The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

1.14. Managing Creativity in the Real World

Economic slowdowns offer us an opportunity to reflect and to plan for the future. Any serious planning must include a sincere drive to increase true IT productivity.

I believe that the next significant jump in worker productivity will be preceded by a leap in true IT productivity. But we will need to have a new generation of software development processes in place before the next economic "boom" gives everyone another good excuse to ignore the problem. That means we have to get busy now.

One of the thorniest issues facing software developers is human nature, or more precisely, our prejudices about the way we deal with creativity.

As a species, we tend to believe that creative processes are inherently individualistic. We are not accustomed to organizing creative processes and we often assume that creativity itself is largely unmanageable, as if it were a force of nature beyond our control.

When we think of creativity in the sciences, we imagine the lonely inventor in a cluttered workshop or the mad scientist in an isolated castle.

We do not imagine teams of individuals with different strengths and varying degrees of talent. Instead, we see a solitary genius with a global view, a Renaissance man with every possible skill required to get the job done ... all by himself. What a guy!

I am embarrassed to admit that this delusion is especially prevalent among software developers.

What is missing from the lone-inventor fantasy is the reality ...