Creative Reaction

Creative Reaction - Now with new features, renewed commitment, and comments!

You may have noticed some craziness with your RSS subscriptions this past month, as Creative Reaction has been completely overhauled.

We’ve moved the site to a new web host, updated to the latest version of Wordpress, added new categories and new links, and edited every post to include tags! We’ve also published over a dozen drafts which were backlogged.

The tags are a really cool feature! Just click on a tag, and Wordpress, which powers this blog, will display all the posts containing with that tag!

Most importantly, we now have tools in place to fight comment spam, so comments are now open on all posts. To participate by commenting, all you need to do is register by providing a screen name and an e-mail address so that a password can be e-mailed to you. Thats it!

And now that we have all these upgrades, you will see more frequent posts, helping you to embiggen your business!

Thanks for reading!

This is essentially a follow up to “Fire the Workaholics” from last month. In Why I love working with family people, David from 37Signals contrasts “the stereotypical startup dream hire… a 20-something with as little life as possible” with employees who have families. Family men and women, he finds, have “an amazing ability to get stuff done when the objectives are reasonably clear, the work appears to have meaning, and if it can be done within the scope of what should constitute a work week. When there are real constraints on your time, like you have to pickup the kids or make them dinner or put them to bed, it appears to bring a serenity of focus to the specific hours dedicated to work. This is what companies need, startups or not.”

What is the fixation with Google and money?! In this train wreck of an article, which is hard enough to follow without its questionable math and numerous corrections, the author, as well as about half of the readers leaving comments, seem to miss the fact that Google is an innovative business which treats its employees well. Who cares what the cost is?! It’s all proportional! Certainly, Google must be weighing the cost of feeding its numerous employees excellent food, and deciding that the benefits outweigh the expense. Commenter “Dave” jumps all over this and applies the proper perspective, “Seems like a small price to pay to keep your employees well fed and happy. Not to mention there are probably productivity gains to be had by not having the workforce filter out of the building each day for an hour.” I like to compare Google to Thomas Edison’s labs. All the more reason to encourage mealtime collaboration, offering brilliant people the opportunity to interact with other brilliant people. How can you put a price on that?

“Does your employer deserve you?” is the actual title of this short article on Fortune Magazine though it offers both perspectives. The writer interviews Peter Cheese, who is co-author of The Talent-Powered Organization: Strategies for Globalization, Talent Management, and High Performance and, of course, she asks him about his book.

According to the author, companies which seek to thrive in an increasingly global market place must create an environment which develops the skills of its employees. Such companies “give their employees frequent, constructive feedback on their performance. They also present people with regular, planned opportunities to learn new skills and develop their abilities”. These organizations are also able to attract the best talent.

“Train everyone lavishly”, says management guru Tom Peters, “you can’t overspend on training”. I wholeheartedly agree.

Wow. Another thought-provoking post over at Signal vs. Noise. And quite a bit of discussion as well. The essence of it is this - most urgency is self-inflicted, negatively impacting both morale and the “product”. The comments are also very insightful. 37Signals certainly challenges the notion that putting in tons of hours is the path to success.

This ties in neatly with a previous post from last June, entitled (Too Much) Time Pressure Affects Creativity.

Not sure of the appeal of this, as it largely has to do with local sports, though an emotional story nonetheless.

Buckner receives warm reception from Fenway faithful. Many Red Sox fans & members of the media have blamed Bill Buckner for single-handedly loosing the 1986 World Series for the Red Sox, despite the fact that baseball is a team sport and the “body” of his work speaks for itself.

Life is simply too short to hold grudges; they are like a cancer, or voluntarily wearing shackles. Bigger people forgive. Be Big.

I came across this Hivelogic blog post (via another blog, Daring Fireball) which keeps talking about this thing called getting in “the Zone”. Of course, we all realize that what’s being articulated is more commonly known as “Creative Reaction“.

Specifically, the post has to do with the difficulties of experiencing creative reaction in modern office environments (cubicle farms and open office designs). “Think about it: you’re hiring somebody who needs to concentrate to be productive, and then you’re putting them in a situation where they can’t.”

Nomenclature aside (wink), an awesome post!

Take a look at Do Not Disturb - I’m Experiencing Creative Reaction for some other tips.