Page 198 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives
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                186 Design Meets Business
perspective and looks at how creatives interact with clients. In particular, this Chapter starts from the assumption that creatives increasingly are asked by business to help them innovate. For business it might be difficult to innovate solely, as they are caught up in routines (Cohendet and Simon 2016), have a heavy workload (Elsbach and Hargadon 2006), or simply do not possess the requisite creative capabilities (Amabile 1996). Hence, crea- tives can organize experiences for business clients that can help business to become creative.
Organizational researchers showed that creativity can be stimulated through creating ‘liminality’. Liminality is a temporary experience of ‘in-betweenness’, ridden of feelings of ambiguity, community and freedom (Turner 2008 [1969]), that helps people move away from existing organiza- tional realities and orient towards new realities (e.g. Czarniawska & Mazza 2003). The literature showed that liminality can be purposefully created by ‘ceremony masters’ (Turner 1976), yet so far we know little about the role of ceremony masters in creating liminality. The main question of this Chapter was therefore how creatives as ceremony masters facilitate limina- lity for business clients.
Based on a study at the innovation hub Waag Society, it is demonstrated that liminality can be facilitated through ‘activating’ clients by connecting them to a heterogeneous group of ‘frontrunners’ or ‘innovators’, letting them play and experiment with new technologies without given clear-cut guidance. For example, the creatives encouraged their clients to organize in teams and experiment with a 3D-printer in Waag Society’s Fab Lab. The practice of ‘activating’ demands the creatives to ‘morph’ into diffe- rent roles, depending on the needs of their clients. For example, in projects creatives changed their role from facilitator to technology expert, because the clients needed more guidance in building digital prototypes. Through the combined practice of activating and morphing, creatives can create feelings of ambiguity, community and freedom among their clients. In doing so, they facilitate liminality for their clients.
Taken together, this study enlightens the behavior of ‘ceremony masters’ who facilitate liminality for others. Especially, it is suggested that it is important for ceremony masters to stay alert and identify when clients have negative feelings that can hamper their commitment in crea- tive processes. Further, our study reveals a case of ‘double liminality’. Creative workers can act as ceremony masters and facilitate liminality through adopting the position of liminal beings themselves. Not only the clients of Waag, but also the creative workers themselves described the organization in terms of ‘vague’ and ‘unclear’. Hence, it is suggested that creatives might not only adopt fluid roles for their own creative processes,






























































































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