematics, music, literature) and
• (3) the field of practitioners that set the
  standard (e.g., other mathematicians, museum
  curators, literature readers, and critics).
• Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

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Measures of CreativityThey are all pretty bad

• mathematician George David Birkhoffs Aesthetic
  Index can be understood as a measure of quality
  of creative output
• From a commercial innovation standpoint, it
  should parallel the value of work done in
  generating an invention, and considers the innate
  complexity of the invention
• He separates the creative experience into three
  phases
• The effort of attention necessary for perception
• The realization that the object is distinguished
  by a certain order
• The appreciation of value that rewards the mental
  effort
• Birkhoffs formula can be summarized
• Aesthetic valueO/C
• Where O is the order of the object, in terms of
  symmetries, excitement, public image, etc. and C
  is the complexity.

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Measures of CreativityThey are all pretty bad

• Studies have shown that beyond a certain level of
  IQ probably around 120, there is no clear
  correlation between intelligence and creativity
• true creativity probably requires some degree of
  intelligence
• Lewis Termans tests of gifted children
  discovered a cognitive disconnect between
  individuals with more than 30 points IQ
  differential
• If consumer intelligence tends to hover around an
  average IQ of 100, then perhaps a slightly
  above average intelligence may yield the best
  innovations.
• Psychologist Ellen Winner has noted about gifted
  children
• for those who do make it into the roster of
  creators, a certain set of personality traits
  proves far more important than having a high
  general IQ
• Creators are hard-driving, focused, dominant,
  independent risk-takers"

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Tolerance of ambiguity is a necessary condition
for creativity

• Psychologists John Dacey and Kathleen Lennon
  emphasize tolerance of ambiguity
• The ability to think, operate, and remain
  open-minded
• in situations where the rules are unclear, where
  there are no guidelines, or
• where the usual support systems (e.g., family,
  school, society) have collapsed

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Complexity

• Psychologist Csikszentmihalyi refers to
  "complexity"
• as the ability to harbor tendencies that normally
  appear to be at opposite extremes
• Most people are somewhere in the middle of the
  continuum between being rebellious or highly
  disciplined
• very creative individuals can alternate between
  the two extremes almost at the drop of a hat.

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Complexity

• Csikszentmihalyi interviewed many dozens of
  creative people from a wide range of domains,
  stretching from the arts, humanities, and
  sciences to business and politics. He compiled a
  list of ten dimensions of complexityten pairs of
  apparently antithetical characteristics that are
  often both present in the creative minds.
• Bursts of impulsiveness that punctuate periods of
  quiet and rest.
• Being smart yet extremely naive.
• Large amplitude swings between extreme
  responsibility and irresponsibility.
• A rooted sense of reality together with a hefty
  dose of fantasy and imagination.
• Alternating periods of introversion and
  extroversion.
• Being simultaneously humble and proud.
• Psychological androgynyno clear adherence to
  gender role stereotyping.
• Being rebellious and iconoclastic yet respectful
  to the domain of expertise and its history.
• Being on one hand passionate but on the other
  objective about one's own work.
• Experiencing suffering and pain mingled with
  exhilaration and enjoyment.

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Creative Traits

• Being
• smart but naive,
• realistic yet imaginative,
• simultaneously rebellious and respectful
• Psychological androgynybeing on one hand very
  sensitive and more "feminine" and on the other
  aggressive and offensive
• stimulus freedomis what we might call the
  ability to think outside the box
• are combinations of creative traits.

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Creative Pathology

• The film Proof in (Anthony Hopkins / Gwyneth
  Paltrow) for example plays on three recurring
  themes, each with a basis in reality
• (1) creativity and the loss of a father
• (2) creativity and youth and
• (3) creativity and madness.

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Loss of a father

• A particular characteristic that appears to be
  shared by many creative individuals is the loss
  of a father early in life
• Among nearly a hundred creative interviewees,
  Csikszentmihalyi found that no fewer than
• three out of ten men and
• two out of ten women
• were orphaned by the time they reached their
  teens.
• Lost fathers are a complex mixture of burden and
  opportunity
• On one hand, there is the huge psychological
  burden of having to live up to the perceived
  expectations of the missing father
• On the other, such youngsters have the immense
  opportunity of truly inventing themselves
• Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre observed that
• "the death of Jean Baptiste Sartre's father was
  the big event of my life it sent my mother back
  to her chains and gave me freedom.... Had my
  father lived, he would have lain on me full
  length and would have crushed me. As luck had it,
  he died young."

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Youth

• Some of the most creative mathematicians, lyric
  poets, and composers of music were
  extraordinarily young when they produced their
  best work
• Most painters, novelists, and philosophers, on
  the other hand, continue to create and are often
  at their peak well into old age
• Music critic and novelist Marcia Davenport
  (190396) expressed this reality beautifully
  "All the great poets died young. Fiction is the
  art of middle age. And essays are the art of old
  age."
• Psychologist Howard Gardner makes a similar
  distinction between mathematicians and scientists
  on one hand and artists on the other
• It is important to note here a decisive
  difference from creation in the sciences or
  mathematics.
• Individuals in mathematics begin to be productive
  at an early age and certainly have the option of
  making numerous innovations during their early
  years.

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Psychosis

• The most enduring (and perverse) speculations
  about creativity involve its correlation with
  madness
• Psychologist Arnold Ludwig examined the lives of
  more than a thousand creative individuals and
  found that about 28 of the prominent scientists
  experienced at least some sort of mental
  disturbance (the fraction increased to 87 among
  outstanding poets).
• Psychologist Donald MacKinnon conducted an
  extensive psychometric evaluation of many
  creative mathematicians, architects, and writers
• his findings showed that the creative individuals
  consistently scored higher on dimensions that are
  indicative of various affective disorders such as
  schizophrenia, depression, and paranoia
• Csikszentmihalyis observation that creative
  individuals can alternate between the two
  extremes of being rebellious or highly
  disciplined is consistent with the sorts of
  psychoses associated with creativity.

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Societal Influences on Creativity

• Economist Paul Seabright, in his anthropological
  study of economics The Company of Strangers
  argues that the major social stimuli for
  creativity are
• (1) enough wealth to give those with ideas some
  hope of finding patrons or jobs
• (2) a substantial immigrant population eager to
  challenge the established order, and
• (3) a total population large enough to contain a
  critical mass of talent, but with enough focus in
  its geography to allow for effective networking.

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Societal Influences on Creativity

• Historian David Landes in his book The Wealth and
  Poverty of Nations provides evidence that
  creativity thrives in societies which
• operate, manage and build instruments of
  production
• create, adapt and master new technologies
• impart expertise and knowledge to the young
• choose people for jobs by competence and relative
  merit
• promote and demote on basis of performance
• encourage initiative, competition and emulation
• let people enjoy and employ the fruits of their
  labor, enterprise and creativity
• encourage saving and investment
• enforce rights of contract
• secure rights of personal liberty against tyranny
  and crime
• provide stable government, though not necessarily
  democratic
• provide responsive government
• provide no rents or favors for government
  position
• have governments that are moderate, efficient and
  non-greedy

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Management Styles

• How to understand and get the most out of
  creative types

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Managing Creative People

• 1. Recruit for diversity, hire for philosophy
• Creativity is all about seeing things
  differently.
• Assembling a group of people who have a mix of
  nationalities and cultures can spark ideas and
  generate energy.
• But if workers aren't on the same page
  philosophically, these can turn toxic
• 2. These are humans
• This is the wrong place to enforce rigid,
  bureaucratic aesthetic standards unless you want
  rigid, bureaucratic products
• Creativity is not like an assembly line. It's
  very stop-start. These are human machines, and
  they break down, get angry, get drunk.

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Managing Creative People

• 3. Within limits, let them make the rules
• The best managers of creatives are those folks
  who have been creatives themselves.
• But this goes only so far, and you ultimately
  have to lay down the law.
• If you want to have the ability to do cool
  things,
• you also have to have the ability to deliver.
• 4. Keep everyones focus on the objective
• Most innovative product is 2 inspiration and
  98 perspiration (Edison)
• Getting focus on the perspiration after the
  inspiration is done is often the hardest part.

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Managing Creative People

• 5. Help Creatives develop a holistic perspective
  on the world
• Creative types can be brilliant at what they do
  best and remarkably naive about the world
  outside their bailiwick. The more you can connect
  them to the real world, the more they're likely
  to understand decisions that customers and
  clients make.
• 6. Help them to sell their ideas
• Working within a context can also help creatives
  better sell their ideas. Communication is a skill
  that few young engineers or designers know or
  appreciate, yet it's the one that can determine
  whether their designs are accepted or rejected.

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Managing Creative People

• 7. Allow 15 of time for blue-sky thinking
• While it's important to keep creatives focused on
  the task at hand, allowing them time to take
  creative leaps can lead to big rewards.
• 8. Protect your team from creativity killers
• The essential difference between creative workers
  and everybody else is that their work product is
  a personal expression of who they are. As a
  result, they're more emotionally exposed than
  other workers and more vulnerable to criticism.
  While a certain amount of rejection is
  inevitable, it's important to explain why some
  ideas don't pass muster.
• 9. Add liberal doses of fun
• Being creative on demand is hard work. It can be
  intellectually taxing and emotionally exhausting.
  Fostering an environment where fun isn't viewed
  as goofing off is absolutely critical.

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Innovation Workout

• Brainstorming

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Brainstorming

• Alex Faickney Osborn was the O in the name of
  advertising giant BBDO developed Brainstorming in
  the 1930s
• Brainstorming encourages a group to express
  various ideas
• and to defer critical judgment until later.
• Everyone offers ideas that are listed, combined,
  improved, and changed into various other ideas.
• In the end, the group agrees on a final
  resolution.

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Two basic principles of brainstorming

• Quantity breeds quality You should never attempt
  to solve a challenge with only a single idea. The
  more ideas you come up with, the more likely you
  are to arrive at the best solution.
• Defer judgment Groups instinctively tend to
  anchor on the first idea thrown out (this is an
  inherent fault known as groupthink studied
  extensively by Irving Janis in the 1950s). We
  naturally defer judgment when shopping for
  clothes it is similarly the right way to shop
  for ideas.

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Brainstorming

1. Select your problem. Write the problem as a
   definite question, as specifically as possible.
2. Choose the participants. The ideal number of
   participants is between six and twelve.
3. Choose the environment. The preferred location is
   a comfortable room off-site..
4. Select a group leader
5. After brainstorming, the group leader or the
   group as a whole should arrange the ideas into
   related groups to prioritize and evaluate them.
6. Follow up. Directly after the meeting,.
7. It's a good idea to send each person a
   categorized list of the ideas that the group
   generated
8. Another good follow-up is to ask each participant
   to report back on at least one idea.
9. Evaluate the ideas
10. At the end of a brainstorming session, make three
    lists
11. ideas of immediate usefulness,
12. areas for further exploration, and
13. new approaches to the problem.

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Group Leader

• The group leader should
• Prepare in advance as much as possible. Ask each
  participant to become as familiar as they can
  with creativity exercises. Plan the meeting
  carefully.
• Invite people from diverse areas non-experts as
  well as experts on the situation, and people who
  can make decisions about ideas generated by the
  group. Discourage observers, onlookers, and
  guests. Every attendee should be a participant.
• Write an agenda and send it to all invitees.
• Employ a variety of creativity techniques to get
  ideas flowing. Use humor and bizarre examples to
  loosen people up.
• Focus on the challenge. Be specific about what
  decisions have to be made and continuously
  summarize the group's progress throughout the
  meeting.
• Encourage any and all ideas,
• Be prepared to go back and manipulate ideas.
  Creativity always involves manipulation.
• Emphasize everyone's unique contribution to the
  meeting.
• Select a recorder. Assign someone to record all
  ideas the group suggests.

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Variations

• Brainstorming Bulletin Board
• Place a bulletin board in a central location,
  write the problem to be solved on a piece of
  colored paper, and place it in the center of the
  board for all interested parties to see.
• Anyone with an idea or suggestion about the
  problem writes it on a white piece of paper and
  places it under the problem on the board.

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Variations

• Solo Brainstorming
• If you are doing a solo brainstorm, write your
  ideas on index cards.
• Jot down one idea per card until you run dry.
• You end up with a pack of ideas that you can then
  sort, resort, and add to as you shuffle them
  around to decide the best ones to pursue for your
  purposes.

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Variations

• Visual Brainstorming
• Brainstorming can also take other forms a golfer
  can brainstorm different shots while playing, a
  composer can brainstorm with music, actors and
  actresses can brainstorm expressions while
  acting, and a visual thinker can brainstorm by
  sketching ideas as they occur.

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QA with Jazz Vibraphonist Gary Burton Managing
Jazz Artists

• Case Study