January 6, 2005
the six corporate myths of creativity
[From Fast Company:] Harvard Professor Teresa Amabile kills off the six corporate myths of creativity:
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
Dead, dead, dead etc.
Doubtless “creativity” is next word on the list to be “rendered linguisticly toxic” by the boys in marketing etc.
[Cartoon lifted from “The Sex & Cash Theory”]
No, No. What we have proved beyond any reasonable doubt with the discussion about the use of harsh language in the workplace is that we need to use the word “fuck” more often, and creatively. That fosters a devil-may-care approach to things that is entirely more satisfying.
Compare and contrast.
“This is a good coffee advert.”
“This a fucking good coffee advert.”
See?
But joking aside, an internal environment where the degree of trust is as close to zero as is possible to get, i.e. the modern Anglo-Saxon corporation, then creativity is at a premium. How often have you wanted to work with someone who you know and like on a project, only to be told that we do not have budget to use someone from outside of the cost centre?
Wonder why open-source software is possible? Because there is a freedom to interact and get wiki points. Try this at a big corporation.
I suppose that the “mature” view would be that the assets have to be guarded and codified to “ensure shareholder value” by locking away ideas, techniques, and loading the game with lawyerese bullshit to stop innovation. When big corporations are running the game, they will do a lot to stop a tipping point. Or at least ignore it until they have gone so far up their own arse (see! creative cussing, yipee…) that they disappear. *cough* Kodak Digital Photography *cough*
Heh.
Maybe corporate types needed to hear this from a Noted Authority like a Harvard professor, but it can hardly be news to creative people.
1. Engineers and software developers are just as much “creators” as writers, artists, and musicians. Anyone who thinks engineers aren’t creative has never worked with a good one. MIT and Caltech are known for their pranksters as well as their Nobel Prizes.
2. If anything, money is a creativity demotivator. The more money is at stake, the more risk-averse both creators and companies become.
3. Deadlines may inspire someone to quit procrastinating and get to work, but true creativity requires the time to stare out windows, toss around silly ideas, and generally let things ferment. You can’t rush creativity any more than you can rush winemaking or pregnancy. It takes as long as it takes.
4. Fear forces self-preservation. If you’re stranded on a desert island, self-preservation may require creativity. In a corporation, it usually demands the opposite.
5. Any project big enough to require corporate, rather than individual, resources is a collaborative project by definition.
6. See point 3. The need to “look busy” is directly opposed to the requirements of creativity.
Creativity
Hugh points to a great Fast Company article on Creativity. I strongly believe that all people (except Traffic Wardens) can be creative. Creativity and ideas are the easy bit, it’s putting them into action which is the challenge for individuals