Movies always show the spark of a creative idea happening at the last
possible moment, but in real life, this last minute procrastination does not necessarily deliver the best ideas, says Adam Grant, author, professor, Wharton School of Business, University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
During his presentation at the Cannes Lions, Grant reveals research about traits shared by successful people in order to create a cohesive and
creative work environment.
There are two types of people in the world: Givers and Takers. Identifying these internal drivers is key to understanding work colleagues. "Who do you take
original ideas to? Where do you go? Who do you trust?" he asks.
Givers enjoy sharing knowledge and staying late. Takers are more selfish. "What can you do for me," he explains. Then
there's another layer to these personalities by adding either agreeable or disagreeable traits.
Agreeable givers, for example, say yes to everything and are at risk of being seen as
pushovers. Disagreeable takers, by comparison, don't spend their time for anyone or anything. They are not good people. And agreeable takers are known as fakers.
While disagreeable
givers may be gruff, at their heart, they want to help others. "I liken it to a bad user-face, but great operating system," says Grant. These people carry unrealized potential within the workplace.
They give critical feedback no one wants to hear, but everyone needs to hear. They do a better job evaluating because when we go to an agreeable giver, they will cheerlead so they are the worst
advocates for feedback.
Grant introduces a new term that plays off paranoid workers who believe everyone is out to sabotage them. “Pronoid” is the concept that other people are
plotting your well-being, he says.
Project demands drive all workers insane. There are those that wait until the last minute to finish their projects. And there are those who finish
their work three months ahead of the deadline. The most effective results, however, come from a mixture between the two strategies. Grant recommends companies help their talent marry these two traits.
They should let people dive into a project early, then deliberately delay, he says. This strategy enables people to get a solid first draft while letting their brain simmer to eventually make "leaps
and random connections." While he says it is hard to completely unwire a person's true nature, it is possible to get them to meet in the middle.
There is not a lack of creative ideas in
the world. Managers, however, may not be the most effective judges of these concepts. Grant conducted an experiment of circus acts to evaluate whether artists, managers, or peers would be the best
predictor of which of these acts would become popular favorites. He contrasted this information with 13,000 audience members that were asked whether they would donate money to see these acts
live.
The results were instructive, says Grant. Managers are horrendously bad about ranking ideas since they are too risk adverse. No one will ever know if they don't make a bad
decision, but everyone will know if they greenlight the next flop.
Meanwhile, artists - or circus performers - are too invested in their ideas to be unbiased judges. Peers, by
comparison, have enough distance to properly evaluate a novel idea as well as be willing to take a chance, but they aren't afraid of shutting down bad ideas.
While the best solution
would take managers out of the gatekeeping role, when those situations aren't possible, Grant recommends managers unlock their creative minds. His research finds that when managers brainstorm for five
minutes on projects unrelated to the project they will evaluate, they stop looking for reasons to say no, but instead say maybe, he says.
People are notoriously horrible at
self-evaluation. Grant conducted an experiment during his presentation where he asks people to tap a song with the person seated next to them asked to guess the song. In earlier studies, half of the
tappers believed the person would correctly guess, while only 2.5% of the receivers actually picked the right one.