11
Human Creativity
The Starting Point of Creativity
Key Topics Covered in This Chapter
- Creativity and the creative process
- Myths and realities
- The components of individual creativity: expertise, flexible and imaginative thinking, and motivation
- Managing for creative output
EARLIER CHAPTERS OF this book focused on the front end of the innovative process: idea generation, opportunity recognition, and the processes that companies use to choose between many innovative ideas and move them toward commercialization. Very little was said, however, about the creativity from which ideas and innovations emerge, or about the things that managers can do to encourage it. We turn to these here and in chapter 12. But first, let’s examine the concept of creativity and some popular misconceptions about it.
The English word creativity has its source in the Latin creatus, to have grown. It refers to the human act or process of producing a new idea or approach to a problem. Innovation follows in the train of a creative idea—that is, innovation is the process that applies the creative idea to development of a useful product, service, process, business model, or practice. Thus, creativity is the starting point of innovation.
What goes on in creativity? Many have tried over the decades to answer this question. Perhaps one of the most useful was formulated by Graham Wallas in his 1926 work, The Art of Thought, where creativity was described as a four-stage process of:
- Preparation: The individual’s mind perceives the problem and explores its dimensions
- Incubation: The problem enters the unconscious mind (as many say, “I’m sleeping on it”). Synthesis of the bits and pieces of the problem no doubt occurs during this stage
- Illumination: The Aha! moment
- Verification: The stage in which the creativity idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and eventually applied1
Understanding the stages of this process will help you to better understand the creativity that is happening around you.
Myths About Creativity
Quite a bit of research has been done on creativity over the years. This research indicates misconceptions that limit the ability to effectively manage it. Five such misconceptions are described below.
Myth #1: The smarter you are, the more creative you are.
Reality: Intelligence correlates with creativity only to a point. Once you have enough intelligence to do your job, the correlation no longer holds. That is, above a fairly modest threshold—an IQ of about 120—there is no correlation between intelligence and creativity. As we will see later, there is no valid profile for the creative person; nor is there a test for determining a person’s creative powers. So be careful about using IQ tests, grade point averages, and similar measures as you screen the people you look to for creative thinking.
Myth #2: The young are more creative than the old.
Reality: Age is not a clear predictor of creative potential. Research shows that it usually takes seven to ten years to build up deep expertise in a given field—the kind of expertise that enables a person to perceive patterns of order or meanings that are invisible to the novice. Thus, in the business world, the necessary creativity can be found in an adult of any age. At the same time, however, expertise can inhibit creativity: experts sometimes find it difficult to see or think outside established patterns. So when you think about staffing R&D or product development teams, think about creating a balance of veterans and newcomers. The veterans have deep expertise; the minds of newcomers are not contaminated by conventional thinking.
Myth #3: Creativity is for flamboyant risk takers.
Reality: A willingness to take calculated risks does play a role in creativity. After all, the innovator is stepping into unknown territory, expending resources that might have been directed to a less problematic venture, and possibly exposing his or her career to peril. But being creative doesn’t mean you have to be a bungee jumper. It doesn’t mean that you have to be markedly different from everyone else. Nor does it mean that creativity is restricted to high-risk endeavors.
Myth #4: Creativity is a solitary act.
Reality: Yes, a great many creative solutions are the product of a single person working in relative isolation. Isaac Newton, for example, developed his stunning theories on calculus, optics, and gravity during two years spent on his family’s farm in rural Woolsthorpe (1665–1666), where he had sequestered himself to avoid an outbreak of the plague that had forced the closure of Cambridge University. Indeed, Newton’s creative accomplishments during those two short years in the country may have been his most productive. Nevertheless, a high percentage of the world’s most important inventions and technical breakthroughs are products of collaboration among groups of people with complementary skills. The Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bomb, and the Apollo Project, which put the first person on the moon, are just two examples of many. Thomas Edison, the most prolific inventor of his time, did not work alone but at the center of a large number of technicians, mechanics, and assistants—his famous “Insomnia Brigade,” so named for their habit of working into the small hours of the morning.
Given the power of group creativity, smart managers look for ways to bring people with complementary skills and insights together: in forums, brown-bag lunches, workshops, skunk works, project teams, and brainstorming sessions.
Myth #5: You can’t manage creativity.
Reality: Granted, you can never know in advance who will be involved in a creative act, what that act will be, or precisely when or how it will occur. Nevertheless, a manager can create the conditions that make creativity more likely to occur (rewards, resources, structures, etc.). Management can make a difference! This idea will be discussed in more detail later in the chapter.
Three Components of Individual Creativity
The myths we’ve listed cast doubt on the ability of managers to hire the right people and to create environments in which creative behavior can flourish. But these myths do not hold water. It’s best to put them on the shelf and consider what creativity is, and the components that make it possible.
What is creativity? Robert Dennard described creativity as “the ability to produce or bring into existence something that was not there before, something new, an extension of our base of knowledge.” 2 His experience in R&D convinced him that creative thinking was a process of posing important questions and finding answers. Albert Shapero, a management professor, has likewise identified creativity less as a trait than as a process—one that varies within individuals, but which nevertheless proceeds through identifiable steps of preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.3 Indeed, creativity is less about personal “wiring” than about a goal-oriented process of developing and expressing novel ideas for solving problems or satisfying needs. In many cases, this process allows a person to change his or her perceptions of reality, making it possible to “see” what most others do not.
Unfortunately, job candidates and employees don’t wear lapel buttons that state “I’m creative.” As Shapero has put it, “Despite several decades of research effort on creativity and highly creative individuals, there is as yet no profile or test that reliably predicts who will be highly creative in the future.”4 Although an individual’s creative behavior cannot be predicted, the components from which creative behavior emerges have been identified. As described by Teresa Amabile, creativity has three components: expertise, creative thinking skills, and motivation (see figure 11-1).
Expertise
Expertise is technical, procedural, and intellectual knowledge—the know-how that often takes individuals years to accumulate. Expertise is usually the product of substantial preparation, a period of time during which people look at problems or possibilities from many angles, “sleep” on them, experiment with them, develop a thorough understanding of the existing literature, and so forth. One advantage of creative teams over creative individuals is that teams can bring together the many forms of expertise needed to solve a large problem.
The three components of Creativity
Source: Teresa M. Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, September–October 1998, 77–87.
Creative Thinking Skills
Creative thinking skills are defined as how people approach problems. According to Amabile, creative thinking skills are often a function of personality and work style. “The pharmaceutical scientist,” she writes, “will be more creative if her personality is such that she feels comfortable disagreeing with others.”5 It will also help if her work style is one that doggedly pursues solutions, even in the face of disappointing setbacks. The literature of invention is rich with stories of people who would not give up, but would stubbornly (almost obsessively) work at a problem despite repeated failures and the interference of higher-ups. Perhaps no better example can be found than the story of John Harrison, who labored almost forty years during the eighteenth century to develop a ship-borne clock capable of keeping accurate time despite rolling waves, dramatically shifting temperatures, and changing humidity. As told by science writer Dava Sobel in her best-seller, Longitude, Harrison had to fight through both technical challenges and countless roadblocks set up by competitors and naysayers in the scientific community of the day.6 But his decades of dogged focus led to success and to a practical solution to a problem that had vexed mariners and scientists since ancient times: determining longitude at sea.
Motivation
Motivation may be extrinsic or intrinsic, according to Amabile. Extrinsic motivation is induced from the outside through means such as bonuses and promotions. Her research shows that intrinsic motivation—that is, motivation fired by an internal passion or interest—has a greater impact on creativity.7
The power of intrinsic motivation is confirmed by the many examples we see of engineers and scientists who continue to pursue solutions long after their bosses have cut off their funding (rewards) and told them to give it up and move on. Many of these creative spirits do this at substantial personal risk, going “underground” and supporting their work through clandestine resource channels.
A classic example of a motivated innovator can be found in the story of Dick Drew, the legendary 3M inventor of the 1920s and 1930s. Drew had seen a market opportunity for an adhesive-backed product that would later be known as “masking tape.” After watching Drew’s many failures to create the right combination of materials, his boss, 3M president William McKnight, told him to drop it and work on something else. Drew agreed, but secretly continued his quest, funding it with many small purchase orders that were within his authority to make but not likely to be noticed by McKnight. McKnight learned of Drew’s insubordination only when the latter presented him with a successful product prototype. Drew’s persistence paid off in a product line that has generated revenues for 3M for more than eighty years and is still going strong.
Managing for Greater Individual Creativity
Given what we know about individual creativity, what can managers do to get more of it? Clearly, creativity cannot be commanded. Nothing will be accomplished by telling employees that “The beatings will stop as soon as you become more creative.”
One approach is to put a stop to the many ill-considered things that managers do that nip creativity in the bud:
- Punishing failure
- Encouraging complacency
- Withholding resources
- Making it difficult for people to share ideas
- Discouraging diversity of thinking
- Enforcing a convergence of viewpoints, or groupthink
You get the idea. Common sense tells us not to do these things. If these discourage creativity, opposite behaviors and policies should encourage it.
Amabile’s three components—expertise, creative thinking skills, and motivation—likewise provide clues as to what managers can do to power up creative levels. These include:
- Recruiting creative people: Look for people who bring substantial expertise to the table and give others assignments and training that will increase their expertise.
- Hiring people who have demonstrated the persistence and selfconfidence that indicate creative thinking skills: How can you spot a creative job applicant? One expert states that creative people are often intense. They look at a problem from many angles and take several approaches to finding a solution. Creative people, in his view, connect problems in one field with analogous problems in other fields.8
- Getting the right match: Matching the right people with the right assignments is highly motivational; it is the simplest and most effective approach to enhancing individual creativity. Effective matching is achieved when managers assign people to jobs that make the most of their expertise, their creative thinking skills, and their intrinsic motivations.
- Giving freedom: Amabile suggests that managers be specific about ends, but leave the means to their employees. Doing so will make them more creative. So instead of specifying a series of steps, say “This is our goal; think about the best way to get us there.” Freedom, however, should not be absolute. Attaching reasonable deadlines and oversight is fair and part of a manager’s responsibility.
- Providing sufficient time and resources: People are unlikely to be at their creative best when deadlines are arbitrary or impossible to meet. The same happens when people feel that they lack the resources to do the job well.
Tips for Increasing Your Own Creativity
If you are a manager, you need to help employees and groups be more creative. But what about you? What can you do to increase your own creativity? Here are eight recommendations:
- Strive for alignment: Make sure that the goals of the organization you work for are consonant with your most cherished values. Instead of considering jobs at which you excel, think instead about jobs that match your deeply embedded life interests. Doing so will allow you to draw on a wellspring of personal passion.
- Imagine an ideal situation: Sometimes simply envisioning an ideal situation will help you generate useful new ideas. For instance, if you were in charge of a service process that was slow, costly, and prone to errors, it might be useful to erase it from your mind and envision a situation in which you could deliver the same service faster, cheaper, and more reliably. Customers would be happy, and your company would save lots of money and frustration. Then ask yourself, “What could I do to create that ideal situation?” The answer might not come to you immediately, but if you assign the problem to your subconscious mind and return to it periodically, you may experience a creative breakthrough.
- Pursue some self-initiated activity: Choose projects where your intrinsic motivation is high. If you have always loved graphic design, for example, try to determine why the packaging for one of your company’s products leaves customers cold.
- Immerse yourself in the problem or challenge: Instead of looking at a problem from the outside, dive into it. Experience the problem directly—for example, by assuming the position of a customer or user of an existing product or service. Doing so will help you to understand the problem and possible creative solutions from many angles—many that you might not have anticipated.
- Tinker with the problem: This will help you to better understand the problem and the strengths and weaknesses of the potential solution. For example, if you aimed to develop a faster sea kayak, you would learn a great deal by trying out existing models, experimenting with small-scale hull shapes, and so forth. As solutions present themselves, however, resist the temptation to grab onto any one of them prematurely.
- Be open to serendipity: Develop a bias toward action and toward trying new ideas. For instance, if an accident or failure occurs while you’re prototyping a new LCD screen, don’t dismiss it too quickly. Study it for the learning opportunity that may lie within. Each day, write down what surprised you and how you surprised others.
- Diversify your stimuli: Intellectual cross-pollination can get you thinking in new directions. Develop cross-functional skills: rotate into every job you are capable of doing. Get to know people who may spark your imagination. Become a lifelong learner: take classes not related to your work. Bring your insights from outside interests or activities to bear on your workplace challenges.
- Create opportunities for informal communication: Take advantage of opportunities to exchange ideas and challenges with colleagues. One of them may have an insight that has eluded you. Creative thought often happens during spontaneous interactions between individuals. Such interactions, however, are only useful if real communication occurs. You must find ways to encourage and facilitate communication that is appropriate for the creative environment.
Summing Up
This chapter addressed the subject of creativity and individual creativity. It began with a practical definition and offered a four-stage process for how creativity works. This process includes preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. It then exploded several myths about creativity. Contrary to conventional thinking:
- Intelligence and creativity are only weakly correlated.
- Age is not a clear predictor of creative potential.
- Calculated risk taking and the ability to think in untraditional ways play roles in creativity.
- A high percentage of important inventions are products of collaboration effect.
- Managers can make a difference in creativity output—they can create the conditions that make creativity more likely to occur.
Next, creativity was shown to have three components that you should bring to your organization’s problems:
- Expertise in terms of technical, procedural, and intellectual knowledge;
- Creative thinking skills, as revealed by how people approach problems; and
- Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic.
Finally, the chapter identified practical things you can do to manage for greater individual creativity.
Individual creativity is always an important aspect of innovation. However, organizations accomplish most of their goals through teams or groups. What are the characteristics of creative groups? How can they be managed to greater productivity? These are the key issues addressed in the next chapter.