Download - Lecture 6: Creative Collaboration
Creativity #6: Creative Collaboration Tathagat Varma Knowledgepreneur http://thoughtleadership.in
Work is social!
One the earliest findings in social psychology was the “social facilitation” effect – the way the mere presence of other people engaged in the same task as us can boost our motivation. In 1920, social psychologist Floyd Allport showed that a group of people working individually at the same table performed better on a whole range of tasks even though they weren’t cooperating or competing.
Allport’s research illustrates how the energy of other people can act as a substitute team even if we’re working solo (this is why many creatives enjoy working at their local café surrounded by industrious strangers).
http://99u.com/articles/16850/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-about-teams
Group Creativity?
Need for creativity is inversely proportional to how well we understand the problem. Well-understood problems => don’t need to be creative
Not well-understood problems => need creative solutions
Individuals perform better with well-understood problems Well-understood problem => individuals do better
Not well-understood problems => team are better
Previous research and thinking was that creativity is an individual skill, however we increasingly work in teams.
http://www.wiley.com/college/dec/meredith298298/resources/addtopics/addtopic_s_01e.html
Group Creativity?
Creative output of more than one individual working together on a common problem Doesn’t imply involvement in all stages of the creative
process, though
It is everywhere! Performing arts – theatre, movies, musicals, etc. Organizational teams – product development, Research teams Classrooms Increasingly interdisciplinary – biocomputing, social
technologies, human genome, space exploration, etc., etc.
http://www.helsinki.fi/sosiaalipsykologia/arkisto/nijstad2008.pdf
Advantages of group creativity
Groups bring together knowledge and skills not possessed by any individual member of the group.
Groups are more effective than individuals in eliminating errors and avoiding mistakes.
A group solution is more likely to be accepted by those who must implement it than is the solution of an individual.
If the members of a group must act on evidence, it is likely that they will be more productive and effective if they have played a role in developing that evidence,
Group members learn from one another, stimulate one another, and add to each other's knowledge and skills-that is, synergism occurs.
http://www.wiley.com/college/dec/meredith298298/resources/addtopics/addtopic_s_01e.html
Reality!
Major threats to team creativity
Social loafing
Conformity
Production blocking
Downward norm setting
http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~mschnake/Thompson2003
Why aren’t groups creative?
Confirming to group norms
Lack of collaboration
Defensive communication climate
Differences in communication styles
Cultural norms
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/comm/group/students/creativity.htm
Improving group creativity
Embrace diversity
Facilitate a supportive communication climate
Reward inventive and innovative creativity
Foster collaboration
Practice active listening
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/comm/group/students/creativity.htm
Group creativity techniques
Brainstorming
Delphi technique
Nominal group technique
Mind mapping
Affinity diagrams
Synectics (William Gordon, 1944)
Morphology (F. Zwicky, 1947)
Bionics
Storyboarding
Brainstorming
Alex Osborne wrote Applied Imagination (1953) and claimed that brainstorming doubles the output.
His two key principles to “ideate efficacy” Defer judgment Go for quantity
Simple four-step process to reduce social inhibitions, stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity of the group: Go for quantity Withhold criticism Welcome wild ideas Combining / improving ideas encouraged
https://hbr.org/2016/01/resolving-the-paradox-of-group-creativity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming#Osborn.27s_method
Brainstorming is dead?
Contrary to popular opinion, people generate fewer good ideas when they brain storm together than they work alone!
Reasons include One or two people could dominate the conversation
While someone is sharing their idea, other might forget theirs
Other social and sociological issues (hierarchy, peer jealousy,
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/30/groupthink
Brainwriting
Like brainstorming, but participants write down their ideas individually instead of sharing it aloud
These papers are then passed around the group and people read each other’s ideas while they continue to write their own
Allows the group to share and build on each other’s ideas and avoid the pitfalls of f2f brainstorming
https://www.fastcodesign.com/3062292/evidence/brainstorming-is-dumb
Brainwriting Study
In a study, brainwriters came up with 37% more ideas than working alone.
Also found that brainwriting in groups and then brainstorming alone was better than working alone and then doing group brainwriting…but this solitary reflection should happen quickly after the group session
asynchronous brainwriting—that is, switching multiple times between group brainwriting and working alone…The researchers found that the asynchronous method worked much better—people who alternated techniques thought of .50 ideas a minute versus .29 ideas a minute in group-only brainwriting
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25850113
6-3-5 Brainwriting
Developed by Bernd Rohrbach who originally published it in a German sales magazine, the Absatzwirtschaft, in 1968
Moderator supervised with 6 participants
6 rounds. Each round 3 ideas per participant
5 minutes
After each round, pass on the sheet to person on your right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6-3-5_Brainwriting
Pool Method
Each participant gets a form. Problem is written on form.
5 – 8 in group.
Each person writes three ideas at top and puts sheet in center of table.
Participants take new sheet out of center pile and add to it.
No rounds. Put sheets back and get new sheets at own pace.
Process completed at end of pre-determined time (e.g. 30 min).
Sort ideas.
https://www.uco.edu/academic-affairs/cqi/files/docs/facilitator_tools/brainhan.pdf
6-8-5
http://gamestorming.com/games-for-fresh-thinking-and-ideas/6-8-5s/
• Generate 6-8 ideas in 5 minutes without worrying about implementation yet
Delphi Technique
The Delphi method was originally conceived in the 1950s by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey of the Rand Corporation.
The Delphi method is a forecasting method based on the results of questionnaires sent to a panel of experts. Several rounds of questionnaires are sent out, and the
anonymous responses are aggregated and shared with the group after each round.
The experts are allowed to adjust their answers in subsequent rounds.
Since multiple rounds of questions are asked and the panel is told what the group thinks as a whole, the Delphi method seeks to reach the correct response through consensus.
More used in forecasting or decision-making in complex problems, less in creativity par se.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/delphi-method.asp
Nominal Group Technique
A variant of brainwriting approach which combines both individual as well as team approach
The process is led by a facilitator and involves: Silent idea generation.
Round-robin presentation.
Idea clarification.
Voting and ranking.
Discussion of results.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_group_technique
Mindmap
A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank landscape page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.
Mind maps can be drawn by hand, either as "rough notes" during a lecture, meeting or planning session, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
Create a Central Idea
Add Branches to Your Map
Add Keywords
Color Code Your Branches
Include Images
Process
Create a Central
Idea
Add Branches to Your Map
Add Keywords
Color Code Your
Branches
Include Images
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-mind-maps-to-unleash-your-brains-creativity-1348869811
How mindmaps help?
Make ideas visible on paper quickly
Organize thoughts without friction
Share ideas before you forget them
Clear your mind to stay focused
Visual thinking
http://lateralaction.com/articles/mind-maps/
Storyboarding
Storyboards
A storyboard is a sketch of how to organize a story and a list of its contents.
A storyboard helps you: Define the parameters of a story within available
resources and time
Organize and focus a story
Figure out what medium to use for each part of the story
https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish-storyboarding/
Diversity
Role Engineers, managers, technicians, blue- and white-collar production workers, and so on, all represent special viewpoints and may be the source of unique contributions to problem solving.
Specialty Different areas of study have their individual ways of thinking about and analyzing problems.
Age Contrary to popular mythology, there appears to be no demonstrable relationship between age and creativity except, possibly, in the held of mathematics. A mix of ages cannot hurt, and probably helps.
Experience Experience with a problem tends to produce insight, but it also tends to foster overconcern with real or imagined constraints. Inexperienced but intelligent people may develop fresh approaches.
Education One must never confuse education with wisdom; but, like experience, more is generally better than less.
http://www.wiley.com/college/dec/meredith298298/resources/addtopics/addtopic_s_01e.html
Case Study: The Medici Effect
The people here participate in what seems like an almost random combination of ideas. One conversation leads into another, and it is difficult to guess what idea will come up next.
There is another place just like Peter’s Café, but it is not in the Azores. It is in our minds. It is a place where different cultures, domains, and disciplines stream together toward a single point. They connect, allowing for established concepts to clash and combine, ultimately forming a multitude of new, groundbreaking rules. This place, where the different fields meet, is what I call the Intersection. And the explosion of remarkable innovations that you find there is what I call the Medici Effect.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Creativity
For an original idea to be creative, it must also have some measure of relevance; it must be valuable.
Innovations must not only be valuable, they must also be put to use by others in society.
Ultimately society decides whether an idea is both new and valuable.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Associative Barriers
The mind follows the simplest path – a previous association. Chains of association are efficient; they allow us to move quickly from analysis to action. Although chains of association have huge benefits, they also carry costs. The inhibit our ability to think broadly. We do not question assumptions as readily, we jump to conclusions faster and create barriers to alternate ways of thinking about a particular situation.
Researchers have long suspected that (these) associative barriers are responsible for inhibiting creativity.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Help & Hinder
A person with high associative barriers will quickly arrive at conclusions when confronted with a problem since their thinking is more focused. He or she will recall how the problem has been handled in the past, or how others in similar situations solved it.
A person with low associative barriers may think to connect ideas and concepts that have very little basis in past experience, or that cannot easily be traced logically. Therefore, such ideas are often met with resistance and sentiments such as “if this is such a good idea, someone else would have thought it it”
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Making the barriers fall
Exposing to a range of cultures
Learn differently
Reverse the assumptions
Take multiple perspectives
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
The Intersection
Your best chance to innovate! Where different fields meet. Break down barriers between fields.
The key difference between fields and an intersection of fields lies in how concepts within them are combined. If you operate within a field, you primarily are able to combine concepts within that particular field, generating ideas that evolve along a particular direction – what I call directional ideas. When you step into the Intersection, you can combine concepts between multiple fields, generating ideas that leap in new directions – what I call intersectional ideas.
Stepping into the Intersection does not simply mean combining two different concepts into a new idea…Intersection represents a place that drastically increases the chances for unusual combinations to occur.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Directional vs. Intersectional
Directional innovation improves a product in fairly predictable steps, along a well-defined dimension. Intersectional innovations change the world in leaps along new directions.
Intersectional innovations also don’t require as much expertize as directional innovation and can therefore be executed by the people you least suspect.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Intersectional Innovations
They are surprising and fascinating
They take leaps in new dimensions
They open up entirely new fields
They provide a space for a person, team, or company to call its own
They generate followers, which means the creators can become leaders
They provide a source of directional innovation for years or decades to come
They can affect the world in unprecedented ways
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Major forces that are Increasing Intersections
Movement of people
Convergence of science
Leap of computation
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Finding combinations
By diversifying occupations
By interacting with diverse group of people
By going intersection hunting
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Quantity or Quality?
Linus Pauling – The best way to get a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
The most successful innovators product and realize an incredible number of ideas.
In any given field of creative activity, it is typical to find that around 10% of the creators are responsible for 50% of the contributions.
Classical composers produced most of their masterpieces during the same period when they produced most of their failures.
The Medici Effect – Frans Johansson
Recap
The myth of “lone genius” is long over!
Teams are best suited to solve complex problems
However, teams are often victim of multiple social issues of people working together
Creativity in groups can be improved by using techniques like brainwriting and building a culture that promotes diversity, among other things
In the next class, we shall take a look at the role of leadership in creativity