If you focus on “intellectual” or “task” conflict, and limit or avoid “interpersonal” or “emotional” conflict, you can produce better ideas. Although the folks at both companies certainly enjoy their work and their teams, they also understand that conflict, not cohesion, can drive their creative process.” Two Types of Conflict: Interpersonal and Intellectual The Cohesive Myth leads us to the assumption that if we want to be as creative as Pixar or make innovative products like Evernote, we need to build teams that are happy and playful all the time. “It’s easy to look at the output of a group like Pixar or Evernote and make assumptions about its creative process. We Don’t Need to Build Teams that are Happy and Playful All the Time
#WHAT IS EVERNOTE CONFLICT HOW TO#
In the book, The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas, David Burkus shares key insight into how to enhance the creative process and produce better ideas. The key is to focus on intellectual conflict, not interpersonal conflict, and to move ideas forward by providing both criticisms and suggestions for improvement. The irony is that playing it safe, puts them at risk. On teams that don’t “expose the thinking” or avoid conflict, they miss out on truly exploring the merits, the possibilities, and the weaknesses of an idea. This helped people learn to share more freely, and it helped shape better ideas, by getting a collective perspective. In one of the earlier teams I was on, we had a practice called “expose the thinking.” The idea was to share early thinking, and critique the thinking, not the person. If we learn how to fight properly, we can use conflict to enhance our creative potential, to generate consistently great ideas. The reality is healthy conflict helps create better ideas. One of the myths of creativity and innovation is that we need happy and cohesive teams to produce outstanding results. “Ideas stand in the corner and laugh while we fight over them.” ? Marty Rubin