To Get More Creative, Get Your Feet Wet

"First, Get Your Feet Wet." That's what a team of researchers recommend for those who want their teams to be more innovative. It's also the name of the journal article in which they report on three studies about how different kinds of training affected team creativity. It turns out teams that dive in and try something new, rather than learning about the activity or unrelated group work from other teams, consistently produce more creative work.

Teams of college students were asked to create as many different kinds of origami (paper-folding) sculptures as possible. Those who created the most original designs won $20. The studies looked at how a number of variables correlated to the results. The research team was lead by Francesca Gino, then at the Univ. of North Carolina and now associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

In the first study one set of teams got a chance to practice by folding cows and milk buckets. Another set watched a video of a team doing origami. The third set watched a movie clip of a jury in deliberation. Each team had a chance to discuss how they did or how the team they watched did. Then each team was given "20 sheets of colored origami paper, a roll of Scotch tape, a ruler, a set of eight colored markers, scissors, and glue." Having gone through an origami phase as a kid, I wish I had been in this study! Judges who did not know what the study was about, or which team had done what kind of training, rated the results. The measures covered the variety and quality of the sculptures and how different the sculptures were from each other—in other words, how much the team simply rehashed earlier designs. The teams that had done hands-on origami practice earned the highest ratings in every category, while the teams that watched the origami videos did second-best.

The second study looked at the value of "transactive memory," a standard scientific term meaning skills or systems for "learning, remembering and communicating team knowledge," as the article says. To illustrate, here are three of the 15 items team members rated to measure transactive memory:

• "Different team members were responsible for expertise in different areas."
• "I trusted that other members' knowledge about the task was credible."
• "Our team worked together in a well-coordinated fashion."

Previous studies have found that teams with methods for sharing knowledge about team member expertise outperform those that don't. But the article says this study appeared to the first test of transactive memory's effect on creativity. Gino and her team scrambled things up for this second study. They dropped the jury clip, and this time some subjects trained and worked with the same people, while others trained with one group and did the work with another group of people (who had done the same kind of training). Again, the teams of people who had done practice runs were more creative. Although the overall level of creativity was no better if the people had trained together, the variety was better if they had, and measures showed they had higher transactive memory. Further number-crunching by the researchers found that transactive memory explained why teams with direct experience did better.

The scientists were surprised that working with the same group did not have more of an impact. Unlike previous studies, the authors note, in this one the team was creating new products, not trying to get better at producing the same product. So having a good method to share information might not be as important in that situation, especially since creativity is known to be enhanced by bringing in new perspectives.

Their third study differed from Study 2 mostly in that a second round of paper-folding occurred after the training was done. Again some teams were changed after the training, but all stayed the same between the two rounds of judged folding. Yet again, having an initial practice run led to better performance later, compared to watching a video. The effect persisted into the second round.

Gino's group summarizes, "Our study provides evidence on the limitations of learning from (the) experience of others for the purpose of creativity. We showed that direct experience leads to more creativity than indirect experience and the effects seem to persist over time." And remember, watching the jury do something unrelated to the task did not help at all. The journal article added an intriguing warning related to the practice of many U.S. companies of off-shoring work. "Our results suggest that offshoring R&D practices may have hidden costs," the article says. "The loss of direct experience may impair a unit's creativity. The benefits of cost reduction may indeed be outweighed by a loss in the ability to be creative."

The studies used the kind of activity some "team builders" out there are probably selling to improve creativity. But I think it important to note that the activity was also the skill the teams were trying to do well. Origami was used to improve origami results, not to improve, for example, problem-solving skills.

For me this adds to the evidence against the use of games and simulations to enhance team performance. We are bad at applying abstract skills learned in one setting to another more concrete environment. That's why even ardent supporters of team building experiences have been unable to prove those experiences create lasting change. The best way to improve a skill is hands-on training on that exact skill.

To get more creative ideas during group decision-making, try better ways of group decision-making. Use methods that stimulate and channel the creative juices in a systematic way. One I have used to great effect personally and with teams is my Criteria Method, detailed in The SuddenTeams Program. First have the team list the features or benefits they want from the solution. Then brainstorm possible solutions and compare them on each criterion to choose a winner. Focusing on the outcome you want and comparing solutions head-to-head increase the likelihood of getting that outcome from the final choice.

Action Item: If you want your team to "be more creative," take 30 minutes to write down a specific deliverable you want done more creatively. Then search the Web for a formal step-by-step technique for creating that deliverable (or call me at 1-877-966-9723 for a free 30-minute consultation).

Source: Gino, F., L. Argote, E. Miron-Spektore, and G. Todorova (2010), "First, get your feet wet: The effects of learning from direct and indirect experience on team creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 111:102.