Authors: Sutton, Robert I.
Source: Harvard Business Review; Sep2001, Vol. 79 Issue 8, p94, 10p
Document Type: Article (The above image is a Wordle cloud of the full article)
Subject Terms: *CREATIVE ability in business *EMPLOYEE selection *INDUSTRIAL management NAICS/Industry Codes55 Management of Companies and Enterprises
Abstract: For the past decade at least, managers have been emphasizing innovation, efficiency, and productivity, but this has not fostered creativity. As important as innovation is, it is not, and never will be, the primary activity of companies. The author believes that managing for creativity means discounting what is known about management. Managing for creativity begins with hiring people who make you comfortable, even those you don’t like and those with skills you don’t think you need.
Next, encourage people to ignore and defy superiors and peers, and get them to fight among themselves. Rather than rewarding success and punishing failure, companies should reward both. Companies should demote, transfer, and even fire those who talk but don’t act. Your company needs to be a place that generates and tests many disparate ideas.
What makes for effective management practice can look very different, depending on whether the aim is to exploit already-proven ideas or explore new ones. These practices succeed by increasing the range of a company’s knowledge, by causing people to see old problems in new ways, and by helping companies break from the past.
Full Text Word Count: 5504
ISSN: 0017-8012
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