First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

by Gallup Press

Counterintuitively, standards fuel creativity. Take music as an example. There is no right way to structure sounds. But in Western Europe in the late 16th century, a structured scale gradually became standard. This scale, called a chromatic scale, used 12 tones per octave, with each tone being 100 cents apart in pitch — represented by the seven white keys and five black keys on a piano keyboard. On the surface, this sounds as though it would restrict composers’ genius. But the opposite was true. Being limited to just 12 tones didn’t dampen creativity; it fostered creativity. The chromatic scale and its formal notation system spawned two centuries of the most prolific and original compositions. Composers as diverse as Vivaldi, Miles Davis, Stravinsky and Madonna all used the standard chromatic scale to give voice to the unique music playing in their minds. Standards, then, are the code in which human collaboration and discovery are written. Great managers know that if they want to build a cooperative, creative organization, they will have to ensure that their employees use the relevant codes. Lawyers must study case law. Air traffic controllers have to learn the standard navigational protocols. Accountants have to learn the rules of double-entry bookkeeping.