Creative Reaction

Mike Myatt of Blogging Innovation has heard way too much about Equality & Team Building, the idea “that for teams to be productive, employees have to feel ‘empowered’ by having an equal voice”. In fact, he calls this “ridiculous”.

“Whether you look at athletic teams, military teams, executive teams, management teams, technical teams, design teams, functional teams, or any other team, you’ll find that the best of the best have structure, a hierarchy of leadership, a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities and expectations, clear and open lines of communication, well established decisioning protocol, and many other key principals, but nowhere is equality found as a key success metric for teams.”

“Great leaders and highly productive organizations always focus on team building as a key priority”, says Myatt. If you want to be an effective leader of a productive company, read his post.

Much has been written about the transformation from an industrial/manufacturing economy to one of knowledge-based work, and yet many of our management practices cling to the past, especially in the way employees are motivated and compensated. In this TED Video, Daniel Pink discusses the “mismatch between what science knows and what business does”.

As it turns out, financial incentives are OK for mechanical and methodical tasks, but for for jobs where creativity and cognitive skills are required, such “extrinsic” motivators can actually dull creativity. For jobs where there are no clear methods and where every task requires a creative approach, the only worthwhile motivations are those that are intrinsic. Unless your employees understand their purpose, and work for a cause larger than themselves, it doesn’t matter how much money you pay for their talent; you won’t get their best.

(And boy did I grin when Pink mentioned “Results-Only Work Environments” and Google’s “20% Time”, both of which have been covered here at Creative Reaction.)

Managers and owners, your business’ survival depends upon you watching this 18:36 presentation. Schedule a time and a place to watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

Management-Issues summarizes and adds some insightful commentary to a one-page article by Mitch McCrimmon entitled Smart Management. 

The essence of both articles is that the best managers are not doers, but enablers; they give employees the encouragement, tools, and the (business) environment to do their best work. They delegate, yet take charge of situations.

This reminds me of another post I just read at Lean Startups.

So we have some things to keep in mind when we are tempted to micro-manage or jump in and do the (once-delegated) task ourselves.

Braden Kelly of Blogging Innovation puts to rest the notion that innovation is “expensive” and is therefore something to be avoided in a tough economy.

“I can’t afford” is a cop-out; a Dead End. The question to ask is “how can I afford?”, which then causes you to prioritize and think creatively about your resources. So it’s great the see Kelly guide readers through exactly such a process, as he divides various innovation activities into categories in terms of resources needed, then proposes a mix of how and when each should be done in a strategic manner.

Matt Heinz at Blogging Innovation condenses what he heard at a conference into 10 Rules for Small Business Success. Great stuff!

Believe, and help others see why they should, too on the Management-Issues blog offers some excellent advice on creating a passionate, self-motivated team.

Quoting the article, “effective managers and leaders know what they believe and why they believe it”, though success lies beyond confidence and a positive attitude. The key is hiring the right people for the job, showing that you have confidence in them, and helping them find their own motivations to follow the leader’s vision. Good stuff.

If you are looking for breakthrough creativity/innovation/customer service/marketing, the last thing you need is employees who merely want “a job“. Meaning, any job where they show up, put in their time, get paid. What you need are team members, together on a mission.

Go read Four Simple Ways to Make Your Employees Happier.

(Ignore the word “Happiness” here; it seems a bit shallow. Think “fulfillment”.)

(Peaceniks, bear with this; there’s some excellent advice!)

I was a bit surprised to see this at Harvard Business Publishing, yet it makes perfect sense.

Why the Military Produces Great Leaders makes a case for “servant leadership“, a concept which I imagine appeals to those of us who cringe every time a CEO  grinds a company into the ground for personal gain, then seemingly gets away with it.

Quoting Colonel Tom Kolditz, author of the post, “military leadership is based on a concept of duty, service, and self-sacrifice”.

“When serving in crisis conditions… transactional sources of motivation (e.g. pay, rewards, or threat of punishment) become insufficient… When followers have trust and confidence in a charismatic leader, they are transformed into willing, rather than merely compliant, agents”.

This is called “transformational leadership” – the kind of leadership that inspires everyone in a company to give his best.

Go read the article. It has additional insights and asks some thought-provoking questions. You’ll be a better leader for it.

Some excellent advice from 37Signals, which compares workplace hiring to parties.

If you have a roomful of strangers, “the conversation is dull and stiff. You make small talk about the weather, sports, TV shows, etc. You shy away from serious conversations and controversial opinions.”

A company like this generates bland ideas and bland service. Read to find out how to avoid this.

Excellent, quick post over at Harvard Business Publishing and without giving too much away, having passionate employees starts with owners/managers/CEOs themselves.

(The attitudes of leaders have a huge impact on employees, so there are quite a few posts related to this topic. See The Power of Happiness Part I and Part II,  Attitude Adjustment, the Day-to-Day Management Affects Creativity series, Part I, Part II and Part III  and Negativity is Poison!)

It seems management, capitalism, and frugality have received a bit of bad press lately. Here’s an inspirational story posted at Harvard Business Review that shows redeeming aspects of all three.

The Boss Who Laid Himself Off tells of the selfless acts of a manager who no doubt impacted the lives of two talented, younger managers and their families, which of itself offers an important example. What many may not also see in this story is the idea of mentoring, then stepping aside to allow the next generation to energize and continue a company’s mission.

And the frugality angle? Well, do you think “Bob” could have done what he did had he been up to his eyeballs in debt? Living frugally and saving allows us the freedom to do the right thing.

In the planning fallacy, 37Signals reiterates something I blogged about last Fall; namely that despite our best efforts, and even with the knowledge that planning is often wrong, we still cannot plan accurately.

37Signals conclusion? “That messy planning stage that delays things and prevents you from getting real is, in large part, a waste of time. So skip it. If you really want to know how much time/resources a project will take, start doing it.”

Check out my earlier post, Why Planning is Counter-productive. It has better links if you’d like to look further into the planning fallacy. Also be sure to check out last month’s In Your Face, MBAs series.

Great post over at Harvard Business. It says it’s about “being happy at work”. I say it’s about leadership. (That’s what happens when you put something on the InterWebs;  you loose control as people can say whatever they want.) Skip the intro, head straight for the 7 ways to be a better leader, and ROCK your business.

Great post over at Creativity & Innovation, where Keith Sawyer explores the “tension between individual creative vision, and the collective genius of the group.”

In this Web 2.0 age, where collective knowledge is valued, leaders must keep in mind that “collective stupidity” also abounds. Often, leaders need to move ahead, even when support is lagging behind, knowing that eventually the group will catch on. And just as often, they need to listen.