提高团队创造性思维的5种方法

    你努力让团队进行有创意的思考，结果却只看到茫然困惑的眼神……最终得到的解决方案，跟自己看过几十遍的那些鸡肋方案大同小异。对此，你能做些什么？

    这是目前大多数办公室普遍存在的问题。似乎一切都处在不断变化当中。历史悠久的行业正在被不断涌现的新生力量和科技初创公司破坏。管理层清楚，公司需要保持变化，而且他们也在不断寻找新的创意。

    但你雇佣这些人时，或许并不是为了利用他们的创造力。那不是他们擅长做的事情。作为一名管理顾问，我曾亲身参与过一个保险经纪人团队进行头脑风暴的过程。那个场面可不太美妙。那么，如何发动同事们的“创造力引擎”呢？以下是五条建议。

    1. 将他们放在一个杂乱的房间里。

    听起来很蠢吧？明尼苏达大学（University of Minnesota）的一项研究发现，杂乱的房间可以帮助人们更有创造性地思考。该研究已在去年的《心理科学杂志》（Journal of Psychological Science）上发表。

    几项实验的参与者均被要求在办公室里填写调查问卷。其中一部分坐在干净整洁的办公室里；其他人的办公室则一片杂乱，到处都散落着文件和办公用品。

    参与者随后被安排了各种任务，以测试他们进行创造性思考的能力。简而言之，最开始在杂乱办公室的参与者，完胜在清洁办公室的人。他们更有可能想出有创意的解决方案，并且更有可能接受有创意的新产品。

    明尼苏达大学的凯思林•沃赫尔斯在报告中写道：“杂乱的环境能够启发人们打破传统，进而产生新鲜的见解。”让办公室变得凌乱“会让人们的行为产生巨大的变化，”她补充道。

    2. 玩“说谎者的扑克牌”游戏

    “说谎者的扑克牌”(Liar’s Poker)是用美钞玩的一种充满欺诈的扑克牌游戏，25年前，作家迈克尔•刘易斯提高了这种游戏的知名度。他的同名图书记录了流行这种游戏的华尔街的各种欺诈行为。

    这种游戏鼓励撒谎。基本上，你只有撒谎才能赢。

    如果你的团队没有足够新鲜的创意，不妨他们玩几把这种游戏，或者能够让参与者随心所欲撒谎、欺骗和偷窃的其他游戏。

    推荐此类游戏的原因何在？哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）的弗朗西斯卡•吉诺和南加州大学（University of Southern California）马歇尔商学院（Marshall School of Business）的斯科特•维尔特姆斯发现，欺诈与创造力之间有明确的联系。

    当然，他们不仅发现不诚实的人更有创造力。即便诚实的人，只要你能说服他们进行一定程度的撒谎、欺诈和偷窃，他们也可以变得更有创造力。

    You’re trying to get your team to think creatively. But instead you’re getting blank stares… followed by feeble, minor variations of solutions you’ve already heard a dozen times. What can you do?

    This is a common problem at most offices today. Everything seems to be in a state of flux. Long-established industries are being disrupted by newcomers and tech startups. Companies need to change, management knows it, and they are looking for fresh ideas.

    But you probably didn’t hire these people for their creativity. It’s not what they do. As a management consultant, I once sat and watched a team of insurance brokers try to brainstorm. It wasn’t pretty. Here are five ways to get your colleagues’ creativity engines started.

    1. Put them in a messy room

    Sounds silly, right? A study conducted at the University of Minnesota, and published last year in the Journal of Psychological Science, found evidence that just being in a messy room can help people think more creatively.

    Participants in several experiments had to fill in questionnaires while sitting in an office. Some were given a clean and tidy office; others, an office in disorder, strewn with papers and supplies everywhere.

    Participants were then presented with various tasks to test their ability to think creatively. In a nutshell, those who had first spent time in the messy office trounced those who had been in the neat one. They were more likely to think up creative solutions to problems, and more likely to embrace new and innovative products over conventional ones.

    “Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights,” wrote Minnesota’s Kathleen Vohls when reporting the findings. Just making the office untidy “made a whopping difference to people’s behavior,” she added.

    2. Get them to play liar’s poker first

    “Liar’s Poker,” a game of bluff and double-bluff played with dollar bills, was made famous by the writer Michael Lewis 25 years ago. His book of the same name chronicled the dishonesty of Wall Street, where the game is popular.

    The game puts a premium on lying. Basically, you have to lie to win.

    If you can’t get enough fresh ideas out of your team, maybe you should play a few rounds. Or play any other game where participants have absolute carte blanche to lie, cheat, and steal as much as possible.

    The reason? According to Francesca Gino at Harvard Business School and Scott Wiltermuth at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, there is a clear link between dishonesty and creativity.

    It isn’t just that the dishonest also tend to be creative, they found. It’s that even the honest become more creative if you can first persuade them to do a little lying, cheating, and stealing.