I read a great article on HR Daily that was picked up from Dan Bingham's guest post on the Halogen Software blog. Here's just a little bit of what he had to say...

One of best lines on how to manage creative people was delivered by Don Draper, the main character from the nine Emmy and five Golden Globe award-winning television series, Mad Men. When Sterling Cooper's new management, personified by Lane Pryce, criticizes the ad agency's creative department for being a bunch of lazy alcoholics, Draper defends his team with a statement I'll never forget:

"You came here because we do this better than you, and part of that is letting our creatives be unproductive until they are."

So simple, and yet it pretty much says it all when it comes to effectively managing creative people. Let them be unproductive until they are. A very difficult pill for task oriented managets to swallow, but an absolutely crucial prescription for the creative potential. The following is a guide on how to get the most out of your creative team, keeping them happy, motivated, from the perspective of someone who spent the last two weeks crammign three entire seasons of Mad Men into his brain...And as a creative writer myself, I wholeheartedly agree with everything I'm about to say. To read the full article, click here.

A really interesting look at the creative side of business! It really comes down to how you define "productivity" but I think it is important to recognise the distinction between different areas of a business. While some areas may measure their productivity by a series of broken down tasks and goals, others can more effectively evaluate their effectiveness by looking at the overall end result.

What are your thoughts?