Join us for a presentation and lively discussion with Mad*Pow as part of The Music Hall's Innovation & Leadership Forums.

In his book Drive, Daniel Pink discusses a number of studies showing how people in today’s creative knowledge economy are not necessarily motivated and engaged by traditional methods. In fact, offering rewards for performance (the carrot and the stick), using title and rank to direct people (micro-managing), or lavishing half-hearted recognition can actually be de-motivating. Instead, people are motivated by a desire to be creative in their work and make a difference. People want to be empowered to find solutions to make their work better. People want to work on something that helps improve the world. People want to solve complex problems that challenge their skills and intellect. It’s the creative nature of our work that can keep individuals excited and energized every day.

However, creativity is not just an individual endeavor. In many situations, the best creative work happens when individuals come together as a team and feed off of each other through collaboration, brainstorming, arguing, and exchange of ideas. As leaders and managers of creative organizations, it is our responsibility to create a culture that enables individuals to explore innovative ideas in their work and build an environment where teams can flourish. We need to help employees find meaning and interest in their work and design an environment that encourages sharing and inspiration for ideas.

Sounds good, but how? A creative work environment is more than a ping pong table in the lounge. Physical environment is important, but there are a multitude of other ways a culture of creativity and entrepreneurship can be infused into various parts of a business.

In this session, we’ll discuss the growth of the creative culture at Mad*Pow, detailing lessons we’ve learned along the way. We’ll outline our approach in general, and cover some specific activities we’ve tried – from the design of our space, to team building activities, to management guidelines, and goal setting. We’ll also dive deep into our recent company-wide Design Slam event – a team building design activity that gave Mad*Powers the opportunity to collaborate with folks they don’t normally work with, and spend their energy on interesting design problems with few constraints.

There will be plenty of time for questions. We look forward to having you join us.

Presenters:

Michael Hawley, Chief Design Officer
Will Powley, Founder & C.C.O.
Buck Beaudoin, SVP, Creative Director

The Evening:

5:30pm: Networking & Cocktails
6:30pm: Creating a Healthy Work Culture

TICKETS

Free to Music Hall sponsors and members. Available 2/13.
$5 to everyone else. Available 2/21.

Series Sponsor: