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.


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.


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.


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.


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”


Making the barriers fall

  Exposing to a range of cultures

  Learn differently

  Reverse the assumptions

  Take multiple perspectives


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.


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.


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


Major forces that are Increasing Intersections

  Movement of people

  Convergence of science

  Leap of computation


Finding combinations

  By diversifying occupations

  By interacting with diverse group of people

  By going intersection hunting


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.


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

lecture 6: creative collaboration

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