Hong Kong--This item from Deborah Morrison in Fast Company on managing creative talent speaks to two issues related to leading educational institutions. First, we midi firewire interfacewant teachers to be creatives, so we have to manage them like creatives. Conventional, industrial models of management are usually counter-productive with teachers at best and outright disengaging at worst. Second, creatives hate to be managed; what they want instead is to be inspired.

"... the true platform for talent development hinges on building one beautiful characteristic from which all success flows: intrinsic motivation. It’s all the reasons we do things that have little to do with money or offices or perks. It can make B skill level into an A+ creative."

More and more, I find governing board members, especially in this region, who think that teachers should be managed (hired, evaluated and compensated) like manufacturing workers. Yet, what these same governors want from teachers is a creative performance. Form (of management) must follow function (unleashing intrinsic motivation). Until our school heads and board members see this as part of their Job One, we will be fighting an uphill and losing battle.