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For creativity and innovation – Pirates, not the Navy!
I am honestly the orderly-systematic type of person whose safe zone lies on strategic planning and direction setting. This is absolutely good for management, but certainly, not always a healthy ground for leadership and for breeding creativity and innovation.
Creativity and innovation in its most revolutionary context are not simply thinking outside the box. It is radically “thinking without the box”. And such is the attitude of the lawless, spontaneous, emotional, and impulsive pirates.
In the article of Jay Elliot (2011) entitled, Teaming: “Pirates! Not the Navy.”The Steve Jobs’ Way, iLeadership for a New Generation, he highlighted how the whole organization is driven by the clear innovative direction of Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs’ way is a culture of team efforts. But not simply a team dedicated to doing things right like the Navy, but like the “pirates” who are committed to doing the right thing in an outlaw-free-revolutionary-thinking. “Pirates” in the context of having out-of-step opinions about business, products, and leadership.
Some would say that encouraging the members of the organizations to become “pirates” is a bit dangerous…risky. It may bring more concerns and may lead to conditions that are hard to control. But it is here that the role of the captain gets in. The “captain of the pirates”, who should instill direction to the mind and heart of the free-spirited pirates. To navigate them from being lawless to obedient; spontaneous to reflective; emotional to logical; impulsive to proactive. LEADERSHIP.
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