Three Cognitive Biases That Inhibit Creativity and the Simple Actions That Thwart Them
I often hear from leaders and teachers that their employees or their students are just not creative enough. Heck, I’ve thought that myself plenty of times. There are a plethora of reasons that people aren’t creative, namely the construct of their place of work or study… ie. If people are chastised for mistakes, then they’ll never take risks. However, even when the climate of the workplace is ripe for creative capacity, my hunch is that there are a number of other internal cognitions at work within each person that limit our ability to be creative and these biases obstruct innovation.
What can we actually do to thwart these biases and thus develop creative confidence (part of our vision at NoTosh) in others? Let’s look at three cognitive biases and how we might thwart hem.
- Ambiguity Effect
Humans find ambiguity unsettling. We like to know outcomes so we can feel safe and forward plan with certainty. It’s our nature to choose “known” options rather than the “unknown” see more on research from Cornell University here. This bias results in retracing steps with little room for innovation.
“Better the devil you know.” R.Taverner
Our world is full of complexity and ambiguity and we cannot continue to solve problems by being safe or by doing what we’ve always done.
Simple Thwarting Actions:
- Try finding a new way to get to your place of study or work each day (I found some neat short-cuts when I lived in Sydney following this method — thank you Stephen Harris, you saved me hours of my life with this hack).
- Discourage people from parking or sitting in the same “spots” (read: get rid of designated parking for the boss) or next to the same people in common areas… that includes the classroom.
- Sample different types of experiences. My teaching colleague would expose her students to different types of fruit and vegetables each week and let them sample the diversity of produce available.
- Allow time to “sit” in ambiguity without having to get to a “right” answer or even an answer at all. A project nest is a great way to visualise the complexity of a topic or problem. Visible Thinking Routines can be a great way to comprehend complexity.
2. Anchor Bias
An anchor bias occurs when a person or group focus in on one aspect or idea subsequently discounting other ideas. This often occurs with someone’s first idea. The anchor bias can be particularly problematic when an individual or group has anchored into a solution before first understanding the context and problem-space effectively. Essentially, the group loses perspective (perhaps perspective wasn’t present to begin with) and discount potentially more effective solutions.
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. Stalin
Fixing our attention on one detail or solution is like a draft-horse with blinkers on — we can’t see a beautiful direction that will potentially save time, money and effort.
Simple Thwarting Actions:
Collect quantitate and qualitative data for analysis and compare side-by-side. Data needs to include an element of human-centredness but we can get drawn to “negative” (Negativity bias) so we must include empirical data, too.
- Conduct small experiments to test assumptions. Is ELEMENT #1 really important to most clients? Find out. Will my favourite idea be favoured by a buyer? Create a prototype and find out.
- Invite other perspectives. Ask people throughout your process to give feedback and feedforward advice. And, don’t let them get away without giving specifics. Analogous experiences also help to get a fresh perspective.
- Generate HEAPS of ideas for HEAPS of things and try to mash-up your ideas with the ideas of others. Get used to letting go of ideas by remembering that once an idea is out of your head and on paper, it no longer belongs to you… This is excellent because an idea is useless kept to yourself.
3. The Bandwagon Effect (sometimes known as the Conformity Bias)
We all have a need for belonging so, often, our preference is to adopt the position of the majority lest we stand-out. Sometimes, this means that alternate views or even views that challenge the status quo aren’t voiced and aren’t heard. Bystander psychological studies have some correlation with the Bandwagon Effect.
We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. William Glasser
When everyone jumps on the bandwagon, we miss the opportunity that diversity brings. In his book, Range, David Epstein shares numerous stories about how the most wicked of problems are solved by bringing experts from diverse backgrounds together.
Simple Thwarting Actions:
- When enacting collaborative and/or ‘groupthink’ activities, encourage silent thinking time in which participants can record their own thinking without being influenced by others.
- Share thinking frequently and equitably ie. go around the circle or in order of age. Don’t always ask for verbal thinking when you’re face-to-face; written feedback is great, too.
- Adopt roles when giving peer feedback. When someone can act as a provocateur or as a supporter, they’re more likely to be able to give specific feedback.
- Stop framing feedback/comments as “positive” or “negative”, “warm” or “cold”. Reframe feedback as adding value (or not adding value). If the feedback improves the idea, it’s not negative feedback; it’s value-adding. A comment of “That’s good,” traditionally viewed as “positive” actually adds no value to an idea.
Let’s see more creativity in our workplaces and in ourselves.
