Page 163 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

4. Facilitating Liminality 151
new role in the community because of their vast experience in and knowl- edge about the ‘life after’ the liminal space. Similar to this role of ceremony masters, midwives can assist women to become mothers after giving birth to a baby (Homans 1982).
In this study we direct attention to creative workers as ceremony masters. Creative workers themselves do not only have significant expe- rience with creative processes and know what it takes to be(come) crea- tive in organizational settings (Harrison and Rouse 2014; Stierand et al. 2014; Jones et al. 2015; Cohendet and Simon 2016; Ortmann and Sydow 2017; Fortwengel, Schüßler and Sydow 2018). Creative workers are also often considered as ‘misfits and mavericks’ (Jones et al. 2016) or ‘amphib- ians’ (Becker 1974; 1982; Powel & Sandholtz 2012; Jones et al. 2016) who experience liminality themselves, because they cross boundaries, shake up conventions, or simply find themselves outside existing structures. For example, Hargadon and Sutton (1997) show in their study that because of their position at the interstices of structures, designers at IDEO can act as ‘technology brokers’ and promptly identify new technologies and re-intro- duce them as innovations into other fields - which the authors refer to as ‘technology brokering’. Moreover, because of their experience and outsider position, creative workers may act as ceremony masters and trigger crea- tivity among their clients.
We explore how creative workers, as ceremony masters, help others to become creative. Literature on creative services explained how engaging in collaborative interactions spurs creative work (Hargadon and Sutton 1997; Hill and Johnson 2003; Hargadon and Bechky 2006; Lingo and O’Ma- hony 2010; Harrison and Rouse 2014). For example, in their study of the internationally renowned design firm IDEO, Sutton and Hargadon (1996) demonstrate that the collective process of brainstorming promotes organ- izational memory, skill variety, and wisdom, all of which in turn helps to ignite creativity amongst designers. Next, building on this study, Hargadon and Bechky (2006: 487) show that interactions such as help seeking, help giving, reflective reframing, and reinforcing can trigger ‘fleeting moments’ in which creativity emerges.
By focusing on creative workers as ceremony masters for liminality, we shift attention from liminal personae to those who facilitate it, and from creative workers generating their own creative products to helping others to become creative. It is particularly relevant to further explore how crea- tive workers as ceremony masters facilitate liminality for their clients. We do this by studying the setting of creative firms like innovation hubs, as here creative workers organize temporary innovation projects for their clients that are aimed at triggering novel ways of behaving.