Innovation Psychology: Tips for Breaking from the Norm

We welcome guest columnist, Jim Oliver, who provides tips on how to encourage innovative thinking.

Two psychological concepts, which describe human nature’s tendency to conform to the known, provide interesting insights into the innovation process. While these traits may serve us well in most of our daily life, it is important to circumvent them when our natural instincts fail to serve our reality.

Avoiding Conformity

In a series of well-known studies published in the 1950s, Solomon Asch demonstrated that people often agree with an opinion shared by a group, even when evidence clearly shows that the opinion is false. In his experiments, he asked subjects to pick the longest of three black lines on a piece of paper. In each experiment, a shocking number of subjects picked the line that was obviously the shortest, simply because the majority of people around them (in reality, Asch’s co-conspirators) had picked it as the longest.

Because outside-the-box ideas are at the core of innovation, Asch’s studies teach an important lesson. To avoid the conformity he uncovered, it’s crucial to create an environment in which people feel comfortable sharing ideas without fear of social disapproval.

Tip: Encouraging out-of-the box thinking can be accomplished by clearly establishing a creative comfort zone in which it’s made explicitly clear that there are no bad ideas. Additionally, including a person in a brainstorming group who is naturally comfortable sharing their original ideas can help set the tone for fearless idea sharing among everyone in the group.

Anchoring and Adjustment

Another related concept is known as ‘anchoring and adjustment.’ The idea is that people base their decisions and judgment on what is already known. For example, consider the following questions:

• Is the population of Chicago greater or less than 200,000? What is the exact population?

• Is the population of Chicago greater or less than 900,000? What is the exact population?
  

Studies have shown that when asked similar questions, people asked the first question will estimate the exact population to be much lower than those asked the second. The given number acts as an anchor around which people base their answer.

So, how does this impact innovation? The best answer is a famous Henry Ford quote: “If I had asked consumers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” To innovate, it’s important to think of solutions that aren’t based on what already exists.

Tip: Seeking inspiration in seemingly unrelated areas can help to move thinking beyond what’s known into innovative ideas.

Transcending Our Nature

While the desire for group acceptance and the anchoring and adjustment method of problem solving are part of our psychological makeup, both put limits on creativity. Being aware of these natural tendencies is the first step toward transcending them. Spending time developing ways around these potential limiters can help to foster an environment ripe for innovative thinking.

~ Jim Oliver

Author Bio: Jim Oliver works for Cloverleaf Innovation, a Chicago branding agency. In his off time he enjoys running marathons and spending time with his wife, Patricia, and their three children.