The Creative Group Mind-Innovative Genius or Teamwork Dummy?

1. The Creative Group Mind-Innovative Genius or Teamwork Dummy?

2. “The challenge is clear: Innovate or evaporate!” The Performance Group

3. CREATIVITY LEVELS • INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY • GROUP/TEAM CREATIVITY • ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION/SUCCESS

4. CMMI Questions • Is it better to work alone or in groups for creativity tasks? • Is it helpful to work with individuals from other disciplines? • What is the ideal group size for creativity activity? • What is the best way to communicate in an innovative team—electronically or face to face?

5. CMMI Survey Percent Agreement Somewhat agree or higher • Brainstorming is effective--89 • People from outside disciplines hinder—6 • Suspending constraints during ideation—51 • Avoid criticism—66 • Design teams can be more effective than individuals—69

6. “Cultural Truths” • Group collaboration enhances creativity/innovation/learning • Teamwork enhances productivity • Diversity enhances benefits of collaboration

7. Teamwork in Education • Criteria three of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology • Skill in teamwork is a program outcome requirement

9. Book Titles • Mining Group Gold (Kayser, 1995) • Building Team Power: How to Unleash the Collaborative Genius of Work Teams (Kayser, 1994) • Diverse Teams at Work: Capitalizing on the Power of Diversity (Gardenswartz &Rowe, 2003) • Swarm Creativity (Gloor, 2006)

11. “Scientific Truths” • Group interaction tends to inhibit creativity • Group interaction tends to lower productivity • Illusion of productivity • Diversity in groups often leads to negative emotions • No consistent evidence for the benefits of diversity in teamwork

12. Creativity Dilemmas • Need domain expertise for creativity • Examples or information can inhibit creativity • Need collaboration for innovations • Group interaction may inhibit creativity • Need diverse talents/knowledge in teams • Groups tend to focus on commonalities rather than differences

13. Inhibitory Effect of Examples • Providing examples produces fixation on features of the example • Need change of context or multiple perspectives to overcome

14. Auguste Kekule Benzene James Crocker Hubble Repair Kary Mullis PCR Experimental Studies of Fixation, Incubation & Insight Archimedes Displacement Principle Henri Pioncare Fuschian Functions Beethoven Canon for piano

15. Idea Generation: Conceptual Extension Imagine another planet similar to Earth… …What sort of life forms evolve there?

17. Creature Ideas: From Smith et al. (1993)

18. Spill-Proof Cup from Jansson & Smith (1991) Create, sketch, and label the parts of a new inexpensive spill-proof coffee cup. Do not use drinking straws or mouthpieces.

19. Seeing the example design greatly increased the number of designs that: Results Have a straw or mouthpiece. Leak.

20. Conclusion • Implicit knowledge can produce invisible impasses when you try to think creatively • Have to find a way to overcome this impasse or get outside the box

21. Osborn Brainstorming Rules • Don’t judge • Say what comes to mind • The more ideas, the better • Build on ideas from others

22. Osborn Predictions • Rules help increase creativity in groups • Groups will be more creative than individuals

23. Typical Research Paradigm • Experiments • Short sessions • College students • Measures • number of unique ideas • quality of ideas

24. Typical Research Paradigm • Baseline comparison is critical • Compare number of ideas of interacting groups with that of same number of solitary individuals • Real groups versus nominal groups

25. Brainstorming Findings • Groups: more creative ideas than individuals • Groups: fewer creative ideas than same number of individuals • The larger the group, the more discrepancy • Pairs of brainstormers most productive “group” • More ideas, more good ideas

27. Number of Unique Ideas Generated DATA FROM COMPANY EMPLOYEES Social Context

28. Brainstorming Findings • Average quality not different between groups and individuals • Group members think that they are more productive and creative • Illusion of group productivity

29. high low Social Context Rating of Number of Ideas Generated

30. Beliefs about number of ideas in brainstorming

31. Group Dummy Model • Group Dummy Principle • + = < • Implies production losses of working in groups • Groups less efficient than individuals • 50% less productive

32. Group Dummy Model • Cognitive Interference • distraction • time competition • multiple task interference

33. Group Dummy Model • Social Interference • social apprehension • social loafing • move in direction of low performers

34. Implication for Meetings • Kill all your meetings—interruption is the biggest enemy of productivity. Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, a company that creates programs to facilitate teamwork

35. Teamwork Literature • Benefits of self-managing teams • Lot of data on factors enhancing teamwork • Assume teams beneficial for innovation

36. Intellectual Puzzle • Teamwork and collaboration are great • Group work is bad • Different methods, paradigms, populations • Different focus

37. Teamwork Literature • Real groups in organizations • Compare impact of variables in teams • Self-management/training important • Typically no non-team controls • Often measures of perception by participants, outsiders • Many complex tasks are feasible only with teams of diverse skills

38. Synchronous • Individuals interacting in a limited time period on one task • Meetings • Lab sessions • Brainstorming sessions • Problem solving sessions

39. Asynchronous • Individuals interacting over a period of time on one or more tasks. • As needed • Alone/group sequences • In person and electronic interactions • Teamwork • Periods of synchronicity

40. Relevance of Groups Research • Synchronous group interaction • Asynchronous patterns • Tasks which only teams can do

41. Group Wisdom • Basic Principle • + = > • Example: Obvious benefits of teamwork and collaboration. • May involve the benefits of complementarity of skills and knowledge

42. Production of KnowledgeWuchty et al. 2007, Science • Over the span of 5 decades, no. of authors • Almost all fields increase in team size • Teams more highly cited • Effect is increasing over time • Especially for highly cited papers • Teams papers 6.3 more likely to be cited 1000 times than individual papers in science and engineering

45. The Search for SynergyThe Holy Grail • Performance of groups better than a similar number of individuals • No evidence with face-to-face groups • So far no evidence with work teams

46. Group Genius or Synergy • Group Genius Principle • + = > • Implies synergy • Groups generate more and/or better ideas • Teams more than sum of their parts

47. Semantic network Violin Hat Pants Banjo Gloves Guitar Mittens Clarinet Flute

48. A Cognitive Model for Group Genius • Categories of knowledge • Diversity • Attention • Associational stimulation • Memory • Incubation/deeper processing

49. Limiting the Genius Factor in Groups • Need to multi-task • generate, attend, process, coordinate • lack of opportunity to generate • lack of opportunity to process

50. Optimizing the Genius Factor • Efficient interaction paradigms • Writing • Electronic brainstorming • Efficient communication • Alternating group and individual ideation • Task focus