Manage for collective creativity

12 May 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

I've been on a TED talk kick lately. There are so many good ones and not enough time to watch them all. I watched one recently on managing creative people. I watched it to level-up my managing skills at work because I'm a team lead, but it just had so many good things, I needed to share here.

Normally this blog focuses more on individual creativity, so it might not help you out that much unless you manage creative people (aren't we all, though?). But it does talk about how a group can be sustainably creative and by that I mean it talks about how to manage an organization so that it can innovate time after time after time.


Below I've got some great quotes and ideas from her talk. I promise that I didn't know that she talks about Pixar before I started the video. Pixar isn't the only thing I think about, really ;)

"innovation isn't about solo genius, it's about collective genius"

She talks about everyone having their particular "slice of genius."

"unleash the talents and passions of many people and harness them"

3 characteristics of an innovative team:

• collaborative problem solving
• discovery driven learning
• integrated decision making

"Hire people who argue with you"

"Sometimes it's best to be deliberately fuzzy and vague"

Creative Abrasion

marketplace of ideas through debate & discourse (heated but constructive arguments)
"innovation rarely happens unless you have diversity and conflict"

Creative Agility

quick pursuit of ideas, reflection, and adjustment
"act as opposed to plan your way to the future"
design thinking
scientific method and artistic process
experiments not pilots (pilots are about being right. When they don't work, someone is to blame)

Creative Resolution

combine ideas for a new solution
"they don't go along to get along"
"they don't compromise"

If any of those quotes sound interesting to you, go ahead and watch the video. It'll be worth your time. I think I'm going to watch it again to get everything I can out of it.

How do you manage creative people? How do you manage your own creativity to consistently innovate?