Association -- premier cognitive skill for creative executives

Harvard Business Review weighs in on traits of visionary leaders (think: Steve Jobs/Jeff Bezos).

FTA:

Overall, associating is the key skill because new ideas aren't created without connecting problems or ideas in ways that they haven't been connected before. The other behaviors are inputs that trigger associating — so they are a means of getting to a creative end.

I enjoy the distinction HBR makes between creative and traditional executives. The "integrative thinking" line spouted by Rotman sounds hokey to me; or at least sprinkled with fairy marketing dust as much as imbued with core meaning. Creativity is central to how Roger Martin presents Rotman, but does the school seriously aim to produce creative thinkers? And what do they mean by that?

The Steve Jobs/Jeff Bezos distinction -- as people apart from analytical, military-style commanders -- is useful. Founders tend to share this quality -- a vision for the company that is anything but ironic. A workplace belief system that is as certain as one's private self-image. There is no script.

And perhaps that honesty -- that removal of the barrier between what is real and what is work -- unlocks other forms of cognition.