Misc. Ramblings

Fast Company has an interesting article on creativity and six myths that have become associated with the topic. According to a study done at the Harvard Business School, the six myths are:

1. Creativity comes from Creative Types

2. Money is a Creativity Motivator

3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity

4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs

5. Competition Beats Collaboration

6. A Streamlined Organization is a Creative Organization

I have a few comments that are perhaps addressed in the original study but isn't in the Fast Company article.

Creative Types. I agree that creativity isn't confined to only one type of person. So I think the lesson here is to be open to creative suggestions from whichever the source may be. That said, creativity, like many, if not all, other human traits is probably distributed on a normal bell curve. That is, some people have more of it than others. If true, it should follow that if you need creative types, you would want people with an abundance of that trait.

Practically speaking, that is easier said than done. Hence, the lesson truly is to be open to creative suggestions from all of your employees.

Money as Motivator. There's an old joke that says: "Money isn't everything, it's the only thing." But, I think, what the study is saying is while money certainly is a motivator, once a certain level of need is met, more money doesn't lead to more creativity. Rather, other higher needs ( as Maslow would say) come into play. Needs such as social, esteem, and self-actualization. The lesson for the good manager then is to match people up with what is motivating to them at the time, not just throwing money at people (feel free to send some my way though - ed.).

Time. Another human trait that seems to be described by the normal bell curve is productivity. While people in the study indicated they worked best when under time pressures, the study seems to indicate just the opposite. In other studies I've seen, productivity when plotted on the y-axis versus anxiety on the x-axis indicates if there is no anxiety, that is no pressure, there is no productivity. Conversely, where there is a lot of anxiety, there is also no productivity. The lesson here is that while there needs to be some anxiety to have productivity, too much anxiety will actually decrease productivity. Hence, if people really are under the gun, the trick is to remove as many other distractions as possible so that people can focus on the one most important task.

Fear. While there is a popular myth that creativity comes from the depths of depression, this study found that people are most creative when they are happy. The lesson is, fear is certainly a motivator, but the best motivator seems to be happiness.

Competition. There is a place for competition. But the article says internal competition stifles communication (since sharing information, without receiving something of value in return, is a competitive disadvantage). And since no one person can know everything, isolating that person will usually not lead to creative ideas. The lesson is internal collaboration can lead to synergistic effects. These effects can then lead to creativity.

Streamlined. If streamlining your organization is a euphemism for downsizing. And if downsizing is a result of bad management decisions, then creativity will suffer. The article indicates that creativity seemed to suffer the most prior to the announcement of the downsizing because people knew something was coming, but didn't know what. Hence, they felt helpless and spent more time preparing for the worst then being creative. The lesson is, if you will be firing people, give people accurate, timely information as soon as possible. Employees can see whether an organization is running well. If it isn't, they know people will be layed off. The lesson for management is to deal openly with the problem as soon as possible rather than draw it out and go into denial.

Aloha!