Comments on: All advice on how to manage creative people is awful

By: Creativity is in your Mind – Use it. « Create Learning Team Building Blog

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:15:11 +0000

[...] fun at work and home our perceptions must change. Here Penelope Trunk gives some great advice on managing creative people at work;1. Change your mindset. So much of solving our own problems is fixing our outlook. Bad situations [...]

By: Graham B

Graham B — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:29:37 +0000

I totally agree that it is almost impossible to like your job if you are not solving problems that challenge you in some way. Sadly, although my work does involve very intersting technical challenges almost every day, it also offers challenges in dealing with my employers!

By: teach

teach — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:58:24 +0000

How to be an effective ____________________:
I'm so late on this, it won't be relevant, but I have to say it anyway.
Everyone WANTS TO BE RECOGNIZED.
It is a really simple, simple fact that managers forget, hell, employees forget it, too. Call it creating, call it innovating, call it making coffee with a new creamer.

Everyone wants to say/do/feel something no one else has said/done/felt before that makes a difference to the audience. Children are born seeking it, regardless of race, income, intelligence. It's called FEEDBACK- and while positive is better for everyone involved, rest assured every single employee wants it.
If someone is "just working on files and coffee for you"- they WANT to be good at this. They want to be TOLD they are good at this. And they want to be told what else specifically they can do to earn your FEEDBACK next time.

That's why the hamster gets on the wheel everyday, managers. Try a little feedback-consistently-, and you can get that hamster running marathons if you ask it.

Not rocket manager-ing. Just knowing PEOPLE. (and hamsters =).
How do I know? I am a teacher, and I have little people in my class each day who succeed solely based on FEEDBACK. I have parents who need my FEEDBACK, and co-workers who want my FEEDBACK and I theirs, and a boss of whom I seek feedback.

Isn't every single relationship based on this? And it seems so complicated? Why?

Creativity is a nice lofty idea, but you are focusing on one of the crayons, instead of the whole idea of the box. The box being- USE ME, I MATTER.

Doctor, lawyer, grocery clerk, teacher, student, sales person…….
Sometimes these things seem over-thought.
Just my two cents.
No need for feedback +)

By: Roger

Roger — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:39:39 +0000

A tale of two managers
#1 Encouraged creativity. Actively supported innovation. Willing to take some leaps of faith in expanding employees expertise. Highly technical able to understand the use of ideas in the rough.
#2 Wanted every thing done to the minute. Expected ideas to be reduced to immediate impact. If it didn't change today's output it wasn't important. Extremely high on process to point where getting the process done right was more important than getting the job done right. Low understanding of any of the technical terms. When explaining ideas felt like I had to reduce to baby terms to get it understood.

After getting really up to speed with #1 moving to #2 was a disaster. Which manager would you want to work for?

By: Deep Blue

Deep Blue — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:21:18 +0000

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.” — John W. Gardner (1912-2002)

By: Ada Wong

Ada Wong — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:52:42 +0000

Engaging in a long-term, committed relationship takes two to do so. But changing one's normal responses to a situation sounds enticing a proposition. I might try that with my work one of these days – surprise the heck out of clients by proposing something entirely different and unusual, or giving unexpected feedback that will blow their socks off!

I always love your off-the-beaten-track ideas Penelope (though i might not always have the courage to follow suit).

By: kriszha

kriszha — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Agreed with you Penelope.
@Lance Thanks for sharing such a lovely video.

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:03:09 +0000

Dude, I just watched that video. F*ck, it was awesome. Thanks so much for posting the link.

By: Confused

Confused — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:00:29 +0000

I LOVE this post! I agree that when you're allowed to be creative at work, you're the happiest… which is why I quit my previous job because I was told that I had "too much energy!" I took the initiative to try to solve a problem that had not been addressed after I had asked about it MANY times, and I was clearly excited when I had created a solution. I presented my solution and can you believe I was told that my energy was NOT needed?! I was told that it was NOT initiative, and that I should essentially wait until I was told what to do.

Not cool. At all.

By: Owen Richard Kindig

Owen Richard Kindig — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Well, not all all advice! Try out Dan Pink in a TED lecture on autonomy, mastery, and purpose as motivators.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Don't forget, Penelope: all generalizations are false! :-)