Usually I do a Rice science Friday feature here, often discussing some breakthrough in chemistry.
But two Rice University management professors, Jennifer George and Jing Zhou, have something important to say, so we'll talk about it now, even though it's not science. George is the Mary Gibbs Jones professor of management (Mary was the wife of Jesse Jones, after whom the Rice management school is named), but she also teaches psychology, so what they're saying is doubly important.
For George, the latest work follows on a 2004 paper called "In The Mood: Cultivating Emotional Intelligence Pays Off ." Now they've got some data showing creativity is at its highest when both positive and negative feedback are supported.
Here's what I consider their nut graph:
"Creativity is more likely to take place in environments where individuals or groups feel free to take risks, and where failures are sometimes expected as a consequence of such risk-taking. The notion that, if you are going to try new things, you will sometimes fail, is understood."
Managements that accept some failure get more creative productivity.
If employees are treated with respect and dignity, if Internet
values like transparency are put in place (let people know where they
stand, treat them like adults) then you'll get productivity regardless
of your workers' mood. (That's George to the left.)
The findings remind me of what they teach in marriage counseling. Sometimes a bad mood isn't about you. Sometimes it's just frustration about a problem outside the relationship that someone is trying to work through.
I know that I often use anger to fuel my own work. But I can't use that one note all the time. Sometimes I need to use joy, to look on the bright side of life.
The goal of management is to get the most creative work out of employees, George and Zhou are saying, and this in itself is a revolution in terms of work. For over a century the goal has been productivity, units that could be counted. But when you're dealing with a creative work product quality means even more. And you don't get those creative leaps if you're treating people like mushrooms, or like children.
Treat people like adults and their individual Michelangelo will come out, if it's there at all. Then grade their work honestly, let them know how it relates to management goals, and also let them know when it doesn't.
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