Adam Grant

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">What’s Possible We tend to believe that true innov</h4>
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  <h5>What’s Possible</h5>
  <p>We tend to believe that true innovators are a rare breed. But most people are quite capable of original thinking, and leaders can set them up for success by building a culture of nonconformity.</p>
  <h5>What Gets in the Way</h5>
  <p>Unfortunately, leaders often fail to do this because they have trouble moving past their flawed assumptions—for instance, believing that doing fewer things leads to better work, and that strong cultures squash originality.</p>
  <h5>What to Do</h5>
  <p>Give employees ways and reasons to generate lots of new ideas (being prolific actually increases quality). Have fellow innovators evaluate the ideas (they do the best job of predicting success). And strike the right balance between cohesion and dissent in your organization (you need both).</p>
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</article-ideainbrief><p>If there’s one place on earth where originality goes to die, I’d managed to find it. I was charged with unleashing innovation and change in the ultimate bastion of bureaucracy. It was a place where people accepted defaults without question, followed rules without explanation, and clung to traditions and technologies long after they’d become obsolete: the U.S. Navy.</p>

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<p>Fresh, innovative thinking is essential for business growth, and most people&#8212;not just a few gifted &#8220;visionaries&#8221;&#8212;are capable of it. So says the Wharton School&#8217;s Adam Grant, whose research shows that you can develop this skill in your organization by creating a culture of nonconformity.</p>
<p>Start by giving employees license to let their imaginations run wild: A large quantity of diverse ideas will ultimately yield the highest-quality ones. To help people dream up a multitude of new products, strategies, or solutions, encourage them to adopt the mindset of a competitor, for example, and have them generate ideas privately (group brainstorming tends to conform to the majority&#8217;s taste).</p>
<p>Once lots of ideas are in, get feedback on which one to pursue from the right people: other innovators with a track record of spotting winners. You might even stage a contest to find the best ideas, and have peer judges and other subject-matter experts vet the submissions and suggest improvements.</p>
<p>Sustaining a culture of originality is as important as building it. So focus, too, on balancing cultural cohesion (which can improve decision making) with creative dissent (which prevents a strong culture from becoming a cult). Long-term, it&#8217;s the combination of the two that brings great ideas to the table.</p>

How to Build a Culture of Originality

Fresh, innovative thinking is essential for business growth, and most people—not just a few gifted “visionaries”—are capable of it. So says the Wharton School’s Adam Grant, whose research shows that you can develop this skill in your organization by creating a culture of nonconformity. Start by giving employees license to let their imaginations run wild: A large quantity of diverse ideas will ultimately yield the highest-quality ones. To help people dream up a multitude of new products, strategies, or solutions, encourage them to adopt the mindset of a competitor, for example, and have them generate ideas privately (group brainstorming tends to conform to the majority’s taste). Once lots of ideas are in, get feedback on which one to pursue from the right people: other innovators with a track record of spotting winners. You might even stage a contest to find the best ideas, and have peer judges and other subject-matter experts vet the submissions and suggest improvements. Sustaining a culture of originality is as important as building it. So focus, too, on balancing cultural cohesion (which can improve decision making) with creative dissent (which prevents a strong culture from becoming a cult). Long-term, it’s the combination of the two that brings great ideas to the table.

How to Build a Culture of Originality

Summary.

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