Free E-book – How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself)

By Mark McGuinness | 1/5/2009 | 17 Comments

Iggy Pop

Happy New Year everyone! The Lateral Action team would like to wish you all a creative, productive and fulfilling 2009.

To help you kick start your enthusiasm for the challenges ahead, here’s a free e-book for you: How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).

It began life as a series on my Wishful Thinking blog, and is primarily aimed at leaders, managers and others responsible for getting the best out of creative people.

But I’ve written it to be useful to anyone with a passion for creativity. So if you and/or your team want to do better creative work and enjoy yourself more in the process, download your copy now.

Topics covered include:

What makes creative people tick
Why motivation is crucial to creative success
Why you can’t motivate anybody – but what you can do instead
What Iggy Pop can teach you about management
Why offering rewards can harm creative performance
How to write 47 novels before breakfast
Why some people seem so weird – and how to deal with them
The positive side of peer pressure

The e-book is published under a Creative Commons licence, which means you’re welcome to download and share it on a non-commercial basis, provided you keep it in its original format and credit me as the author.

(NB the images are governed by separate licenses if you want to publish any of them separately – please don’t do this without reading the copyright information on page 2.)

If you enjoy the e-book, please feel free to pass it on to friends and colleagues who may find it of interest.

About the Author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach and co-founder of Lateral Action. Subscribe today to get free updates by email or RSS.

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#1 | Leon Quinn | 1/5/2009 at 3:56 pm

I’ve downloaded the pdf and can’t wait to read it as I’m a creative myself. I’m wondering can motivation be thought or learned or can it only come from within as part of the creative process itself..

#2 | Rasmus | 1/5/2009 at 4:08 pm

Thank you for putting this together. I look forward to giving it a closer look (just “flicked” through it for now).

#3 | Sarah Stewart | 1/5/2009 at 4:36 pm

Just found this book via Twitter. I need all the motivation I can get so I finish my PhD this year

#4 | Lucy | 1/5/2009 at 4:59 pm

Thanks! I love creative stuff- I’m downloading the book now.
Lucy

#5 | Michael Martin | 1/6/2009 at 9:41 am

I’ve read through it all now and loved it Mark. You did a great job of categorizing everything into distinct sections and it was so easy to read, I couldn’t stop.

I’m working out how to apply it to myself now. I’ve never laid out my motivations clearly and precisely before, it just tended to be “This looks fun” or “That’s well paid.” I think I’ll try justifying each task I do from now on more clearly like in your ebook and hopefully enjoy doing it a lot more then.

#6 | Glen Allsopp | 1/6/2009 at 12:50 pm

Excellent giveaway Mark, I’m checking this out now!

Stumbled!

Cheers,
Glen

#7 | Mike Smith | 1/6/2009 at 5:20 pm

Checking it out now. I tweeted about it through sharing it in my google reader. From the quality this site pumps out, I can only imagine how kick ass the e-book will be. Thanks for posting it up for download

#8 | Yoav | 1/6/2009 at 6:35 pm

Just what I was looking for.
you are amazing.
thanks.

#9 | Mark | 1/8/2009 at 3:15 pm

Thanks everyone.

Martin — Glad you enjoyed it and it clarified things for you.

Everyone else — I hope it lives up to your expectations.