creativity is a leader's secret weapon (colour)
TRANSCRIPT
Running, almost unnoticed,through the histories of leaders..
..has been the story of their creativity
…is a link between Leadership and Creativity
Studies at Manchester Business School have established a clear link between effective leaders and their skills at encouraging creative change..
Creative Leaders Release Creativity in Self and Others
The leader’s secret weapon is the application of creativity, directed towards releasing more creativity in others
Leader Creativity
Creativity
Benignstructures
Creativity
Creativity
Creativity
Creativity
TeamFactors
Working and Theoretical Definitions
Working definitions are provided here for creativity, leadership, creative leadership and benignstructures These definitions are adequate for explaining a new idea, or for‘starting a conversation’
Conceptually richer definitions are required for building and exploring theory
Working definitionsCreativity: The process which generates new andvaluable ideas
Leadership: The process directed towards influencing the actions and achievementsof a wider group
Creative leadership: The process which generates new and valued ideas directed towards influencing thoseactions and achievements
Benign Structures: Procedures through which groups achieve valued improvements in performance
Early Views of Leadership
…Society and circumstances create leaders
A supreme being creates human leaders
More Recent Views of Leadership
(Great) Leaders create (great) changes in their worlds …
Leaders and social systems co-create one another(We create ‘the leaders we deserve’)
Creative Leadership:The MBS studies (1980s-2008)
MBA project team studies (1980s-2000)
Longitudinal studies (1999 - )
Leadership data base (2006 -)
Manchester Business School (West)
Project Team Leadership and The Manchester Method
The Project Team studies were part of an educational innovation known as The Manchester Method
MBA teams ‘learn while doing’business projects’
Team tutors began to recognise consistent patterns of success and failure
Three Kinds of Team?
A small proportion of teams struggled (‘Teams from Hell’)
The majority of the teams achieved the goals set them(‘Standard Teams’)
Another minority performed beyond expectations(‘Dream Teams’)
?
Earlier theories did not predict the observed results ..
Team development theory (Tuckman) suggests that all teams share a common pattern of development
Leadership models (Stogdill) favour two leadership styles(consideration for people, initiating structures)
New leadership proposes two different leadership Factors (transactional/ transformational styles)
A Leadership Theory Emerged
It proposed two barriers to team success
Leaders created new and benign structures for action and change
The theory identified seven team factors associatedwith team success
How the Two-barrier ProposalModifies Team Development
Theory
Form
Storm
Norm and Perform
Outperform
Dysfunctionalteams
Standardteams
Outstandingteams
Weak behaviouralbarrier
Strong performancebarrier
The role of Benign Structures in Creative Leadership
Creative leaders help reconfigure the structures under which team members operate.
Team-building structures overcome inter-personal barriers and establish team norms
In a ‘dream team’, leadership provides structures which transcendestablished norms
More about Benign Structures
MBS project leaders introduced benign structures based on lateral thinking approaches, versions of brainstorming, mindmapping and ‘Yes and’ invitations (encouragement of positivity)
More research is required on benign structures in other kinds of situations and teams
The Seven Team FactorsInfluenced by Creative Leadership
CreativeLeadership
Platform of understanding
Vision
Climate
Idea Ownership
Resilience
Network activators
Experientiallearning
On-going research into Creative Leadership at MBS
Longitudinal Studies (1999-2008)Extended studies of exceptional leaders
The Leadership Data Base (2006-8)The 300 stories are of leadership events such as corporate transformations and crises from the worlds of business, sport and politics.