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This is an enhanced edition of the HBR article 98501, originally published in September / October 1998. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview and an annotated bibliography. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights. Based on 22 years of breakthrough research, this article by Teresa Amabile, MBA Class of 1954 Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, provides insightful guidelines for any executive who wants to nurture and stimulate one of the most powerful competitive weapons in the realm of business today: creativity. In today''s knowledge economy, creativity is more important than ever. But many companies unwittingly employ managerial practices that kill it. How? By crushing their employees'' intrinsic motivation - the strong internal desire to do something based on interests and passions. Managers don''t kill creativity on purpose. Yet in the pursuit of productivity, efficiency, and control - all worthy business imperatives - they undermine creativity. It doesn''t have to be that way. Business imperatives can comfortably coexist with creativity. But managers will have to change their thinking first. Specifically, managers will need to understand that creativity has three parts: expertise, the ability to think flexibly and imaginatively, and motivation. Managers can influence the first two, but doing so is costly and slow. It would be far more effective to increase employees'' intrinsic motivation. Take challenge as an example: Intrinsic motivation is high when employees feel challenged but not overwhelmed by their work. The task for managers, therefore, becomes matching people to the right assignments. The result can be truly innovative companies in which creativity doesn''t just survive but actually thrives.