I have just come across a short article about a new book by husband and wife team Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. Amabile is one of the gurus of creativity research and her ideas are grounded in understanding what creativity means in the work place. I have ordered the book which summarises years of research into what makes people creative at work, based on 12,000 daily diaries, but I saw a summary which says that the single most important factor is simply a sense of making progress. I can well imagine this as I know well the feeling of wanting to make progress and the way it forces me to come up with ideas about how to achieve this. I also know how important it is for me to give other people who I am working with the same feeling that 'we' collectively are making progress, I am a great believer in creating and circulating progress reports that convey a sense of achievement, like the one I emailed to the team last Friday. Equally, I get an uplift when a member of the team responds with a 'great stuff' message that shows me they feel we have made progress too. Conversely, the think that makes people feel uncreative is set backs.
From: norman jackson <[email protected]>
To: jjenny <[email protected]>; RussLaw <[email protected]>; BrianCooper <[email protected]>; NicholasBowskill <[email protected]>; JohnCowan <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, 16 March 2012, 9:45
Subject: Progress Report
Dear team
Just to report that:
1) Matthew Taylor has replied to my letter and invited me to have discussions with RSA's new Director of Education - Joe Hallgarten when he starts in April.
2) Charles Handy's wife Liz has invited me to have breakfast with them on the 27th March
3) I have been contacted by Dr Jonathan Robbins with an invitation for a conversation - He is an RSA Fellow and CEO of International Graded Qualifications Ltd (Singapore) Website: www.intlgq.org... I think its an Awarding Body.
4) Christopher Dede Professor in Learning Technologies Harvard Graduate School has a agreed to write an article for the next issue of Lifewide Magazine. He's very influential in the world of technology and informal learning and has sat on various high level committees in the USA.
5) Russ and Jenny have made some good postings on the website.
6) And we recruited our 200th member!!
A good week I think..
Norman
The book identifies seven major catalysts for making progress..
1. Setting clear goals. "People have to understand what they're doing and why," Amabile says, adding that it's important that the goals be reachable in a realistic time frame-owing to the idea of small wins.
2. Allowing autonomy. "People need to know what goal they're trying to reach, but they have to have autonomy in order to get there,"
3. Providing resources. realizing that a significant project will always require a significant investment in materials and personnel.
4. Giving enough time—but not too much—to complete a project. Amabile explains that deadlines are important, but only if employees understand how the deadline benefits the mission. "We found that in general, extreme time pressure is bad for creative productivity, but low-to-moderate time pressure is good," Amabile says.
5. Offering help with the work. Autonomy is not the same thing as isolation, Amabile says. Employees will feel inhibited if they don't feel comfortable asking for support or, worse, if they feel that others are deliberately blocking necessary information from them.
6. Learning from both problems and successes. "Ideally this means having managers and co-workers who, if you try something and it fails, will not punish you or ridicule you, but will say, 'OK, what happened? Do you know what went wrong and why? Let's figure it out,'" Amabile says. "That can actually take a setback and turn it into a sense of progress: you learned something."
7. Allowing ideas to flow. In short, good managers know when to shut up and listen.
The book also details the four nourishers necessary for a healthy inner work life: respect and recognition, encouragement, emotional support, and, finally, affiliation—any action that serves to develop mutual trust, appreciation, and even affection among co-workers.
I value all of these things and recognise that they are important and I hope that I practice them with the people I work with day to day. The other thing that struck me was how similar this list was to what I had found in my recent study of change at SS University.
From: norman jackson <[email protected]>
To: jjenny <[email protected]>; RussLaw <[email protected]>; BrianCooper <[email protected]>; NicholasBowskill <[email protected]>; JohnCowan <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, 16 March 2012, 9:45
Subject: Progress Report
Dear team
Just to report that:
1) Matthew Taylor has replied to my letter and invited me to have discussions with RSA's new Director of Education - Joe Hallgarten when he starts in April.
2) Charles Handy's wife Liz has invited me to have breakfast with them on the 27th March
3) I have been contacted by Dr Jonathan Robbins with an invitation for a conversation - He is an RSA Fellow and CEO of International Graded Qualifications Ltd (Singapore) Website: www.intlgq.org... I think its an Awarding Body.
4) Christopher Dede Professor in Learning Technologies Harvard Graduate School has a agreed to write an article for the next issue of Lifewide Magazine. He's very influential in the world of technology and informal learning and has sat on various high level committees in the USA.
5) Russ and Jenny have made some good postings on the website.
6) And we recruited our 200th member!!
A good week I think..
Norman
The book identifies seven major catalysts for making progress..
1. Setting clear goals. "People have to understand what they're doing and why," Amabile says, adding that it's important that the goals be reachable in a realistic time frame-owing to the idea of small wins.
2. Allowing autonomy. "People need to know what goal they're trying to reach, but they have to have autonomy in order to get there,"
3. Providing resources. realizing that a significant project will always require a significant investment in materials and personnel.
4. Giving enough time—but not too much—to complete a project. Amabile explains that deadlines are important, but only if employees understand how the deadline benefits the mission. "We found that in general, extreme time pressure is bad for creative productivity, but low-to-moderate time pressure is good," Amabile says.
5. Offering help with the work. Autonomy is not the same thing as isolation, Amabile says. Employees will feel inhibited if they don't feel comfortable asking for support or, worse, if they feel that others are deliberately blocking necessary information from them.
6. Learning from both problems and successes. "Ideally this means having managers and co-workers who, if you try something and it fails, will not punish you or ridicule you, but will say, 'OK, what happened? Do you know what went wrong and why? Let's figure it out,'" Amabile says. "That can actually take a setback and turn it into a sense of progress: you learned something."
7. Allowing ideas to flow. In short, good managers know when to shut up and listen.
The book also details the four nourishers necessary for a healthy inner work life: respect and recognition, encouragement, emotional support, and, finally, affiliation—any action that serves to develop mutual trust, appreciation, and even affection among co-workers.
I value all of these things and recognise that they are important and I hope that I practice them with the people I work with day to day. The other thing that struck me was how similar this list was to what I had found in my recent study of change at SS University.
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