Killing Creativity
There is a short article in this month's "The Futurist", the magazine of the World Future Society, "Are Consultants Killing Creativity?" The article is essentially a review of an article by Stuart Macdonald, "The Cost of Control" published in Prometheus in March 2004. (Note: unfortunately neither the WFS or the publishers of Prometheus provide online copies for free.)
Macdonald researched the last 40 years of management experience at the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). He concludes that the increasing use of management consultants to control spending and inefficiency coincides with growing criticism over the BBC's diminished creativity. He believes that managers believe that their route to success is to enhance control over employees. However, a dictatorial style hardly fosters a creative atmosphere.
One statement stands out -- "to get the most creativity and innovation out of their employees, managers need to be able to trust them to act as the managers wish them to."
A second insight -- "the principle of giving staff the space, time, and budget for important projects is well established in the management of innovative enterprises. For instance, some 15% or so of the research budget of Europe's largest pharmaceutical firms is given over to such uncontrolled activity."
Do you work at a place where you are given room for creativity? I was once criticized at a company for reading the Wall Street Journal and trade journals at my desk -- during lunch hour. That company's managers have successfully driven the company down to where it's a mere shell of the company I devoted so much energy to. I think there is a correlation of that type of thinking and that kind of results.
1:06:17 PM 
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