While I enjoyed many of the sessions, the most valuable one was presented by Adaptive Path, a San Francisco-based user experience firm, about managing creatives. It was so good, I'm going to look into bringing them to a future HOW Conference. Bryan Mason and Sarah Nelson interviewed creative managers from other industries to discover how they manage their teams. They talked to chefs, stage-managers, conductors and more and distilled the lessons into 10 tips.

What was really interesting was how many of the tips are employed by the HOW staff itself. I'll share a couple:

Tip #2 Rotate Creative Leadership

There's a lot to be said for empowering every member of a team by allowing them to take charge of a project. At HOW, we take turns planning the issues and writing the editor's letter. The planning process is still a collaboration, but one of us leads the way. It's proven very effective in giving us all a sense of ownership of the magazine.

Tip #3 Know Your Roles

Even though we have a rather flat hierarchy, we also each have specific areas of responsibility. That allows us to trust and rely on one another. We never have to worry that something will slip through the cracks.

Tip #8 Leadership is a Service

Whether she knows it not, this is exactly how Bryn manages the HOW staff. She engages the team as a facilitator rather than as a dictator. She gives us the space to do our best work, but is always there to support us when we need help. (Thanks, Bryn.)

Posted by Megan