ABSTRACT
Traditional management practices hinder rather than facilitate creative teamwork (Thompson, 2003), a proposition that this chapter outlines for media management, using the example of the ritual practice of the morning meeting as a decision-making arena in which ideas are eliminated rather than boosted. Based on observations and feedback from three newsrooms and several student arenas in Norway and the USA, we investigate how idea development can become a daily practice in news production, through a specific tool called the Idea Propeller. We build on the argument of Amabile and Khaire (2008) that leaders should manage for creativity instead of managing creativity itself and argue that involving all employees in daily creative work will have several positive effects for organizational practices and products. The chapter concludes that fostering creative literacy in the newsroom or among students of journalism requires mastery of creative boosting techniques, especially by managers and teachers.
