Companies like Google have turned classic work management style on its head, by allowing their engineers 20% of company time to devote on their own creative work. This is weird idea to most companies.
Stanford professor Robert I. Sutton wrote a book on how to manage for maximum creativity called Weird Ideas That Work. Sutton concluded that what is right for routine work is consistently wrong for creative work.
Here are 5 Weird Rules That Boost Creativity:
- Find some happy people and get them to fight.
Invite team members to dissect an idea. This is a sure fire way to expose flaws. - Reward success and failure; punish inaction.
This is like Seth Godin’s “just ship” philosophy. Activity level should be the gauge of performance. - Ignore people who have solved the exact problem you face.
Give a project to an unlikely team member, and you might find a new way of doing it. - Hire “slow learners” (of organizational code).
Find people who are confident enough to stray away from the herd. - Seek out ways to avoid, distract, and bore customers.
This will narrow your path that leads to the opposite outcome.
Sutton’s “Weird Rules” are a reminder that one of the best strategies for inciting creativity is to upend the status quo.
I dream of working for a status quo bender and breaker.
Share with us some of your “Weird Rules”!
[via 99%]
[…] Kevin DeYoung Healthy Churches Don’t Look Down on Wanderers – Bill Wilson, Ethics Daily Weird Rules That Boost Creativity – Eric Dye, Church Create We Need a New Catholic Church – Sinéad O’Connor, […]