[Reading] Collective Creativity

Traditional belief of innovation & creativity in an organisation ​was that it relied on an individual's creative thinking. Hargadon & Beckhy (2006) introduced the concept of collective creativity, where the focus of problem solving went from an individual to interation among a collective set of people. In this concept, a group of people generate the ideas, rather than an individual.

There are creative moments in the group, among the interatcting people, which lead to problem solutions and new ideas. Rather than a continuously ongoing context for individuals to be creative. This is due to social interactions which connect one idea leading upto another, to finally arrive at a new solution which any individual could not have come up with. In fact, the collectively arrived at solution is a confulence of old ideas. This is because, each of the individuals carry their domain knowledge and experience with them, which is being put together in the brainstorming, which an individual alone otherwise would have no access to. The precondition is that the individuals in this group must give the appropriate amount of attention, effort, and be actively involved at the situation (meaingful interaction according to Hargadon & Beckhy, 2006).

When a person is trying to solve a problem alone, they first look for similar prroblems which might have been fixed earlier, so as to not put duplicate effort. They do this with knowledge-databases, which hold a record of the earlier similar problems, and their respective solutions. But it is not the best interpretation than when the individual gets to discuss the same with the experienced person, since databases are not doing the connecting task. These interactions lead to new interpretations, in the different perspective of the others, giving rise to new analogies, which a single person would never have come across without the interaction.

Hargadon & Beckhy (2006) identify four activities which can lead to the collective creativity.

1 - help seeking

2 - help giving

3 - reflective reframing

4 - reinforcing

When it comes to help seeking, I can distincly remember the advice I received from my lead at my previous job. He strongly encouraged seeking solutions from others when stuck with issues. He infact clearly told me not to spend more than half an hour on a problem all by myself, and rest of team irrespective of whether they were accountable for the module or not were very helpful. Even the seniors busy with their particularly complex modules. Organisations nurture the socialising culture for everyone to be familiar with the person to whom they can goto if stuck with particular problems. The interactions can be formal, in form of regular meetings, or informal, where a person finds the best person who has the ability to provide them with their ideas which can be converged.

With respect to help giving, the people whose help is sought need to be dedicated enough to give time along with their regular tasks. In fact there were times when I was asked for help in different projects entirely, with strange issues. Considering a highly experienced person was unable to dedicate time for it, they reached out to a moderately experienced person, who had the domain knowledge and technical understanding. Surprisingly, even though it was the first instance of coming across such issues and they seeming impossible to fix at first glance, I was able to fix them. This only created the network where they could reach out for fixing unfamiliar issues, which the existing resources could not solve due to fixed perspective probably. This is result of an individual's skills which are - domain relevant & creativity relevant. Task motivation being high in the individual as well (Hargadon & Beckhy, 2006).

Reflective reframing occurs when the thoughts of others are interpreted differently and connected by each member of the group with them adding thier domain specific knowledge, resulting in collective creativity.

Reinforcing is the concept of help seeking and help giving activities to be supported and nurtured by organisations. For example, employees could be rewarded for utilising collective creativity and avoiding duplicate efforts.

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In the same context, Pixar, the animation studio which created movies such as Toy Story, Brave, Cars and many more, has laid stress to collective creativity as per the co-founder's words (Catmull, 2008). The pixar team is laying emphasis on the team and the need for talent, and also the knowledge of how to get talented people to work together for the best outcome. They do not believe creative ideas alone make successful movies, but most importantly, the smart people working together.

Pixar has the culture of discussing unfinished works, to be able to get feedback early and avoid wasted efforts. Also, the system ensures that nobody feels restricted to communicate with anyone and feels safe to offer ideas and provide feedbacks. Their other difference is in the fact that they stay close to the academic community, for the latest updates as well as the fresh talent inflow. They also conduct a planned feedback on the completed works, to discuss on the shortcomings and fix them in the future (Catmull, 2008).

References:​

Hargadon, A.B. & Bechky, B.A. 2006. "When Collections of Creatives Become Creative Collectives: A field study of problem solving at Work".

Catmull, E. 2008. "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity".