Business

One of the keys to becoming a business that fosters and supports creativity and innovation is to learn how to manage creativity.  As a business law attorney I have a unique opportunity to see management styles from many different types of businesses and have found this concept to be true - especially for businesses which rely on innovation such as software licensing and technology companies. 

In The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida discusses Microsoft's approach to managing creativity:

1.  Hire smart people who think.  The company’s interview process is designed to separate the people who think from those who simply perform tasks... At Microsoft, the interviewing and final approval of on candidates is always done by the group that is doing the hiring.  The most telling questions that Microsoft managers ask are highly unusual.  Why are manholes round?  Microsoft isn’t actually interested in the correct answers.  They want to see how the candidate goes about solving a problem.  Example: Manholes are round so the covers cannot fall through the holes and so the covers, which are very heavy can be rolled aside easily.

2.  Expect employees to fail.  If you work in an environment in which the best route to job security is by working to outdo the company’s competition, you focus your energy on developing new products and new ways to solve problems.

3.  Keep repercussions small when conquest-oriented employees make mistakes.  You don’t want them to feel as though their careers at the company or that their happiness is riding on just one mistake.  At Microsoft, failure is expected.  If employees don’t fail they’re not taking enough risks.  In some cases they’ve even been promoted because of what they learned from their failures.

4.  Create an us versus them mentality.  Microsoft employees are constantly reminded that their competition is other companies, not colleagues.  Emphasize the company’s goals, but let each individual figure out how to get there.

5.  Sustain the company's start-up mentality.  In a start-up company, there’s an ever-present sense of urgency that the business must succeed.  Make it everyone’s responsibility to watch costs.  There are no secretaries at Microsoft.  And if a job needs five people to complete it, four are assigned.  Frugality keeps employees from becoming too comfortable or lazy.

6.  Make the office feel like home.  Create a work environment that is as nice or nicer than home, and employees will want to be there.  At Microsoft, everyone has his own office, and there’s no dress code.  Employees can walk around barefoot- except in the cafeteria.  There’s a big connection between enjoying your work and doing good work.