Managing Innovation Comments 0 Email Print ShareSharpening Your Skills curates a wide range of Harvard Business School's research and ideas around vital topics in business management.Should managers lead innovation or get out of the way? It's not an either/or decision. Executives of some great innovative companiesAmazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerbergare active participants in creation, getting their hands dusty in the digital dirt, writing code or copy, or inspring employees to raise their creative game.But Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has a different approach, creating an organization that values and rewards innovation rather than attempting to create it with his bare hands. AG Lafley, P&G's chief executive, revivied the company by instilling an ethos of "innovation is everyone's job."Dozens of faculty at Harvard Business School are focused on the subject of managing innovation. Some look at it by examining processes while others view through the lens of history. For example, Clay Christensen has pieced together the "innovator's DNA" while Lynda Applegate teaches "innovation is not an option."We've identified articles and working papers covering a wide range of thinking about innovation management to answer some specific questions you may have about tapping the creativity buried in your company:IS WORKPLACE TRANSPARENCY GOOD FOR INNOVATION?Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your ProductivityWould you be suspicious of employees who drew a curtain around themselves? What if you knew the curtain was specifically to block your prying managerial eyes? Harvard Business School Assistant ProfessorEthan S. Bernsteinexplains why decreasing workplace transparency can increase productivity.Do creative types need to be managed differently?Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact EntrepreneursIn her new Harvard Business School course, Creative High-Impact Ventures: Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World, professorMukti Khairelooks at ways managers can team with creative talent in six "culture industries": publishing, fashion, art-design, film, music, and food.Can creativity be taught?Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote CreativityAs global competition intensifies, it's more important than ever that companies figure out how to innovate if they are going to maintain their edge, or maintain their existence at all. Six Harvard Business School faculty share insights on the best ways to develop creative workers.Can an alarm clock be innovative?HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm ClockThere had not been an innovative breakthrough in alarm clock design since the snooze button until entrepreneur Gauri Nanda created Clocky. Her runaway hit has been the inspiration for several cases written by ProfessorElie Ofek.Should I crowdsource my solutions?Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside InnovationNo one organization can monopolize knowledge in any given field. That's why modern companies must develop a new expertise: the ability to attract novel solutions to difficult or unanticipated problems from outside sources around the world. A conversation with Harvard Business School professorKarim R. Lakhanion the keys to managing distributed innovation.What does NASA's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" teach about innovation?Mission to Mars: It ReallyIsRocket ScienceDo the successful Mars missions mean NASA again has the right stuff?Alan MacCormackdissects the space agency's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" program.To Read More:ARTICLESHBS Cases: LEGOStephan Thomkeon managing creativity for 80 years.Lean Strategy Not Just for Start-UpsThe power of 'lean' start-ups, according toScott Cook.How Small Wins Unleash CreativityTeresa M. Amabile's big wins from small steps.Five Discovery Skills that Distinguish Great InnovatorsClay Christensenon "The Innovator's DNA."WORKING PAPERSLeading Innovation in Good Times and BadInnovation is not a side business, saysLynda Applegate.Mechanisms of Technology Re-Emergence and Identity Change in a Mature Field: Swiss WatchmakingRyan Raffaellidiscovers new markets for old technologies.Organization Design for Distributed InnovationDesigning organizations ready for distributed innovation, byCarliss Y. Baldwin.