…when they are people-centric. Systems only serve creativity when they have at their heart the unleashing of people toward the organizational objective. In fact, I would argue that the organizational objective is best served by putting the right people in the right roles, then simply letting them make and do and be. It is the role of the leader in this situation to establish the boundaries within which people exist, however, the real role of the leader is ensuring that the right people are in the roles to begin with.
This is a struggle. Our tendency is to start with the organization and work backwards. It’s to find ways to slot people against a pre-defined objective. One way that organizations become truly unique, however, is through ensuring that you have the right people in the right place and then allowing them to grow, develop, and truly take command of their role.
Pie in the sky? Think Google.
Google creatives spend up to 25% of their paid time working on non-organizational-determined projects. Google is smart enough to realize that most of its innovative ideas will come from unleashing its people to do what they are passionate about, even if it seems to have no organizational benefit. Middle managers hate this because “control” is their thing. “Efficiency” is their thing. But these are not the real objectives of organizations, are they? Things that are GREAT always trump things that are efficient in the end. Period.
Do you want to survive, or do you want to thrive?
In this interview, 
Wed, Mar 8, 2006 by Todd Henry
Creative Process