LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: BALANCED CREATIVITY AND PRODUCTIVITY

entrepreneurs are an anathema to ongoing productivity

Entrepreneurs typically run into trouble after they get their new venture launched.  The character traits and behavioral patterns required to focus an idea and bring it to market have nothing in common with what it takes to transform embryonic enterprise into sustainable business. As a coach to the CEOs of fortune companies, my first objective was always to position each new client on a creativity continuum. 

      VISION______________________________________________PRODUCTION

(The creative continuum)

by LSI publisher Art McNeil

Everybody has a home base—a predisposition that when being honored, fosters energy and reduces stress.  Visiting the “less natural” end of one’s creative continuum is usually unpleasant.  Where like minded others are gathered, meetings feel productive and focused.  Unfortunately, if the group wants to accomplish anything the opposite is usually true.

 Unlike most of us who take up residence at one end or the other, great artists inhabit mid ground on the creative continuum.  They remain centered through sheer will and determination (Drucker referred to these people as monomaniacs on a mission).  Artists begin with vision but unlike chronic dreamers they quickly become obsessed with transforming ideas into reality.  Once production is complete however, they lose interest just as quickly and drift off to new possibilities.  

Artists are never content and seldom hang out with like minded others at their natural home base.  Because they imagine and produce in equal measure, lots of work gets done.  Their batteries, however, have few opportunities to recharge.  Many great artists go mad because they have no home base sanctuary. Entrepreneurs, like artists, transform ideas into reality.  They share the trait of becoming bored once production is complete.

Nature’s way:

 When a worker bee returns to the hive after a production trip, it struts out a triangular pattern. The apex of this triangular waltz points directly to the source of pollen. The hive’s majority is tuned to this signal and programmed to fly straight (the proverbial beeline) to the identified source of pollen.

Worker bees also emit audible bleeps while doing the directional dance. The interval between each sound, spells out the exact distance to the source of pollen. The seldom mentioned essence of bee hive survival is that only 82 percent of the bees are genetically conditioned to follow instructions—the other 18 percent are mutants, incapable of process compliance. These undisciplined explorers (entrepreneurs) take off without a flight plan. In the process of failing, a percentage of them find new sources of pollen. Without mutant bees, the hive would soon deplete its known source of nutrients and become extinct.  A free marketplace and a balanced (sustainable) company operate the same way.

What can be learned from bees:

• If you are a visionary: surround yourself with worker bees—and don’t expect producers to innovate.
• If you are a producer: protect and honor your mutant bees—but don’t expect production from them
• If you are the queen bee (CEO): focus on keeping your hive alive with an effective  balance (80:20).  Avoid hanging out with soul-mates at either end of the creative continuum.  Take long vacations to recharge your batteries. 
• If you are an entrepreneur: with the attention span of a gnat, sell your hive and go find a fresh source of pollen.

This post sponsored by The Baton Management System