The Auto-Oxymoron of Corporate Innovation

One of the things we write about every so often on here (and were therefore sufficienly motivated to co-write the Big Potatoes Innovation Manifesto) is that Innovation has been morphed in the current corporate climate to mean "continuous improvement" at best, and "don't-rock-the-boatism" all too often (see Innovation - What innovation for starters). Now, some research from Cornell (The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas) shows that as a species we may be culturally adapted against Innovation and creativity it seems.

The next time your great idea at work elicits silence or eye rolls, you might just pity those co-workers. Fresh research indicates they don't even know what a creative idea looks like and that creativity, hailed as a positive change agent, actually makes people squirm.

"How is it that people say they want creativity but in reality often reject it?" said Jack Goncalo, ILR School assistant professor of organizational behavior and co-author of research to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. The paper reports on two 2010 experiments at the University of Pennsylvania involving more than 200 people.

The studies' findings include:

- Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.
- People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical -- tried and true.
- Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.
- Anti-creativity bias is so subtle that people are unaware of it, which can interfere with their ability to recognize a creative idea.

For example, subjects had a negative reaction to a running shoe equipped with nanotechnology that adjusted fabric thickness to cool the foot and reduce blisters.

To uncover bias against creativity, the researchers used a subtle technique to measure unconscious bias -- the kind to which people may not want to admit, such as racism. Results revealed that while people explicitly claimed to desire creative ideas, they actually associated creative ideas with negative words such as "vomit," "poison" and "agony."

The lesson for companies that want to take advantage of creativity and real innovation is that teh problem not fostering it, but making sure it isn't strangled at birth.

"uncertainty also makes us less able to recognize creativity, perhaps when we need it most," the researchers wrote. "Revealing the existence and nature of a bias against creativity can help explain why people might reject creative ideas and stifle scientific advancements, even in the face of strong intentions to the contrary. ... The field of creativity may need to shift its current focus from identifying how to generate more creative ideas to identify how to help innovative institutions recognize and accept creativity."

Now, I always felt this was the actual case. I think that too often, fighting this problem is too hard as it is institutionalised in most heirarchies, and is a classic "ekephant in the room" - so Creativity Consultants find it easier to sell a comfortable project on "fostering creativity" than a hearts and minds change program based on culling their clients' ability to stop the dangerous mavericks in the business.I never saw companies where there were no creative people - but I don't think I'm the only one who has observed in their corporate careers that the Power of No is an endemic problem - here's Machiavelli on the subject in the 1500's pre-saging a host of 20th century Business Sages:

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.

QED as they say. Nice of Cornell to put the academic verification in 500 years later