How to lead
A Creative Team
Leading Creative Teams is Like Herding Tigers
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what does it take to produce brilliant
creative work much of our economy is
driven by people who work create
on-demand jobs people whose job it is to
be brilliant at a moment's notice if
you're on a team like that and
especially if you lead a team like that
you're probably wondering what's the
secret a lot of people say it's Talent
some people think it's about creating a
fun and vibrant culture and others say
it's all about the grind and sheer will
well what if I told you that the secret
to delivering Greek creative work was
management for most creative people
management is the enemy
mainly because traditional management
approaches don't really work on
creatives for starters creative work is
by nature chaotic and unpredictable have
you ever tried to organize something
that doesn't want to be organized
not only that while creatives are some
of the most prolific problem solvers you
know capable of unleashing immeasurable
value within your organization they're
equally capable of eating management
alive if they don't get what they need
so what do they need two things
stability and challenge creatives need
to spend their precious time and
attention solving the problems they're
actually being paid to solve the problem
is organizations are giant chaos
monsters that want to suck every ounce
of time and attention in service of
their endless meetings last-minute
changes and out-of-touch policies so
someone has to create the stability the
team needs in order to keep their focus
on what's important without letting them
get too comfortable because they also
need challenged creative people want to
be pushed to take risks and to learn new
things but they need permission they
need their boss to believe in them and
they need to be coached along the way
and here's where it gets interesting
stability and challenge exist in tension
with one another not enough stability
and people wind up angry or
- little challenge and they feel stuck
but when there's a high level of
challenge and stability creative teams
thrive that's what they need and
managers unlike anyone else in the
organization are in the unique position
to create both so the next time you
daydream about crossing management off
the org chart remember
they might just be the one thing you
need to produce your best work ever
[Music]
let's get management there's a dumpling
