[MUSIC] In the last course, we talked about how to change our perspectives so we could generate insights, inventions, enlightenments and be creative. One of the challenges to being creative that we talked about is this tension between the habit of getting through your day and changing your perspective to take a new pathway, right? But most of the time, we wrestled with that tension at the level of us as individuals. >> Yeah. >> Right? I'm going about my day and I'm either doing it as I normally do or I get creative, change my perspective and realize I can do something differently. But then what happens is my day intersects with your day, right? [LAUGH] That we- >> Hopefully it isn't. >> I mean, you know- >> Not too often. >> Yeah, not as often as I'd like. But the point is you get to work, you get to the office, you work with somebody else. We're so often doing things not on our own but with other people. And so the question then is what happens when all of these discussions about my perspective, my habit, my new perspective meets the world and in particular my group? >> Right, so here we're going to switch gears a little bit and talk about creativity as it unfolds in teams. And here the question is, how do you connect minds? And how do you share perspectives? And how do you, hopefully, change each other's perspectives in a way that will allow you to be more creative? And, intuitively, and people assume that this should be easy. You just put a group together and you share perspectives, and creativity should just flow from that. >> Yeah, I think the intuition is it should help, right? If you're in a group, you come with your perspective, I come with my perspective. We blend our perspectives. We therefore have some change because you say something, I hear something, whatever. >> Right. >> And you'd think, synergy, wonderful. >> Yeah, right. >> Yeah. [LAUGH] >> By the way, I hate that word, synergy, right? >> [LAUGH] >> As you do too, I'm sure of it. It sounds so easy, but- >> That's the problem. >> Right, that is. >> It does. >> Yeah, it does sound easy. And we're going to talk about the promise of teams, that they really do have the potential to be creative. But before we get there, we're going to delve into the dark side and really talk about why creativity in groups is really not as easy as it sounds. >> It's hard. Teams have the potential to foster creativity. But another reason we have to grapple with team creativity is just because teams are everywhere these days in organizations. >> Right. >> It's just a huge trend. >> Yeah, it's unavoidable, right? And it's really part of a broader trend that's taken place over the last two decades or so, which is that people are just spending less and less time working alone, and more and more time working as part of a team. >> Yeah. >> And so it's just a reality we have to deal with. >> Yeah, we have to get better at it. >> Right, but just to give you a sense for the magnitude of this shift, I just sort of, for fun, put the word team player into Amazon. And there where literally hundreds of book titles. >> Always dangerous, right? >> [LAUGH] Right, yeah, some things that weren't safe for work. >> [LAUGH] >> But there were hundreds of book titles that purport to teach people how to be better team players, right? >> Yeah, yeah. >> So there's one book that is a guide for becoming the person that every team wants, right? >> [LAUGH] >> And then another one, which is how to raise a team player, which is a guide for parents. >> For parents. >> If that isn't horrifying, I don't know what is. >> [LAUGH] >> Right, so, it's- >> There's gotta be a CEO one too, right? >> [LAUGH] Yeah, right. >> How to turn your organization into team players. >> Or how to turn your three-year old into the CEO you've always wanted, right? >> [LAUGH] >> So we could start industry. >> There you go. >> But anyway, it's really deeply imbedded in organizational cultures, and so we just kind of have to deal with it. There was another survey that I also found disturbing recently. Actually, it was a few years ago, but they asked the CEOs of a number of major corporations what they thought the most important skills are for getting ahead at work. And the results kind of disturbed me because what they said was that being a team player was ahead of knowledge, skill and ability. >> [LAUGH] Wow. >> Right, which means that it's more important to be a team player than actually know what you're doing, which [LAUGH] is really disturbing to me. >> Wow, wow, wow, they like me, they really like me. >> Right. >> [LAUGH] >> So we're trying to be creative in the context of working in teams and this sort of team player mentality, which will end up playing a big role. >> Right, so how could we both be a team player but also be creative too? >> Right, or how could you resist being a team player? >> [LAUGH] >> And be a rebel? >> [LAUGH] >> So we'll get to that possibility. >> Even better put. >> So one of the classic stories in creativity is the story of Art Fry at 3M, and the invention of the Post-It Note. So apparently, as the way the story goes, at least as I heard it, is that Art Fry was trying to make some new kind of glue, and he made a mistake. He generated a glue that just didn't stick, right? But he persisted, and stuck with it, and wow, we have Post-It Notes, and it's an incredible thing. So it seems like a classic story of creativity. The failure that turned out to be a success. But more importantly, a story of an individual who persisted against all odds and was eventually lauded for having done it. So individual creativity? >> Yeah, right, so it's kind of the story of the lone genius, right? And I guess what we forget is he didn't even invent the glue. >> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] That was the basis for it. He actually did, though, we can give him credit for recognizing that there needed to be something that didn't quite stick and that could be useful as a bookmark. because he used to sing in the choir. And then he needed something to that he could remove from the page and then move along. And so he had this sort of, I need this thing. Is there a glue that does that? And so one of the ways that context matter is that at 3M they had a culture that actually valued failure. And they kept every failed recipe for glue going back decades and it was in this vault. And so it wasn't as though he came up with the glue, first of all. It was that the organization had a way of remembering these solutions. And that requires the culture and the context of valued failure. So that was one way. Another is that he didn't know about the failed recipe for glue. He only knew about it because he had a lunch time conversation with colleagues who one of whom remembered the recipe and then shared it with him, and then that sent him on his way. So it was really about connecting different pieces of knowledge. One person developed the failed recipe for glue, Art Fry recognized that there was a need in the world for something. His colleagues remember that there was a failed recipe lying around that had those properties. And so really when you rethink the story, it's less about the lone genius and more about a collective process of being creative. And so what does the Post-it Note process really tell us about when teams have the potential to be creative? It was kind of a particular case that kind of tells us when teams have the potential to be useful. >> Yeah, so but it stands in, I think, for a whole class of cases of two levels, right? So one is it's a really long, complicated process. >> Right. >> Right? [LAUGH] So it's not just you sit in your room, a light bulb goes off, and then you've got it. >> And you do everything along the way, right? >> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so it's- >> Well, but there are all these steps along the way. So I don't know, let's see, someone had to make a glue that failed. Someone had to store it in case it would be later useful. >> Someone had to remember it was there. I don't even remember where my keys are every morning, much less the failed adhesive that was there for 20 years. >> So someone had to think of a use that wasn't being met, right? A need. I have this choir hymn and I need something to stick to these pages, they need to be removable. >> Right. >> So that's a fourth thing. >> Someone had to fund the prototype. >> [LAUGH] >> That required a decision-making process that- >> Absolutely. >> That somebody gets credit for that as well, so- >> Yeah, and then someone had to hear about one and tell the other, right? >> Yeah, that's right. >> So we have a connector person. And then, what, there must've been, okay, they made it, then what? Someone had to figure out who the audience, who the consumer constituency is. >> Yeah. >> So the number of- >> So there are multiple parts going on here, multiple moving parts, and really those are when teams work best. When you had a very a complex problem that requires different kinds of strategies and different approaches and then you have the potential to combine all of these things. Another advantage of teams is that there is the potential to use different sources of knowledge as well. And we saw that in that story where there was one person who knew how to make glue. There was the person who remembered where the failed recipes were. You had Art Fry who had real world experience that pointed to a potential use for it. And you even had the administrative assistants who were the first to actually have the prototype. And then they were able to look for creative uses for it that maybe Art Frye didn't think of when he was singing in the choir. And so, again, we have not only multiple steps but also multiple sources of knowledge. And when you have situations like that then, there at least exists the potential for teams to be creative by combining all those things. >> We can break apart a problem. And if we can break apart the kinds of knowledge for that problem, we could have one person who can do all the steps that has all the knowledge. >> Right. >> But we could distribute it across people. >> Right. >> And because we have technical knowledge or parts can be really complicated to do, that's where teams can play a role, because you get that different strength. That I may not have all those strengths, you may not, but together we- >> [CROSSTALK] So it's possible to find that one genius who knows everything, but it's unlikely and so we rely on teams. >> It's much easier to find teams. >> [LAUGH] We rely on teams. [MUSIC] >> So the reality is we really have to grapple with team creativity. For one, there's actually a lot of potential for teams to be creative. There's at least the potential for people to exchange perspectives with others and thereby reach creative solutions. The other reality is that we have to work in teams often, in organizations, and so whether you like it or not, you're going to be in a team. And so it helps to know how they work. And so before we get to the optimistic sort of ideal how do we be creative in teams, we're going to talk about the pitfalls and the dark side. And what are the barriers that teams pose in terms of preventing people from being creative.
