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How much time do you dedicate to creative thinking at work? According to recent research, you might want to push for a little bit longer.
Brian Lucas, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and Loran Nordgren, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, write in Harvard Business Review about a series of studies they conducted that found people underestimate the impact of persistence on creativity.
In one of the studies, for example, Lucas and Nordgren asked subjects to come up with as many ideas as they could for Thanksgiving dishes. After 10 minutes, the researchers asked the students to predict how many ideas they'd be able to generate if they persisted for another 10 minutes. Once they answered, they spent 10 more minutes coming up with ideas.
The subjects predicted, on average, that they would be able to come up with only 10 more ideas if they were given the extra time. But when they actually tried, they came up with 15 more ideas each on average. Interestingly, the additional ideas were more creative and more relevant than the first ones. Lucas and Nordgren found similar results in most of their other studies.
"Not only did participants underestimate their ability to generate ideas while persisting, they underestimated their ability to generate their most creative ideas," the duo writes.
People tend to succumb to feelings of "hitting a wall" or being "stuck" that come with creative thinking and so choose not to persist, the researchers say.
"Creative ideas take time. They are often generated after an initial period of thinking deeply about the problem, considering different ways to frame the problem, and exploring different possible solution paths," they write.
In another study, Lucas and Nordgren asked subjects to work
on a creative challenge in which they got paid small sums of money for
each idea they came up with. After the session, the researchers told the
participants that if they chose to continue generating ideas they would
have to pay a small sum up front, but they would make more money for
each idea. Only 54 percent of participants chose to continue.
"If you do not recognize that persistence is valuable for creativity, you will be less likely to persist when you face your own creative challenges," they write.
Brian Lucas, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and Loran Nordgren, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, write in Harvard Business Review about a series of studies they conducted that found people underestimate the impact of persistence on creativity.
In one of the studies, for example, Lucas and Nordgren asked subjects to come up with as many ideas as they could for Thanksgiving dishes. After 10 minutes, the researchers asked the students to predict how many ideas they'd be able to generate if they persisted for another 10 minutes. Once they answered, they spent 10 more minutes coming up with ideas.
The subjects predicted, on average, that they would be able to come up with only 10 more ideas if they were given the extra time. But when they actually tried, they came up with 15 more ideas each on average. Interestingly, the additional ideas were more creative and more relevant than the first ones. Lucas and Nordgren found similar results in most of their other studies.
"Not only did participants underestimate their ability to generate ideas while persisting, they underestimated their ability to generate their most creative ideas," the duo writes.
People tend to succumb to feelings of "hitting a wall" or being "stuck" that come with creative thinking and so choose not to persist, the researchers say.
"Creative ideas take time. They are often generated after an initial period of thinking deeply about the problem, considering different ways to frame the problem, and exploring different possible solution paths," they write.
"If you do not recognize that persistence is valuable for creativity, you will be less likely to persist when you face your own creative challenges," they write.
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