Key Messages
Create An Innovative Work Environment With ‘Finding The Next Steve Jobs’: Learn How To Recruit And Support Creative Personnel
Looking for the right creative talent isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort.
If you want your business to succeed, it’s critical that you know how to hire and nurture talented, imaginative people.
Finding the Next Steve Jobs is about that process.
The book offers a number of tips that will help you make the most of creative talent in your organization.
You will learn how to spot potential candidates who may be found in unusual places, such as high school dropouts or arrogant people.
Additionally, this book can teach you how to foster an environment where creativity can thrive; from rewarding non-traditional achievements and putting couches and showers in offices, to building communities around ideas rather than products.
Finding the Next Steve Jobs also provides examples of techniques used by famous companies like Atari and reveals inspiring stories like why a love of model trains prompted one company founder to choose a particular inventor for her team.
Above all, this book emphasizes why managers are best off when they never say no if they want to make the most of their creative team members.
How To Foster A Creative Atmosphere In The Workplace
When you’re trying to bring in more creative people to your workplace, it’s absolutely essential to create an environment that will help them thrive.
The work environment should be one that puts creativity first; a cold, flat atmosphere simply isn’t going to cut it.
One great way to make the workplace exciting and engaging is by utilizing secrets.
Not only does this add some fun and make people feel closer with each other, but secrets also let your business keep it’s projects under wraps until they’re ready for release.
For example, Apple employees are often kept from revealing any upcoming products to their friends outside of the company.
Be sure to set up flexible rules at work as well so there’s no stifling of creativity.
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak worked for Atari back in the day, they were forbidden from sleeping on the premises because of security issues.
But Jobs and Wozniak insisted on it so the company relaxed their rules slightly and installed couches and showers so employees who stayed late would be comfortable.
You could even use more daring tactics when advertising new jobs positions like Red 5 Studios did when they sent iPods with personalized messages inviting people who worked for rival companies over.
This kind of strategy not only gets attention but also shows that your business is game changer that doesn’t play by traditional rules.
Finding Creative People Through Networks Of Referrals, Online Communities, And Social Media
When it comes to finding the next Steve Jobs, investing time and resources into searching for talent is key.
It’s not always easy to find innovative, passionate people, but by tapping into the right channels you can increase your chances of success.
For starters, checking out creative communities can be a great way to find new and inspiring talent.
Places like the annual Hackers Conference are a meeting point for some of the smartest people in tech and offer great opportunities for both picking up new ideas and sourcing potential employees.
Additionally, Twitter can also be a useful tool when you need to look for someone who specifically fits your criteria – just check out their Tweets and see if you’d like to contact them.
Finally, one of the most reliable sources for talent is actually your current employee network.
Creative people tend to hang out with other creative people so turn your attention to ex-colleagues or ask existing employees for referrals — both Steve Jobs and the author himself have had success going this route!
Embrace Unconventional Hiring To Get The Most Out Of Your Employees
Finding the best employees doesn’t mean only hiring pleasant people.
If a person is a bit unconventional, or speaks his mind frequently, don’t be too quick to dismiss him.
After all, it was Steve Jobs’ arrogance that fueled his drive for innovation and greatness.
The same goes for people who wouldn’t have been able to get hired in traditional companies like IBM.
Take Harold Lee, for example; a Harley Davidson-driving man with long hair and a beard.
Despite his unusual appearance, he went on to develop the chip for Pong!
Diversity should also be sought inside the company – not just in terms of appearance or race but in creative skills as well.
One suggestion the author puts forward is to allow recruitment teams to hire high school dropouts for a month.
This will force them to look beyond basic qualifications and consider other characteristics that make candidates great hires.
Unlock Creative Potential And Gather Insightful Information With Thought-Provoking Interview Questions!
Finding creative, passionate individuals for your workplace can be a real challenge.
Without getting to know a person’s true passions and interests, it can be hard to really gauge their potential.
That’s why it’s important to have an effective interviewing process to help you find the right candidates for the job.
When conducting interviews for potential candidates, take a deep look into their hobbies, passions, and interests – particularly those that may require complex skills or consume most of the candidate’s time.
These offer insight into the candidate’s creativity and passion that you won’t get from examining only their formal education.
You can even ask them about their favorite books as someone who reads extensively often also has greater creative potential.
It is also recommended to bring in unusual or complex questions when conducting an interview.
Not only do these show how they think through problems they’re not familiar with, but they also let you assess the individual’s creative abilities – which can be difficult to acquire from traditional interviews alone.
The Importance Of Pranks, Parties And Fairness In Creating An Innovative Work Environment
If you’re looking to create a work atmosphere that’s conducive to innovation, one of the best ways to do that is through pranks and jokes.
Just think about Steve Wozniak– his younger days were filled with good-spirited pranks, which illustrate how humor can lighten up the air.
When people are comfortable and relaxed, they’re more likely to take risks, which leads to creativity.
Another way to promote an environment that fosters innovation is frequently having parties.
Parties can help free up ideas in people that may otherwise not have expressed themselves, and you’ll also be able to increase camaraderie between coworkers resulting in greater collaboration and communication.
For example, after a party at Atari, the employees began discussing ideas for an 8 player racing simulator– resulting in Indy 8!
Finally, you need to make sure your workplace is a fair workplace and give credit where it’s due.
If employees feel heard and appreciated for their hard work they’ll be more likely or inclined to continue contributing their ideas – no matter if they are the chairman of the board or janitor nearby!
Managers Need To Encourage And Support Employees’ Creativity For A Successful Outcome
When it comes to management, it’s important to remember that the goal isn’t to simply supervise employees like children- it should be about encouraging creativity and helping employees reach their full potential.
One way managers can do this is by giving everyone plenty of time to think about upcoming projects.
At Atari, for instance, instead of telling everyone about a project at the last minute, the author informed them with enough time so they could start formulating thoughts on it.
With ample time to consider new ideas and approaches, everyone had great strategies for entering the European market when the actual starting time came around.
It’s also essential that managers themselves participate in the creative process.
Rather than just automatically rejecting ideas outright, they should look for ways to refine or better each idea.
At Atari, managers were not allowed to say “no” – instead they had to supply suggestions or positive qualities for any proposed idea before making a decision.
This policy pushed them all out of their comfort zone and forced them to think more creatively.
For A Company To Succeed And Thrive, Taking Risks Is Essential
Encouraging your employees to take risks is essential for success.
It might feel scary at first, but it’s the only way to promote innovation, and find new and better ways of doing things.
However, taking risks can also bring with it a big chance of failure – so companies need to make sure their staff are rewarded for their risk-taking behaviours and not punished if bad ideas or failures occur.
James Dyson was a great example – he took an incredible financial risk which paid off in the end with his company now worth billions.
Chuck E Cheese also got this right by awarding those who had the biggest screw-up each quarter with a tin turkey.
It may sound strange, but it gave people permission to fail without fear of punishment.
At Apple, they found that even failures can be turned into learning opportunities – after all, out of their initial failure on the Lisa computer came the incredibly successful Mac!
Lastly, as entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell learned after his giant robot project didn’t work out– risk assessments should always be done before embarking on any risky projects and no more than 10% should ever be risked at one time because even if something fails you can try again!
How To Jump Start Your Creativity: Change Routines, Try New Things, And Market To The Rich
We all experience creative blocks from time to time, but with the right strategies and habits, it’s possible to jump-start creativity.
Individuals and companies alike can benefit from implementing these strategies in the workplace.
To get the creative juices flowing, start by making changes in your everyday life.
Small shifts in your schedule could help stimulate new ideas – like when Frank Zappa set his alarm an hour earlier every day until he was waking up at 8pm!
By switching things up, your mind is more likely to come up with unique solutions.
Another great way to get inspired is by taking yourself out of your comfort zone and trying something completely different – roll a dice and see what comes up!
Steve Bushnell once wrote out a list of potential activities (including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and skydiving), rolled a dice and ended up writing a book!
Finally, if you’re coming up with product ideas, don’t worry about expensive costs for consumers – market the first version of your product to wealthy people who can pay any price.
This strategy was how bicycles became popular after they were invented in Paris in the 1860s – at first it was only nobles that were able to afford them until the early 1900s when prices dropped and bicycles became accessible for everyone.
Wrap Up
The Find the Next Steve Jobs Book provides a comprehensive summary of the importance of creativity in business.
The message is clear; businesses cannot reach their full potential without hiring inspiring, creative individuals that bring something new to the table.
Companies should foster an atmosphere of safe risk-taking to ensure both long term success and short term growth.
To make employees feel secure trying new things, employers should be willing to reward failure as well as success; this lesson is potentially life-changing for them as well as you!
Ultimately, if put into practice, these creative strategies may just help your company find the next Steve Jobs!
