Creative Leadership

This case at HBS highlights the point that an imperious, creative leader can sometimes be right but without any logical explanation. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6105.html

Tony makes you think about organizations differently.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_02/b4162057120453.htm

Etsy.com does something similar for their community but Jason does it a little different: http://37signals.com/officehours

The creative leader always questions authority. Even when it is his own. By doing so, he opens the door to vulnerability and the ability to change.

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)

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

I have a new post up on the HBR blog entitled "Creative Leaders Get Their Hands Dirty":
 
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/maeda/2009/04/the-dirty-mba.html
 
Regards, -JM

I was asked this by Ms. Peg Pasternak of Lahser High School in Bloomfield Hills, MI where she teaches, and she has an upcoming presentation there to talk about this topic. It turns out this is something I think about a great deal, so in this short PowerPoint (ZIP-ped archive or PDF) I have put some of the points down that I think help to argue a justifiable case for creativity in our world. I know that it’s not a comprehensive list of things, but it’s a start that if you wish to add to please post your edits here as it's far from perfect as a list. Thank you! -JM PS Visit our.risd.edu for regular updates to the RISD movement ...

Click here to download:

090419_ART.ppt.zip (64 KB)

Click here to download:

090419_ART.pdf (580 KB)

In my continued effort to see how thinly I can stretch myself in the long tail, check out the blog I've started with Becky Bermont on HBR:
 
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/maeda/