Legal Research

"All Advice on How to Manage Creative People Is Awful"

Posted by Penelope Trunk: "A good manager is someone who makes everyone feel like he or she is creative in their work. Because creative work is the most fulfilling work, and we are each capable of that kind of work.

My favorite research on this topic is from John Mirowsky, professor of sociology at University of Texas, Austin.

Mirowsky finds that people who work are happier than people who don't because people who are employed spend more of their time being creative. This was true regardless of age and race and the amount of creativity that a given job had.

He concludes that people make choices to be more creative if they are gainfully employed. But also that we have more control than we realize over how creative we make our worklife. He says, "One thing that surprised us was that the daily activities of employed persons are more creative than those of non-employed persons of the same sex, age and level of education."

How can you tell if you are creative at work? You could just ask yourself if you like your job. It is nearly impossible to like a job if you are not solving problems that are challenging. And if you are doing that, well, that is creative.

For a more scientific gauge, you can look at your cell phone call log. If you routinely call your friends from work, you're probably not happy at work, according to research from Nathan Eagle, at the Santa Fe Institute.

Here are five ways to make a job more creative. And if you want to be good at managing creative people tell these tips to everyone who reports to you:

1. Change your mindset...

2. Change your response to stress...

3. Change the pace of what you do...

4. Try job hopping...

5. Get in a long-term, intimate relationship...

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 27 August 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).