Creativity in practice is elaborated in this chapter distilling insights from the work of Aristotle and contemporary business sociologists. Our actions largely define who we are and, for better and worse, put meaning into our life. Creativity can’t emerge from business cultures of rigidly enforced homogeneity, just minor innovations on the road to extinction. Led by charismatic leaders projecting the company vision, diverse team members need to be motivated by their commitment to business goals to achieve creative outcomes. This can only happen in work environments where the exchange of information is facilitated by ethical stakeholders whose worldview values are coherent with those of the business.

1. 1.

   M. Polanyi,Personal Knowledge, p. 124. I’ve adapted my analogy in the previous section about the rules for the game of chess from a similar usage by Polanyi inPersonal Knowledge.

2. 2.

   Friedman and Friedman (1962, p. 27).

3. 3.

   Aristotle (1976, p. 322) [1175a10-31]. Words in parenthesis are mine. Intrinsic capabilities are those that come from within like charisma, integrity, empathy and so on. Extrinsic capabilities are endowed from outside like management authority and wealth, for example.

4. 4.

   Maslow et al. (1998, pp. 1–17).

5. 5.

   Gardner (2001, p. 5).

6. 6.

   For example, Danny Ocean’s eleven compatriots chosen for their specialised skills, undertook a highly sophisticated casino heist where each member obviously got a thrill out of their performance, playing like they had nothing to lose. But such creative performances aren’t good by any stretch of moral and legal imagination, despite their ‘good’ intentions not to hurt anyone or steal from anyone who didn’t deserve to be deprived! See Soderbergh’s 2001 film starring George Clooney:Ocean’s Eleven.

7. 7.

   Gardner et al. (2001, pp. 10, 243).

8. 8.

   Wenger et al. (2002, pp. 216–7).

9. 9.

   Florida (2003, p. 114). See also Drucker (2002, p. 121).

10. 10.

    Florida,The Rise of the Creative Class, p. 135.

11. 11.

    Ibid, p. 133, Murray (2003, pp. 93, 451) and, Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder,Cultivating Communities of Practice.

12. 12.

    Murray,Human Accomplishment, pp. 393, 415–17, 25, 51. See also Gardner, Damon, and Csikszentmihalyi,Good Work, p. 237.

13. 13.

    Simonton (1997, p. 195). See also Murray,Human Accomplishment, p. 37 and, Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder,Cultivating Communities of Practice, p. 395. Simonton also claims that intrinsic creativity drivers, at least in the productive period of an individual’s life, are more important than extrinsic pressures, like political instability, for instance. See Simonton,Genius and Creativity: Selected Papers, pp. 211–12.

14. 14.

    Florida,The Rise of the Creative Class, pp. 70–79, 177, 85, 86, 218, 73 and, Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder,Cultivating Communities of Practice, p. 35. See also Gardner, Damon, and Csikszentmihalyi,Good Work, pp. 132–3, 212–15.

15. 15.

    Simonton,Genius and Creativity: Selected Papers, p. 49. See also Florida,The Rise of the Creative Class, pp. 77–9, 252, 68–9, Murray,Human Accomplishment, p. 395 and, Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder,Cultivating Communities of Practice, pp. 59, 61, 82–3, and 122.

16. 16.

    Ibid, pp. 9, 11, 15, 27, 80–81, 166.

17. 17.

    Ibid, p. 193.

18. 18.

    See a similar theme in Florida,The Rise of the Creative Class, p. 318.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Highton, VIC, Australia

   Lindsay Dawson

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