Managing Creative Groups

Appoint charismatic people rather than technical superstars to lead creative teams. 

The essential difference between R D and other functions within the company is that its sole reason for existence is to be creative (see also Section C). Hence any successful R D Manager must be able to manage creative groups. 

The reward systems, which have been dealt with earlier, can be misused with creative people. It is very easy for them to feel that only concrete measures of performance will bring rewards and that the more intangible elements, needed for creative work, will not be given their just value. They will often only respond to value judgements on their creative performance made by somebody whose own creativity, or ability to inspire creativity in others, has been proven. A Manager who has no track record in research has to work hard to get the wholehearted support and respect from high performing researchers. 

Therefore an effective Manager of a creative group typically demonstrates the following characteristics  

Other studies have given support to these managerial characteristics and further emphasised that creativity amongst scientific personnel is more likely in teams where there is a favourable relationship with the Manager [A-16]. This is important in producing the very valuable, non-material benefits that are fisted below. 

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A-151 Brignall, T., paper at Managing Creative Groups Colloquium, The Royal Society, London, 1992... 

This part of the book is restricted to a consideration of the skills that an effective R D team manager will need to deploy. These are specifically leadership skills, the management of creative groups and last but not least the ability to manage one s own career. The various additional aspects of team working, especially the organisation of project teams will be examined in greater detail in other Sections. 

The difficulty in selecting managers for highly creative groups has lead some people to question whether a manager is needed at all for such groups. This would be a classic case of self-managed teams, which on the face of it seems very attractive. How-... 

Resolving differences What is best for one department or group won t necessarily be best for others. Out of these differences can come creative solutions when the situation is handled properly. Skill in resolving differences is an important quality of successful project managers. 

It would be a very poor R D organisation that was not both creative and innovative. That said, creativity and innovation are easily stifled or destroyed even in formerly effective groups. Like tender plants they only flourish in a suitable environment and are in need of constant nourishment, as is discussed in Section B. There are many actions that a Manager can take to help nurture the process of creativity and innovation and create the right climate in which chemists and other scientists can operate. To assist in this process the Manager needs to understand the characteristics of creative individuals and also the various pathways from creativity to innovative products or processes. A description of these and the techniques and aids involved forms the body of the first part of this Section. 

All R D Managers want to have their groups staffed by people who have ideas. Many will agree with the old maxim that R D needs such people even if their ideas do not work at least they are producing ideas, and the big one may be just around the corner. Thus at the core of any creative or innovative step lies the contribution made by individuals. These creative ideas people are often not the type of persons who can turn their ideas into innovations or can function well in time driven project teams. 

It is impossible to insist on creativity but it is possible to assist in the process by employing the right tools. R D Managers should be familiar with such tools, understand when they can be used most effectively and encourage their use within teams, groups and individuals. 

Sylvia Hurtado I do not have the research, but I cited Taylor Cox, who has looked at small-group dynamics. Actually, some of Morgan s work talks about innovative organizations. All of them have talked about the importance of diverse perspectives and managing that. I would get a copy of Taylor Cox s book. He probably has several, but one book reviews all the research that has been done on thinking outside the box and how that relates to creativity in groups. 

Suppose the answer given by the management group had been no. What does the safety and loss prevention professional do then to resolve the problan The problem still exists, but now the safety and loss prevention professional has no support or funding. Does the safety and loss prevention professional simply forget about the problem in hopes that it will fade away Does the safety and loss prevention professional simply accept the consequences of the no answer Are their alternative solutions to be explored Are there alternative funding sources Are there new technologies Can a creative solution be derived to address the problem ... 

The evolution of the management of transvenous leads has been born out of the furnace of clinical care and the pathophysiology of lead dysfunction. Transvenous lead extraction is only one tool in the management tool chest. At first it wasn t much of a tool, just a rag tag group of ideas used by a few people trying to solve problems for patients without a solution. However, over the last 25 years and particularly with the visionary efforts of Dr. Charles Byrd and his creative collaboration with Cook Pacemaker Inc. (now Cook Vascular Inc.), transvenous lead extraction is not only a tool but an armory of techniques. 

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