New Research: We Are More Creative When We Help Others Than Ourselves

There is an interesting set of findings from psychological experiments that suggest we see others' flaws and strengths more clearly than our own (I wrote about this in Good Boss, Bad Boss) and that, on average, human-beings make more rational decisions when make them for others rather than themselves.  As Jeff Pfeffer and I advised in Hard Facts:

See Yourself and Your Organization as Outsiders Do

A big impediment to evidence-based management is that human beings, especially those with good mental health, often have inflated views of their own talents and prospects for success. This rampant optimism is a double-edged sword. The upside is that it creates positive self-fulfilling prophecies, which increase the odds of success. The downside is that excessive optimism causes people to downplay or not see risks, and to persist despite clear evidence they are traveling down the wrong path. One study found, for example, that over 80 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed estimated that chances were over 70 percent that their venture would succeed, and over 30 percent believed that their firm was certain to succeed—even though only about 35 percent of new businesses survive their first five years.  Max Bazerman’s book on managerial decision making shows that outsiders often make more objective judgments than insiders do—so having a blunt friend, mentor, or counselor can help you see and act on better evidence.  This is one reason why Kathleen Eisenhardt’s study of successful versus unsuccessful Silicon Valley start-ups found that in companies that survived and thrived, the CEO usually had a trusted counselor on the team—while CEOs of unsuccessful firms usually did not. These counselors were typically ten to twenty years older than the CEO, with broad industry experience, and were most valuable for helping CEOs recognize when they were traveling down the wrong path and a shift in strategic direction was needed.

This finding that it is better to rely on others than ourselves is also seen in a new study described at one of my favorite blogs, BPS research.   Here is the summary at BPS:

Across four studies involving hundreds of undergrads, Polman and Emich found that participants drew more original aliens for a story to be written by someone else than for a story they were to write themselves; that participants thought of more original gift ideas for an unknown student completely unrelated to themselves, as opposed to one who they were told shared their same birth month; and that participants were more likely to solve an escape-from-tower problem if they imagined someone else trapped in the tower, rather than themselves (a 66 vs. 48 per cent success rate). Briefly, the tower problem requires you to explain how a prisoner escaped the tower by cutting a rope that was only half as long as the tower was high. The solution is that he divided the rope lengthwise into two thinner strips and then tied them together.

For the complete description, go here.  The implication of these diverse studies are quite instructive.  If we want to make better decisions, make faster decisions, have a more realistic picture of our strengths and weaknesses, and now, apparently, be more creative, we need to ask others for their opinions and assistance.   There is even a kind of weird implication that rather than working on our own problems, we should always be working on others.  So, despite the cynicism about consultants, they actually do serve a moreimportant  role than many of us have recognized. Certainly, this research suggests the importance of having mentors and colleagues who will give you help, advise you on decisions, and point out the flaws in your beliefs and actions-- and that the world would be a better place if we did so in turn for others.  Another cool implication is that consultants need outside advisors when it comes to tackling their own challenges and problems.  In any event, these studies certainly provide interesting evidence of how much humans we need one another.

The citation for the creativity research is:

Polman E, and Emich KJ (2011). Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self. Personality and social psychology bulletin

 

Comments

[Stefan]

Nice points, thanks.
An occasional deep look at the "inflated views of [my] own talents and prospects for success" can be pretty clarifying indeed.
Bytheway, perhaps some of you have seen the old Poirot detective movies. In there he often speaks like "Poirot noticed ..." or "Poirot thinks that ...". Seeing yourself as another person seems like a good way to stay realistic and objective.

[Amber]

Bob, I couldn't agree more. More often than not I can give better advice to others than I can think for myself. It's this odd phenomenon that happens, but for some reason I am able to look at others situations better than my own. Maybe it's just a part of human nature. We can be more critical on others than ourselves. Even in class the other day, other classmates were asking our opinions on their about.me pages and I could spit out advice like no other and was pretty dead on, but when it comes to my own page, I'm still not sure if I like it. It's interesting to think about to say the least. Thanks for the post!

[Nandini]

This is very interesting. We are better at helping others than ourselves just because we think ourselves more capable than we are? I guess that is true. You always have better solutions to problems if there is atleast one more person to talk to. Each is an individual with different perspectives, experiences and thought process. In the long run listning to others makes us better too.
Thank you for the post!

[Adam Searcy]

I agree quite a bit with this study. For me it is all about RISK. If I am offering up advice to someone, it is just my two cents, not my hide. Of course I am not there offering advice without some stake in the outcome, but nowhere near the level if it is my own project we are talking about.
The two trickiest subfactors in this mentor, critical advice structure are A) finding that mentor whom you actually trust and won’t disregard their advice when it flies in the face of your own plans and B) actually listening to and taking such difficult to swallow feedback.

Go ahead and stay optimistic about yourself! That self efficacy is invaluable. If you are able to temper it with such a wise advisor and maintain enough humility to allow that mentor to truly guide you, it may be the combination that pushes you well past the average in your endeavors.

[Brett]

Very interesting information! Makes complete sense too. Being that we are all human, we tend to think of the work we produce as being great work, our ideas being great ideas, and our actions as always great. We like to see ourselves in the positive light of things. But thats obviously not always the case. We can only see the world through our eyes, and like mentioned, if we have that positive outlook, we will fulfill those positive self-fulfilling prophecies.

With that, when we look at the other people around us in the work force, we are much more inclined to see the flaws in their production, ideas, and actions. Its the nature of the beast. And its not necessarily a bad thing, because you are providing a feedback from a different perspective (and last time I checked there are about 7 billion perspectives on this planet). So to be an effictive individual in the environment, feedback is absolutely crucial for success! By putting ourselves in someone else's shoes or projecting ourselves outside our roles to look in, we can receive that insight if that outside feedback isn't available! Thanks Bob!

[Thomas]

As a writing consultant to academic writers, and an academic writer myself, I can definitely confirm this effect. I'm much better at thinking creatively about someone else's paper than about my own, and about someone else's writing process than my own. I would add that after working very closely with the writing projects of others, I am much more effective and creative as a writer myself. After much training, I am better able to see "my self as an other". That's generally good for your style.

[Joe Marchese]

Spot-on, Bob. It's all about perspective. Here are my thoughts, per a blog I wrote about a year ago:
http://mckeeverandsullivan.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/xenophilia/

[Erik]

Great study. Now we all need to be prepared to give and receive that constructive feedback. Sometimes people are hesitant to give truly honest feedback, and on the flip-side it’s sometimes hard to take.

[Patricia Knight]

This was great information and reaffirms what it is I have seen. People have inflated views of themselves as when I talk to employees about their performance it doesn't always match reality to the feedback received as they see themselves performing better than what is documented. Having a mentor is a great suggestions as it can help ground you in reality.

Thank you,
Patricia Knight
http://patriciaknight.wordpress.com/