Dreams versus Logic

I believe that the creativity and innovation are under attack and have been for quite a while.

I had an online chat with a friend of mine who is a Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, and he exposed a frustration with people who as teenagers and early 20s year olds didn’t understand “why people don’t make what I see to be the right choices, despite their feelings and likes.”

From what I understand about my friend, he is a highly logical person. believes every decision should be dictated by the information available and whatever is logically the most correct decision.

This is many ways is the dichotomy between a manager and a leader. A manager takes available information and makes the best most logical decision. A leader surveys the environment around an issue, and make their best intuitive decision based on their vision and experience. Being a leader is a creative and innovative endeavor. Being a manager is the exact opposite. (This isn’t to say that people wear both the leader and manager hat, but often they wear one more than the other.)

Favoring management over leadership is short sighted. General Motors pre bankruptcy management believed that they could manage their way out of their market share issues to regain their previous prominent position. Their vision was to go back to the past, instead of leading the company into a new future. If you contrast this with Ford, and Alan R. Mulally’s leadership to remake Ford into a new company to be able to address the future.

More and more people refuse to give artists and leaders the space to actually apply their creative skills, and instead force them to manage and take the most logical choice, however mundane and ultimately incorrect that may be.