Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

Link to TED "The Puzzle of Motivation" by Dan Pink

Click the link above to watch the quick presentation that Dan Pink makes about how the way business is run in the majority by the incentives and that creativity can not thrive in this atmosphere of carrot-on-a-stick incentives and punishments. These incentives are given to extrinsically motivate employees under a hierarchical organizational structure.  This doesn't work as well as giving more autonomy to the employee and giving them an atmosphere to be more intrinsically motivated. In a more autonomous work environment, creativity and innovation can thrive.

Side note: This video relates to a term called, Hacker Ethic. In light of the recent news about the hackers having infiltrated U.S. businesses and such, it made me think of this name that the current literature on creativity gives about Hacker Ethic: "an individual persistence and motivation that a person brings to an experience"(Richard E. West • Michael J. Hannafin in the article titled Learning to design collaboratively: Participation of student designers in a Community of Innovation published online 30-Oct-2010) 
 

Group Creativity

Group CREATIVITY

A lot can be argued as to whether groups or individuals are more creative. Individuals have more liberty to think on their own and are not constrained by "group think". Groups have the ability to gain multiple perspectives from a diverse group. Both have pros and cons but lets focus on the group creativity since I believe this is what is faced a lot in a business context.

What restricts a group from coming up with creative and innovative ideas?

• Group think: this is when we all tend to agree with each other in the group and come to a consensus quickly without exploring many alternatives. There isn't any dissent among the group. Whether or not everyone agrees on the inside, they all agree on the outside.
• Social inhibition: Individuals may not share their ideas in a group due to their fear of being embarrassed or ridiculed. A lot of people are afraid their ideas will be rejected and they hate rejection. 
• Highly bureaucratic: bureaucracy can be good at times but when a group or organization is highly bureaucratic there tends to be certain organizational norms and hierarchies that stifle new ideas
• Free riding: members of the group or organization don't feel a sense of responsibility. They don't contribute to the idea generation or work. 

There are many things that can restrict a group from coming up with creative and innovative ideas and solutions but these are a few that I have been able to see personally and how they affect group dynamics. 

Lets now look at a few things that help a group be more creative and innovative

• Diversity: wether this relates to the demographics of a group (gender, race, age etc.) or the backgrounds of the group members (profession, experience, knowledge expertise etc.) it is clear that the more diverse a group is, the more likely possibility that a greater number of alternatives and perspectives will be shared.
• Dissent: obviously if everyone agrees with whatever is said 100% of the time, no new ideas would be shared and there would be a very limited number of perspectives. When someone disagrees in the group or gives an idea that isn't necessarily in line with the common group thought, this can actually stimulate more critical thinking in the group to look at more alternatives. 
• Flat organizational structure: this can be a great help by having the organizational hierarchies down to a level field for everyone. By placing everyone in the group on the same level as far as hierarchy and authority goes, then all of the members will be more likely to share ideas and know that their ideas matter just as much as the ideas of others in the group. All are equal in the group. 
• Group flow: making sure everyone in the group is engaged and enjoying what they are working on. Flow is what happens when we often say "we lost track of time" we were enjoying a piece of work so much. We become so immersed in what we are doing. 

Of course, with every type of group it is a balancing act with finding out what works best to bring the ideas to the table. It's like the saying goes, any virtue taken to the extreme can become a vice, I don't think these are an exception. For example, if everyone and their dog is dissenting from every idea that is thrown out on the table, the group might never make a clear decision in the end. Likewise, if the group is trying to be all equal in authority having nobody to lead a discussion or any segment in the creative process than work might not actually get done in a timely manner. 

It might be difficult to have an atmosphere of creativity in a group when society has given us norms and procedures to follow when it comes to how a group should be organized and how ideas should be shared.  However, there are already some good examples of creative atmospheres in groups, IDEO being a great example. It may take time to foster this type of atmosphere but it will have results in the end. 

Credits:

Elephant photo found on google images and downloaded from www.grtcorp.com