What do creativity managers do?

Replace the word management with the word optimization.

That's what creativity managers do: they optimize the quality of the idea pool (creativity) and the implementation process (innovation).

There are many methods of optimization and the creativity leader must be aware of all of them, in other words, he or she must synthesize them for optimal effect.

Areas [within creativity] that need managing include motivation, organizational culture, organizational structure, incremental versus radical effects and processes, knowledge mix, group structures, goals, process and valuation.

Areas [within innovation] that need managing include idea selection, development / prototyping and the art of commercialization.

It is worth noting that 4000 good ideas result in 4 development programs, which in turn results in 1 winner.

Do creative people have common characteristics?

Trait theory suggests they have: for example, tolerance to ambiguity and intolerance to conformity.

However, traits are not stable (you might feel creative today but not tomorrow), they are not transferable (you might be a good guitar player but a terrible painter) and they are very hard to identify.

Overall, traits are not good predictors as to who will turn out to be creative or not.

A quote from David Ogilvy: "For sixteen years I have been trying to find some common denominator which seems to apply to all creative people. There aren't any. If I could find five or six characteristics I might be more successful at hiring them. I could make a list of curiosity, vocabulary, good visual imagery etc and then I could interview hundreds of people and hire the best. But I don't know of any common characteristic. We've got fifty copywriters and I suppose the good ones are judged at the end of the year, when we compare how many successful campaigns they have created. "

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Kal Bishop, MBA