2
Book Reviews Book Review Editor: Donovan R. Hardenbrook, NPDP Books reviewed in this issue: Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership for the Ideas Economy Triple C Model of Project Management: Communi- cation, Cooperation, and Coordination Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities that Lead to Business Breakthroughs Customer Visits Managing Creative People: Lessons in Lead- ership for the Ideas Economy Gordon Torr. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2008. 303 þ xiv pages. US$39.95. This is not your typical book on creativity. It will give you a refreshingly different viewpoint on a sub- ject that is critical for new product development or- ganizations. Gordon Torr, formerly a global creative director for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and now the head of his own consultancy, has extensive experience in managing truly creative people. In this book, he proposes that creativity, like high intelligence or athletic talent, is a characteristic of a small subset of people, and then he goes on to develop an approach for successfully managing these creative individuals. This book is intended for those who manage creative people, whether they are artists, scientists, copy writers, engineers, or de- signers. The author does not deny that most people can develop some degree of creativity, just as most people can learn to hit a tennis ball or write an essay, but his focus is on the creative equivalent of Olympic athletes. These are people who have the special talents and personalities needed to come up with breakthrough ideas again and again. He argues that they are differ- ent from other people and need to be managed accordingly. They are creative because they are differ- ent; they are not different because they are creative. This thesis goes against the grain of the many writers on creativity who seeks to show how creativity can be taught, and Torr is not shy about skewering some well-known names. As such the book is thought pro- voking and enlightening. The book is divided into two parts: The first part describes and analyzes the creative individual, and the second proposes a model for a creative organization. The author begins by showing, from his own experi- ence and from observations in a variety of industries, that creative people do not respond well to the incen- tives and controls that are generally successful for managing large organizations. Rather, standard man- agement techniques tend to suppress these individu- als. He then looks at organizations that have been successful at generating creative output and comes to this conclusion: ‘‘The history of ideas teaches a very simple lesson: that two guys in a garage will beat a multi-million dollar corporation ninety-nine times out of a hundred’’ (p. 23). This seemingly straightforward statement contains two basic ideas that the author goes on to develop in detail. First, it doesn’t apply to any two guys. For example, many organizations have tried to emulate the success of Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory or Lockheed’s Skunk Works, but without a Thomas Edison or a Kelly Johnson to come up with the ideas, they are often disappointed. Second, orga- nizations can, and often do, negate the contributions of really creative people by inappropriate manage- ment. This is why breakthrough innovations often are the result of a collaboration of a small group of highly creative individuals operating semiautonomously. Who are these creative individuals? The author spends several chapters sorting through the sparse and sometimes contradictory literature on the biolog- ical and psychological bases of creativity, including an exploration of the similarities between creative and J PROD INNOV MANAG 2009;26:467–471 r 2009 Product Development & Management Association

Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership for the Ideas Economy by Gordon Torr

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Page 1: Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership for the Ideas Economy by Gordon Torr

Book Reviews

Book Review Editor: Donovan R. Hardenbrook, NPDP

Books reviewed in this issue:

� Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership

for the Ideas Economy

� Triple C Model of Project Management: Communi-

cation, Cooperation, and Coordination

� Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities

that Lead to Business Breakthroughs

� Customer Visits

Managing Creative People: Lessons in Lead-ership for the Ideas Economy

Gordon Torr. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons,Ltd., 2008. 303þ xiv pages. US$39.95.

This is not your typical book on creativity. It will

give you a refreshingly different viewpoint on a sub-

ject that is critical for new product development or-

ganizations. Gordon Torr, formerly a global creative

director for the J. Walter Thompson advertising

agency and now the head of his own consultancy,

has extensive experience in managing truly creative

people. In this book, he proposes that creativity, like

high intelligence or athletic talent, is a characteristic

of a small subset of people, and then he goes on to

develop an approach for successfully managing

these creative individuals. This book is intended

for those who manage creative people, whether they

are artists, scientists, copy writers, engineers, or de-

signers.

The author does not deny that most people can

develop some degree of creativity, just as most people

can learn to hit a tennis ball or write an essay, but his

focus is on the creative equivalent of Olympic athletes.

These are people who have the special talents and

personalities needed to come up with breakthrough

ideas again and again. He argues that they are differ-

ent from other people and need to be managed

accordingly. They are creative because they are differ-

ent; they are not different because they are creative.

This thesis goes against the grain of the many writers

on creativity who seeks to show how creativity can be

taught, and Torr is not shy about skewering some

well-known names. As such the book is thought pro-

voking and enlightening.

The book is divided into two parts: The first part

describes and analyzes the creative individual, and the

second proposes a model for a creative organization.

The author begins by showing, from his own experi-

ence and from observations in a variety of industries,

that creative people do not respond well to the incen-

tives and controls that are generally successful for

managing large organizations. Rather, standard man-

agement techniques tend to suppress these individu-

als. He then looks at organizations that have been

successful at generating creative output and comes to

this conclusion: ‘‘The history of ideas teaches a very

simple lesson: that two guys in a garage will beat a

multi-million dollar corporation ninety-nine times out

of a hundred’’ (p. 23). This seemingly straightforward

statement contains two basic ideas that the author

goes on to develop in detail. First, it doesn’t apply to

any two guys. For example, many organizations have

tried to emulate the success of Edison’s Menlo Park

Laboratory or Lockheed’s Skunk Works, but without

a Thomas Edison or a Kelly Johnson to come up with

the ideas, they are often disappointed. Second, orga-

nizations can, and often do, negate the contributions

of really creative people by inappropriate manage-

ment. This is why breakthrough innovations often are

the result of a collaboration of a small group of highly

creative individuals operating semiautonomously.

Who are these creative individuals? The author

spends several chapters sorting through the sparse

and sometimes contradictory literature on the biolog-

ical and psychological bases of creativity, including an

exploration of the similarities between creative and

J PROD INNOV MANAG 2009;26:467–471r 2009 Product Development & Management Association

Page 2: Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership for the Ideas Economy by Gordon Torr

psychotic personalities. His conclusion is that creative

people are, in fact, different, but whether it is because

they are less inhibited, more open to experiment, more

perceptive, or just weirder than the rest of us remains

to be discovered. What is clear to him is that attempts

to reduce the act of creativity to a formula or a process

have to date been woefully inadequate. The author

concludes his discussion of the creative individual with

this provocative statement: ‘‘Process doesn’t really

matter. If we’re smart enough we will solve problems.

If we’re even smarter we will allow for the illogicality

that has brought us this far’’ (p. 116).

The first sentence of the second part of the book

sums up the author’s management philosophy: ‘‘A

belief in creativity for the sake of creativity is a nec-

essary condition for the success of creative compa-

nies’’ (p. 120). Reconciling the self-gratifying nature

of creativity with the demands of a profit-oriented

organization is the challenge of managing creative

people. Creativity results from intrinsic motivation;

organizations run on extrinsic motivation. Creativity

cannot demonstrate its instrumental value, that is, its

commercial worth, by itself, which makes it incom-

patible with a world of key performance indicators.

After a discussion of why creativity often fails to

survive in large organizations, the author comes to a

critical distinction: the difference between creativity

and innovation. By his definition, creativity is about

coming up with ideas, and innovation is about imple-

menting them in the real world. Innovation is a pro-

cess that can be managed, as evidenced by the

numerous permutations of the Stage-Gates ap-

proach. But most of these tend to gloss over the idea

generation step. Managing creative people is about

making that idea generation happen. As the author

points out, ‘‘Creativity without innovation, at least in

the commercial context, is a self-indulgent waste of

time. Innovation without creativity is absurd’’ (p. 175).

Leaning heavily on the work of Theresa Amabile

(1998), a professor at Harvard Business School, Torr

presents the evidence for intrinsic motivation being the

most effective driver of creativity. Intrinsic motivation

is best defined as doing something because you enjoy

doing it. He also shows how an overreliance on ex-

trinsic motivation can actually have a negative effect

on creativity and the performance of creative people.

As a model for the creative organization, Torr uses

Amabile’s analogy of a maze with one entrance and

five different exits. Exit one is directly opposite the

entrance and easy to find but leads to an incremental

benefit. Most people will use that exit. The other exits

are increasingly hard to find but lead to more inter-

esting places. Exit five is where the greatest result is

gained, but few people can find it. The goal of the

creative organization is find people who can and en-

able them to find that elusive exit. This means refusing

to let them use the easy exits or, to put it another way,

refusing to accept incremental improvements and hav-

ing the patience to encourage the persistence and

imagination that will result in great ideas.

The author does not prescribe a single, specific or-

ganizational model. Rather, he suggests carefully iden-

tifying the most creative people for the job, separating

them from the line functions of the organization, let-

ting them explore their particular maze, and protecting

them from organizational interference. He recom-

mends paying them well and recognizing them for

their output, not for the eventual commercial success

or failure of that output: ‘‘1. Hire the best talent you

can afford. 2. Let them get on with it’’ (p. 167).

As befits a book on creativity and the creative pro-

cess, this work tends to ramble. At times, the reader

may wonder why the author has taken off in a par-

ticular direction. But persistence is rewarded with im-

portant insights and a thought-provoking philosophy

for managing creative people.

Reference

Amabile, T. (1998). How to Kill Creativity. Harvard Business Review.

George Kingston

East Longmeadow, MA

Triple CModel of Project Management: Com-munication, Cooperation, and Coordination

Adedeji B. Badiru. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008.204þ xvii pages. US$89.95.

This book provides some unique insights that are

equally applicable to product management and pro-

ject management. The Triple C model of project man-

agement involves three key facets of good project

management: communication, cooperation, and co-

ordination. It focuses on the issues of dealing with

people in project management: ‘‘This book presents

the soft side of project management which is not nec-

essarily the easiest [and] requires more managerial

468 J PROD INNOV MANAG2009;26:467–471

BOOK REVIEWS