Two weeks ago, we introduced a common modern problem of the innovation economy, the conflict between orderly, efficient and productivity-focused managers and their rather laid-back, constraint-free and creativity-focused creative subordinates. We learned that this conflict can largely be explained by looking at different personality types at work: According to the Myers-Briggs Personality Typology, we noted that most creatives are iNtuitives and Perceivers, who are notoriously bad when it comes to time management. In contrast, most of their managers are the exact opposite — orderly, systematic and time-efficient Sensors and Judgers who focus on getting things done.
Having an ENTP-Personality Type (also known as “The Visionary” or “The Inventor”), I am both a creative who has to time-manage myself in order to produce creative output and results, and I am an entrepreneur running THINKERGY — The Idea Company, where not surprisingly, most of our team members are creatives as well. Belonging to both groups, I understand the perspectives, wants and constraints of both sides of the table. For a long time, I’ve pondered the following questions: As a creative, how can I improve on my time management without losing my creativity? And as an entrepreneur, how can I better manage my most creative types and utilize their creativeness in more productive ways for the benefit of our firm?
To be frank with you, there are no easy answers to these questions. Over the past years, I’ve “rapidly prototyped” various time management strategies on both myself and my team members in order to identify methods that both preserve creativity and boost productivity. In two weeks from now, I will share eight recommendations on how to do better time management in creative times with you, but today, it’s necessary that we first try to understand the different motivations of both camps, productivity-focused managers and their creative employees, that are at the core of this conflict.
1. Motivations and needs of creative employees
Creatives tick along the following line: “I want to produce great creative results that the world — or at least my boss, colleagues and clients — talk about. Being exposed to a tough conceptual problem (or an interesting design challenge), and then gaining insights into the real issue and creating ideas and meaningful solutions is what really gets me going. But to create magic, I need time to indulge in creative activities and to get into my creative flow. Why can’t my boss and my co-workers see that I am not a robot that monotonously ticks off tasks on a to-do list?
I greatly dislike being pressured to conform to strict and rigid office hours, norms and routines that constrain my individuality and my personal preferences. I need to have flexibility with regard to work hours, and I prefer to work in a nice, bright and spacious office environment that inspires my creativity. I want to have good relationships with my boss and my colleagues, but I can feel that quite often, they think I am not working as hard as they do. They don’t understand that I need to be playful and hang loose from time to time to come up with great ideas, and that I need to get a break to relax after two hours of intense creative work.
Because he thinks I am lazy and not working hard enough, my boss always checks on what I am doing right now. I greatly dislike being micro-managed and interrupted in my work. And it drains my energy when I’m forced to deal with organizational matters like filing documents, making backups and other nitty-gritty work details.”
2. Motivations and wants of managers
On the other hand, most managers think along the following lines when observing the work of their creative subordinates: “What I want to have from my creative colleagues is great creative outputs that our customers like and that set us apart from our competitors. And I want to get these results as fast as possible to get a good return on compensation. But what do I see if I walk around the office? My creatives taking another break, having a chat with their colleagues, reading an article on the Internet, or fooling around with each other and talking nonsense. This really makes me angry. I am not paying money to these people for being idle, am I? This is unfair to their co-workers and me, who work hard for the team to get things done. Why can’t my creative team members be more productive and effective in the use of time? Why can’t they keep an orderly work environment and stick to professional work routines?
Why are they so extreme and erratic in their work attitudes, working so concentrated for some time of the day so that you cannot even interrupt them without them exploding or get really angry about the interruption, and then doing nothing at other times during the workday? And why are they always late for work and meetings? I am not sure how much longer I should tolerate this undisciplined behavior, although I have to admit: the creative work that they produce is really excellent.”
3. Motivations of the firm
In most companies, the conflict between the productivity and creativity camps typically is resolved by one of the following two approaches: The manager insists that the creative team members follow a strict office etiquette, which will make the creatives resentful and likely to lose their creative energy and zest. Or the two parties agree on poor compromises that make no one really happy and don’t lead to more professional results either.
The best resolution of this conflict lies neither in an edict from the boss nor in a compromise that leads to a lose-win or lose-lose solution, but in finding the lowest common denominator (see my earlier article in this column: “Look for the Lowest Common Denominator,” published on March 19, 2009) that both sides share: Producing great creative output for the firm. So the way out of this conflict is that both camps, creative employee and manager, commit to whatever is needed to bring out the best creative output for the firm on a steady basis. How can this be done? Come back to this column in two weeks from today, when I will give you eight concrete recommendations for a more creativity-friendly time management approach.
© Dr. Detlef Reis 2010. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the title “Creative people and time management: Yes, the two can coexist” on 18 February 2010.