Creative Leadership

Thinking out loud on an emergent topic

Growth vs Development

Am reading one of Russell Ackoff's books that speaks to the importance of employee development as sometimes more important than affecting company growth. He goes one step further to note that lack of resources are linked to development -- that it unlocks the creativity in an organization and induces learning. But core to his argument is that the organization has to be developed (one of learners) to leverage such a situation. -JM

"A lack of resources can limit growth but not development. The more developed individuals, organizations, or societies becomes the less they depend on resources and the more they can do with whatever resources they have. They also have the ability and the desire to create or acquire the resources they need."**

** Ackoff's Best: His Classic Writings on Management, Chapter 3.

Basic (Not Necessarily Creative) Leadership

The 12 Elements of Great Managing by Gallup, Inc.

  1. I know what is expected of me at work.
  2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
  3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
  4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
  5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
  6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
  7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
  8. The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important.
  9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
  10. I have a best friend at work.
  11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
  12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Teaching Future Global Leaders how to R-I-S-D

I've just completed a workshop module developed for the World Economic Forum Global Leadership 2008 Fellows program on the theme of Creative Leadership. The module was developed together with Becky Bermont as an experiment in teaching policy makers how artists and designers think at RISD as a powerful addition to the leadership equation. Becky's posted an article on the HBR site recently that lays out some of the interesting principles/challenges to the approach I am currently designing in practice at RISD.

The arc of the workshop began in the fundamentals of design and art with drawing and spatial exercises. I covered some of the themes that I started from my last WEF talk, and then worked with the Fellows to integrate the language of art and design into their own work by experiencing how artists and designers observe / make / critique first hand. Teaching policy makers how a critique works went fabulously well due to their honed critical thinking and reasoning skills. I saw a marked improvement in their ability to translate those skills to the visual domain, and then to bring it back to their own respective areas.

At the end of the session we did a critique on my own practices as a creative leader. It was a spirited discussion by the Fellows and inspired me to think differently as I continue to understand and develop this area together with all of you. There were a variety fo takeaways from the workshop which I will be sure to write up for a future HBR post. -JM

PS Photos 9 and 10 are of peer Global Leadership Fellow Nicholas Kim who gave a short talk on his experiences crossing design and strategy from his days at Frogdesign.

                   
Click here to download:
Teaching_Future_Global_Leaders.zip (1308 KB)

Creative (Student) Leaders



I enjoyed this video today at the Student Leadership dinner here at RISD. The concept of a "leader" is something I found the students to reconcile elegantly as simply "people that bring other people together." Special thanks to the Student Life staff on campus that made this event happen. -JM