A review presentation over creativity in teams and the role of the leaders.

1. Creativity and Role of
the Leaders
Hossein Yavari
October 19, 2021

2. Have you ever shared an
idea with your manager?

3. Lisa Mouse
In 1979, Steve Jobs arranged a visit with Xerox Parc research
center to view some of their experimental technology. It was
there he discovered the mouse, invented by Douglas
Engelbart. The mouse had subsequently been incorporated
into the graphical user interface (GUI) used on the Xerox
Alto. During an interview, Engelbart said "SRI patented the
mouse, but they really had no idea of its value".
But Jobs did not want to reproduce what he saw at PARC.
He wanted something that is appropriate for mass audience!

4. • “The ability to create something
novel and appropriate” (Amabile and
Khaire, 2008).
• “Creativity is a phenomenon whereby
something somehow new and
somehow valuable is formed”
(Wikipedia).
• An essential part of the
entrepreneurs’ plan of starting new
businesses, and to keep their
companies in global scale.
Definition

5. Components of Creativity
Expertise
Creativity
Motivation
Creative-
thinking
skills
Source : Karlyn Adams, The Sources of Innovation and Creativity , National Center on Education and the
Economy (NCEE) Research Summary and Final Report, Washington, USA, 2005, P 4.
Knowledge-
technical,
procedural and
intellectual
How flexibly and
imaginatively
people approach
problems
Intrinsic is more
effective than
extrinsic

6. Problem Solving Approach
Creative
Leadership
Creative
Management
Management
Opportunities
Predicament
Maintenance
Formulaic
Reactive Proactive
Approach to the problem
Algorithmic
Heuristic
Nature
of
problem

7. Creativity vs Innovation

8. Creativity vs Innovation (cont.)
• Creativity:
• The ability to give a new interpretation to
something we already have.
• Innovation:
• The ability to invent something new that did
not exist before.

9. Foster Organizational Innovation
Source : Center of Creative Leadership

10. Creative Leadership
• It is a combination of leadership and
creativity, ability to generate ideas
and execute them.
• BUT, traditional leaders tend to do
“tried and true” strategies.
• Creative leaders inspire, cultivate,
and implement imaginable solutions
that can result big changes.

11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EF0ziuZO50&t=12s

12. Try to
understand
“Creativity”
approaches and
do not do this !
If you are not
creative.

13. Drawing on the Right Minds
• The highest priority of a leader in a
creative work is engaging the right
people, at the right times, to the right
degree.
• It is not about your creativity. It is
about your team’s creativity.
• Tap ideas from all ranks:
 greatest successes come from
workers’ own initiatives.

14. • Encourage and enable collaboration:
 look beyond the top ranks.
 coordination totems.
 hierarchical structures.
• Identify strengths and weaknesses on your
team.
Drawing on the Right Minds (cont.)

15. Drawing on the Right Minds (cont.)
• Open the organization to diverse
perspectives:
 Using people with different disciplines,
backgrounds, and areas of expertise due
to complexity of the issue.
 The application of one field’s methods or
habits of mind to another produces the
breakthrough.
 People with multiple social identities
(suppress identity Vs encourage identity).
 Outside’s organization’s sources of
creativity.

16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAGHCwlfh-o

17. Bringing Process to Bear – Carefully
• Can creativity scale?
 It depends on vibrant, ongoing
collaboration and free idea flow.
 Increase scale in an operation
with increasing reliance on
process.
 Harmful too much focusing on
process.

18. Bringing Process to Bear – Carefully (cont.)
• Map the phases of creative work:
 Planning the stages of innovation
 Recognize the different processes,
 Skill sets
 Technology support.
• Manage the commercialization handoff:
 Equal capabilities in idea generation and
idea commercialization.
 Forcing to engage in commercial activity
well beyond the comfort zones.
 Limit the loss of momentum with adroit
timing and handling of the transition.

19. Bringing Process to Bear – Carefully (cont.)
• Provide paths through the bureaucracy:
 Creativity stifling.
• Create a filtering mechanism:
 Gardens do have weeds;
 Kill off the stuff that holds no
potential.

20. Has your creativity been
ignited by the team or your
leaders ever?

21. Fanning the Flames of Motivation
• Motivating people to perform at their
peak.
• Provide intellectual challenge:
 intrinsically motivated (intellectual
challenge and independence) or
extrinsically motivated (salary,
benefits, and job security).
• Allow people to pursue their
passions:
 awareness of individuals’ interests
and skills.

22. Fanning the Flames of Motivation (cont.)
• Be an appreciative audience
• Embrace the certainty of failure:
 Decrease fear of failure.
 Increased sensitivity to failure.
 Improve creative problem solving,
team learning, and organizational
performance.
• Provide the setting for “good work.”:
 The potential for passionate
engagement in one’s work is highest
when the work itself is seen as noble
(Howard Gardner).

23. Being a leader and develop creativity in your team is
not easy BUT we have lots of samples…

24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5enAGG51PQ

25. Question ?

27. References
1. Gladwell, M. (2011). Creation myth: Xerox, PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation. New
Yorker, 87(13).
2. Amabile, T. M., & Khaire, M. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard business
review, 86(10), 100–142
3. https://en.wikipedia.org
4. https://www.creativejeffrey.com/creative/creative_leadership9rules.php