Although I haven’t previously presented at a conference on HR related techniques, my talk yesterday went quite well and many approached me afterwards to tell me that they were using some of the techniques in their management practices and it was working very well for regaining employee interest and raising morale. Some even reported a higher level of innovation and creative thinking.
The presentation took what I’ve learnt from ‘managing’ creative teams over the years (starting from more traditional models, moving to the Starfish and the Spider model in our current roles) and backed it up with brilliant research work from people like Scott Berkun and Malone & Lepper’s learning motivation work. But mostly, it’s come from the experience that I have of really really hating to manage at all. I’ve always been a self-motivated, entrepreneurial type (and an intrapreneur when I worked at larger companies), so I tend to try to work with others who are similar to me. My downfall is that I tend to expect everyone to be this way, but it’s also served me well as people who start off working with me who are timid, usually end up becoming more aggressive and confident after working with me (in fact, I think I’ve created some ‘monsters’ who have gone on and done all sorts of amazing things I’m absolutely envious of. 
I hope you enjoy it. I know that I enjoyed working on it and presenting it.
One more presentation to go! I’ll be uploading my Government 2.0: architecting for collaboration on Friday morning (NZ time).
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11 Comments
I wish you’d get hired by the company I currently work for.
The myths about motivation and the innovation killers are so dead on.
Great slideshow!
Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation on Wednesday. Looking forward to the keynote!
I LOVE this presentation. It is dead on.
Thank you for sharing it.
What I love most about the methods you propose are the fact they make everyone feel they are a helpful part, have creative input, and clear roles.
I hate when developers get left out of the planning and idea creation until it is time for them to do something.
Tara, you move me!
Bonjour Tara,
Very nice presentation on a topic massivelly addressed. This one is very visual and goes to the essence. Congrats!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on innovation and creating a culture that encourages creativity. I’ve ever mindful of this in startup mode; to attract people who think this way but also to create structures to foster participation.
I really need to dig in the the Starfish and The Spider!
Bellissima.
Ho dedicato un po di tempo recentemente a pensare (in realta’ a torturarmi riguardo) a questo genere di cose. Credo che la tua visione della questione sia molto simile alla mia.
Mentre mi sposto gradualmente su progetti molto piu’ basilari e rilassanti e nei limiti del possibile in Italiano, e mi allontano il piu’ possibile dai computer, se dovessi pensare ad un problema collegato alla creativita’ sul web e difficile da “crackare”, riguarderebbe “disturbi” e “deficit” vari dell’attenzione (”ADD”?) nel futuro del web:
Erano davvero un disordine o un prezioso, legitimo e, sempre piu’ nel futuro *richiesto* ordine?
Vediamo se lo traduci:-)
Kick Ass!
Hi Tara,
Just wanted to say that I really appreciated both this talk (I’m about to become a first-time manager so it was very inspiring!) and also the Creating Passionate Users workshop from Tuesday. You did an awesome job with someone else’s material, and it was great to get so many fresh and interesting ideas, both from you and the discussion you facilitated.
Glad you’re home safe
Cat
Tara,
It’s really nice.
Great presentation. It made me wish I worked for you.
Tara,
Great slides, is there an audio recording of your presentation?
Thank you
Jesse