Leading Creatives Through Change
Dr. Chet Schriesheim is in his 70s and proudly wears Psycho Bunny socks.
He is a distinguished professor at the U and will never let you forget it. He teaches Managing Through People to many MBAs and has his anecdotes tailored for every lesson. One week, we were covering the topic of change and he told a story about a lab and how the lab director was having difficulty managing the employees through change.
Chet described the various methods the manager implemented and how frustrated she became. The problem? The manager was constantly checking up on the scientists and micromanaging when it wasn’t necessary. The manager had no scientific background and didn’t understand that testing and other scientific measures operate on their own time.
Scientists don’t want to be hounded. The manager should set clear goals spanned out through a generous period of time and let the scientists and lab assistants handle the rest. And then it hit me- that’s how creatives should be managed when facing change.
Managing Creatives
Scientists and creatives are polar opposites-but hear me out. Let’s look at a company we all know- Netflix. Netflix has developed so many wonderful shows because of this type of management style. Corporate is a kaleidoscope of creatives and quantitative people commingling under one roof. When it came to content production, the executives understood what creatives needed to thrive. Corporate pretty much said to film crews “here’s a credit card with a limit. Come back by this time with a great story.” And, boom. We got House of Cards.
Like the scientists, creatives need boundaries. There is a funny saying in the theater with auditioning: always tell an actor what to do; give them alley bumpers. The same goes with their management. To properly manage creatives, give them boundaries and a manageable, yet generous time frame. Check in every so often, asking to see updates but never micromanage. Micromanaging won’t prove sufficient because creativity ebbs and flows. If you are a creative yourself, share with them your experience on overcoming an obstacle that needed creative thinking. What did you do to fix that problem? Show them support.
Managing Creative Through Change
Now, what about when the problem has been fixed, but the solution needs to be implemented? What if you and your team have found a creative solution to a problem, and you need to implement that change to a creative team? Or creative company?
PATIENCE
As a manager, you must exude patience. Change, for anyone, takes longer than expected and setting lofty expectations for those changes to become habit is sophomoric. To find out more on how to learn to manage creatives through change, click the button below.
Story Time
So, let’s continue this leadership and management conversation. I want to tell a quick story about how improper leadership can lead to change not being implemented correctly. And how to get your employees to hate you.
During my first year of my MBA, I had a part time job as Front Desk staff member at a very famous cycling studio. We had, but never wore, these neon yellow fanny packs embossed with the word “PARTY” on the front. These fanny packs were cumbersome and cheaply made, making them hard to adjust for the different sized staff. One day, the regional manager mandated that we wear them at check in.The reason behind the mandate was unclear, but it made our jobs even more difficult. The fanny packs got caught on handlebars, seats, door handles, and pedals, making it impossible for us to do our jobs and sometimes risked our safety. It was making our job more difficult, and the front desk staff refused to wear them.
Why Bring This Up?
It’s a great example of improper management! Our regional manager never informed us why wearing these fanny packs would make our job better and never asked us our opinion. The kicker? This manager never held our position before, so they were unclear on our exact job parameters and thought a fanny pack was necessary. The manager never checked with us if having this fanny pack would be essential to our day to day tasks.
The regional manager’s management style is what we call A1 Vroom-Yetton Leadership Model. According to Dr. Schriesheim, A1 (Autocratic 1) is simply put as a leader “solving the problem or making the decision yourself, using information available to you at the time.” And ironically, that can be implemented, Dr. Schriesheim suggest 5% of the time, when making decisions in emergencies where action is needed quickly. Fortunately, the only emergency that was caused was a fashion one.
Here is a quick diagram of the Vroom-Yetton Model
AI AII CI CII GI GII DI
In my Creative Recommendations, I’m consulting industry workers who will be directly affected by the change into my recommendation conversation. Other organizations and think tanks are only conversing with higher ups who will have very little to do with implementing change on the ground. For all of my recommendations in the “Creative” installment, I’m using Vroom-Yetten’s G2 (Group 2) Model. For G2, Dr. Schriesheim describes that a leader “share[s] the problem with your subordinates as a group. Together you generate and evaluate alternatives and attempt to reach agreement on a solution…you don’t try to influence the group to adopt ‘your’ solution….[you’re] willing to accept and implement any solution which has support of the entire group.” G2 can be time consuming, but for the health and safety of creatives and crew, it’s paramount the correct path to decision making is made.
This video is a bit low tech- but don’t judge. The students actually do a very good job of showing what each aspect of the Vroom-Yetton diagram entails.