Creative Change

October 17, 2016
Mueller, a management professor and author of the viral paper “The Bias Against Creativity,” has spent nearly two decades studying the subject of creativity. Her conclusion is that our current dialogue on the topic urgently needs to change, as American workplaces and institutions remain generally resistant to creativity. She asserts that this tendency will lead to “uncreative destruction”—a preference for the known even when new solutions are necessary. She seeks to provide insight into the origin of this “hidden barrier,” putting forth the premise that people actually both love and hate creativity depending on the circumstances. The book outlines a four-step process for disrupting this dysfunctional mind-set in oneself, and it also provides strategies for getting others to break their habitual thinking. Elsewhere, Mueller looks at organizational structure and its role in stifling positive change. Of particular relevance is her chapter on the bias against innovative leadership. This enlightening book not only shows why people reject creativity but provides solutions on how to switch one’s thinking and truly welcome it. Agent: Giles Anderson, Anderson Literary Agency.

December 1, 2016
Of innovation and its great enemy, inertia.We face huge problems, not least of them, writes social psychologist Mueller (Management/Univ. of San Diego), the fact that the end-of-the-world clock that ticked so loudly during the Cold War has now landed on "three minutes to midnight." Huge problems require huge solutions, and huge solutions require creativity. But how does creativity flourish in cultures that are unused or even hostile to it? Some of our inability to leverage creativity can be linked to familiar human risk-averse behavior--and because she's a psychologist, Mueller goes straight to Ellsberg, Tversky, and other textbook examples--and some to the odd fact that while current corporate jargon places a high value on innovation, innovation is not really what the vaunted "continuous improvement" mantra really entails. Mueller looks at models for disrupting the chain of inertia and breaking some of the barriers to good ideas. She observes that certain problem-coping methods encode different requirements for structure and offer different levels of uncertainty and risk, for good and bad; institutions particularly crave structure because it yields measurable outcomes, while softer approaches may not net immediately quantifiable results. This is puzzling given that most CEOs identify creativity as "the number-one leadership competency to win in the future." Even so, the wheels turn slowly: one noteworthy innovation in measuring customer satisfaction took two years to run through the necessary channels, and this from the company's chief innovation officer. Suggesting a host of mindset-altering exercises for organizations, Mueller ventures the thought that maybe metrics aren't everything in arriving at a culture that is more conducive to creative thinking. As she notes in conclusion, "once we accept that our metrics are not themselves the answers but rather that they are the path to the answers, we are no longer limited by fear." Solid reading for the business set though no substitute for books by Twyla Tharp, Daniel Dennett, and other creative thinkers.

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November 15, 2016

Mueller's (management, Univ. of San Diego Sch. of Business) thesis is that while top business leaders indicate that they want creativity for their organizations in order to compete and succeed in today's business environment, in practice, they often reject such innovations and favor the status quo. Mueller sets out to determine whether businesses are really encouraging inventiveness to take advantage of new discoveries and generate creative solutions for the many problems facing us today. She also examines whether they are establishing fresh and profitable products and services that would prove advantageous to their business. Mueller identifies "a hidden innovation barrier" that inhibits companies from taking chances. She defines the creative process, works on a method of evaluation, and concludes with a discussion of why we need to adopt a positive mind-set. VERDICT Mueller, an accomplished scholar in the management field, has developed a well-formulated argument for creativity. Her ideas and research need to be available to academics, business practitioners, and, really, everyone.--Littleton Maxwell, Robins Sch. of Business, Univ. of Richmond

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