# Mimicking and Creating as Professional Distinctions By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-02-06 A profession has two distinct classes: those who mimic and those who create. Those who mimic rarely, if ever, venture from the profession's technical manual. They follow prescribed methods and may become highly skilled, efficient, and effective. Those who create can mimic the standards but often spend time pushing the boundaries and creating new ways of doing things. These individuals are usually not the highest performers according to the standards because their natural focus is not mastering a repetitive task. Instead, they focus on the art of their trade and creating something new. Both classes have their place in organizations and society, but we've largely ignored the second class in the industrial age. For example, resumes, job descriptions, and performance reviews are all based on measuring the advantages of the mimicking class. Even if an organization wants a creative, they'll use the duplicate titles and performance criteria as a mimicker. The reasons for this are rooted in an overemphasis on the analogy that organizations and workers are like machines and should be managed accordingly. Of course, machines are great at mimicking but bad at true creativity. As a result, organizations and managers lose conscious awareness of the distinction. So, they hire individuals of one type or the other without knowing it, only to become frustrated when a mismatch occurs without any awareness of why. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Creative]] [[Mimic]] [[Organization]] [[Performance]] [[Hiring]]