Managing and measuring the creative types seems to be high on the to-do list of executives these days. Harvard Business Review Online gives some tips in this article, written by Richard Florida and Jim Goodnight.
The creative class, according to the article, makes up 1/3 of the workforce but brings home 1/2 of the salaries and wages in the U.S. In addition to the questions of how to keep good creative people, they try to tread lightly on the territory of measuring a return for your investment.
So, how do you increase efficiency, improve quality and raise productivity among your creative types? Not stock options, it seems. Here are the tips the article gives:
- Help them be great.
- Stimulate their mind.
- Minimize hassles.
- Realize that the whole company needs to be creative.
- Keep customers satisfied.
To their list, I would add...
- Don't get bogged down in "measuring" the success of your creatives. You will know if it's working or not - and they will too.
- Watch how you design workspaces for creatives. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to come up with a new plan or concept for someone when you can't even hear yourself think. If everyone is in cubicles, have a Quiet Room or Library where employees can retreat if they need to think.
- Realize that sometimes a walk outside or a quick drive can spur creativity. If you talk to creative people often, none of them do their best thinking in the same place. For some, it's the office. For the vast majority, it's not - it's places like driving in a car, walking, etc. Don't make them feel that if they are not in the office, they are not working. (The article touches a bit on flexible hours, but I'm diving a little deeper here. It's more like flexible thinking. Too many think as long as you're sitting at a desk you are doing work. If you're not, you're goofing off. It's just not always true.)
- Leave them alone. Give them a deadline. Tell them what you want. Give them as much information as possible. And then leave them alone.
- Let creative types manage creative types, if possible.