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On Creative Accounting: Two Creativity Myths

Harvard Business Review

"Creative accounting" is really bad. For me, it evokes a wonderful old New Yorker cartoon by Robert Weber , where a small, meek accountant stands before the desk of an overfed chief executive exhorting the accountant to rescue the company: "It's up to you now, Miller. These two myths of creativity raise two questions.

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Eliminate Slogans, Exhortations and Targets

Deming Institute

The best policy may be to avoid incentives altogether and focus instead on creating systems in which intrinsic motivation, cooperation, ethical behavior, trust, creativity, and joy in work can flourish. Distorting the numbers, a form of creative accounting aimed at looking good rather than doing well, is rampant in American business.

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