Creativity

Luca de Meo, member of the board of management at Audi AG, discusses marketing, branding, and innovation--and how to succeed in each.

It depends on the task at hand.

“Functional fixedness” is the hobgoblin of uncreative minds.

Ron Howard achieved early fame as a child actor on The Andy Griffith Show. Then came a long stint as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. But from an early...

Google, Goldman Sachs, and Medtronic have all introduced mindfulness practices.

America prizes the informality of its business life. But an informal workplace isn’t necessarily a productive or even a happy one.

Start listening for guidance on innovation and you tend to hear a lot about Apple, Google, and other high-tech pioneers in Silicon Valley, Boston, or Seattle. You rarely hear about hospitals, especially those that operate closer to farm fields than oceans. Yet in the extensive research my team has done to uncover the mystery of […]

Four ways to push an idea through resistance.

In a cross-disciplinary world, those who can make unexpected connections are king.

Spoil them with resources and only involve them in meaningful work.

They are two separate processes.

Creative pursuits will open up new perspectives and boost your confidence.

Dr. Tony McCaffrey outlines a new way to generate ideas.

Regions where social ties are tight may be the worst places for creative operations.

Hire people who seek inspiration from what's coming next.

One of my most popular posts for hbr.org is "Why Design Thinking Won't Save You". It clearly struck a chord, as well over a year since it was posted,...

The movement to standardize processes has gone overboard. Some require an artist’s judgment—and should be managed accordingly.

Management is widely viewed as a foe of innovation. The thinking goes that too much management strangles innovation (just let a thousand flowers bloom!). But we have found a much more nuanced picture. You really can manage for innovation, but it starts by knowing what drives creativity in the people who generate and develop the […]

When it comes to doing a long-term project, most people follow one of two paths: saving the heavy lifting for shortly before the deadline or making an initial big push right out the gate. After years of doing and assigning projects in business and academic settings, I’ve found a better way. First, let me explain […]

Believe it or not, Pixar was once a scrappy startup. The multi-billion dollar juggernaut with a near-perfect record of churning out hit after hit today was once “a bunch of guys going on their gut” according to Andrew Stanton, a co-founding filmmaker with the company whose credits include writing and directing Wall E and Finding […]