“Divergent thinking is an essential ingredient of creativity. Diverse groups produce diverse thinking. Ergo, diversity promotes creativity. This logic applies to corporations, research teams, think tanks, and other groups of creators. Those who rely on diverse people are more likely to innovate than those who rely on platoons of similar people.”
From “Mighty is the Mongrel,” by Gregg Pascal Zachary. Fast Company, July 2000.
“If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.”
–Thomas Edison, on why he had twenty-one assistants
“Ideally, your team should have seven to nine people. If you have more than fifteen or twenty, you’re dead: the connections are too hard to make.”
–Ray Oglethorpe, President, AOL Technologies
From “What Makes Teams Work,” by Regina Fazio, Maruca, Fast Company, November 2000.
“Great groups have shaped our world, from the gathering of young geniuses at Los Alamos who unleashed the atom to the youthful scientists and hackers who invented a computer that was personal as well as powerful. That should hardly surprise us. In a society as complex and technologically sophisticated as ours, the most urgent projects require the coordinated contributions of many talented people. Whether the task is building a global business or discovering the mysteries of the human brain, one person can’t hope to accomplish it, however gifted or energetic he or she may be. And yet, even as we make the case for collaboration, we resist the idea of collective creativity. Our mythology refuses to catch up with our reality. And so we cling to the myth of the Lone Ranger, the romantic idea that great things are usually accomplished by a larger-than-life individual working alone…
We must turn to great groups if we hope to begin to understand how that rarest of precious resources—genius—can be successfully combined with great effort to achieve results that enhance all our lives. It is in such groups that we may also discover why some organizations seem to breed greatness, freeing members to be better than anyone imagined they could be.”
From “The Secrets of Creative Collaboration,” by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, Inc. Magazine, December 1, 1996.
Find at least one ally who is also a helpful critic—someone who will react honestly to your work and give you realistic, constructive advice. The last thing you want is to pour huge amounts of time, money, and passion into an idea with flaws that are obvious to everyone in the world but you.
