So now I'm prepared not to like the rest of the book. I found something I didn't agree with. BUT you know, I kept reading and I'm liking it again!
I like all the stories he tells about the different companies and what they do to stay creative.
He talks about how brainstorming isn't really effective, because of the most important principle – the absence of criticism. You know, so everyone can contribute without feeling judges. The problem with that is that you have a group of people all shouting out every idea they can think of with no one ever saying things like, that might not work, or challenging or debating it in some way.
He talks about how the only way to 'maximize group creativity...is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes (159.)" I don't think you need to be mean, but you should be able to have a discussion about what's good and what's bad. "...when everybody is 'right' –when all new ideas are equally useful, as in a brainstorming session – we stay within ourselves. There is no incentive to think about someone else's thoughts or embrace unfamiliar possibilities. And so the problem remains impossible. The absence of criticism has kept us all in the same place (161.)"
I know from my very own experience, when someone has told me that they didn't like something I made or thought I could have done it differently... I don't always like what they said in the moment. But I spend the rest of the day, in the back of my mind, thinking about it and trying to figure out how to do it better. So instead of them trying to be nice and saying that they like something when they don't, doesn't really help me. I want to do better and a lot of the time you have to be able to step out of yourself to see how that can be done. Sometimes being uncomfortable helps you to grow.
I like all the stories he tells about the different companies and what they do to stay creative.
He talks about how brainstorming isn't really effective, because of the most important principle – the absence of criticism. You know, so everyone can contribute without feeling judges. The problem with that is that you have a group of people all shouting out every idea they can think of with no one ever saying things like, that might not work, or challenging or debating it in some way.
He talks about how the only way to 'maximize group creativity...is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes (159.)" I don't think you need to be mean, but you should be able to have a discussion about what's good and what's bad. "...when everybody is 'right' –when all new ideas are equally useful, as in a brainstorming session – we stay within ourselves. There is no incentive to think about someone else's thoughts or embrace unfamiliar possibilities. And so the problem remains impossible. The absence of criticism has kept us all in the same place (161.)"
I know from my very own experience, when someone has told me that they didn't like something I made or thought I could have done it differently... I don't always like what they said in the moment. But I spend the rest of the day, in the back of my mind, thinking about it and trying to figure out how to do it better. So instead of them trying to be nice and saying that they like something when they don't, doesn't really help me. I want to do better and a lot of the time you have to be able to step out of yourself to see how that can be done. Sometimes being uncomfortable helps you to grow.
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