Original Thinkers’ – Are they different? A TED talk by Adam Grant
November 11, 2019
Changing tracks from last week, I am going back to a TED talk by Adam Grant. If you have about 15 minutes, you can listen to this talk on Ted by clicking here. Else please read the following few lines to get the gist of it. Adam Grant is an Organizational Psychologist. Grant’s book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World examines how these thinkers are changing the world. In this TED talk Adam highlights just three unique habits
Three surprising habits of Original Thinkers
- They Procrastinate: Adam has conducted studies which conclude that there is a sweet spot for coming up with original ideas. One must give some time for the brain to step back and process to come up with unique thinking. People who are under pressure can be less creative. You may be finishing the task too early in the cycle, have the pressure to finish it up, you may not give your brain the time to digest the problem and come up with a something new. Or you may start the work too late in the cycle and do not really have time to be creative. Somewhere in between is an ideal spot for creativity.
- They are afraid: The fear failure. But they fear that if they do not try, they will lose this chance forever. They fear inaction even more than they fear failure. So they Try.
- They fail a lot: They try a lot and they fail a lot. But they rarely fail to Try. The secret to coming up with original ideas is to generate a lot of them in the first place.
As leaders, it will be great to encourage original thinking in your teams.
Stay tuned for more next week.
One Comment
Susheel Jalali
Last week only I was wondering about this that there must be something unique that separates fast and high achievers from original and broad-brushed multi-discipline thinkers, and this article hits that nail perfectly.
The reason I was thinking on that is that many times I got ideas which I worked on to a certain extent. I also followed through and delivered on some, but many others I did procrastinate due to the focus on the ones I was progressing and delivering, as part of 3 different startups (in sequence, not at the same time).
I find when we procrastinate at a complexity point in the problem-solution domain, where thought is needed, clarity and solutions from a different angle will emerge when one has slept over it or when one applies ones brain to a different domain, then later during an evening or morning walk, fresh wave of perspective and solution can sweep into the first domain creating creativity !!