[摘要]公司需要變化，需要不斷尋找新創(chuàng)意，才能立于不敗之地。但你的團(tuán)隊(duì)或許并不擅長(zhǎng)創(chuàng)造性思維。那么，如何讓團(tuán)隊(duì)成員跳出常規(guī)套路，提出獨(dú)辟蹊徑的創(chuàng)意呢？一些看似簡(jiǎn)單的方法，其實(shí)很有幫助。

You’re trying to get your team to think creatively. But instead you’re getting blank stares… followed by feeble, minor variations of solutions you’ve already heard a dozen times. What can you do?

你努力讓團(tuán)隊(duì)進(jìn)行有創(chuàng)意的思考，結(jié)果卻只看到茫然困惑的眼神……最終得到的解決方案，跟自己看過幾十遍的那些雞肋方案大同小異。對(duì)此，你能做些什么?

This is a common problem at most offices today. Everything seems to be in a state of flux. Long-established industries are being disrupted by newcomers and tech startups. Companies need to change, management knows it, and they are looking for fresh ideas.

這是目前大多數(shù)辦公室普遍存在的問題。似乎一切都處在不斷變化當(dāng)中。歷史悠久的行業(yè)正在被不斷涌現(xiàn)的新生力量和科技初創(chuàng)公司破壞。管理層清楚，公司需要保持變化，而且他們也在不斷尋找新的創(chuàng)意。

But you probably didn’t hire these people for their creativity. It’s not what they do. As a management consultant, I once sat and watched a team of insurance brokers try to brainstorm. It wasn’t pretty. Here are five ways to get your colleagues’ creativity engines started.

但你雇傭這些人時(shí)，或許并不是為了利用他們的創(chuàng)造力。那不是他們擅長(zhǎng)做的事情。作為一名管理顧問，我曾親身參與過一個(gè)保險(xiǎn)經(jīng)紀(jì)人團(tuán)隊(duì)進(jìn)行頭腦風(fēng)暴的過程。那個(gè)場(chǎng)面可不太美妙。那么，如何發(fā)動(dòng)同事們的“創(chuàng)造力引擎”呢?以下是五條建議。

1. Put them in a messy room

1. 將他們放在一個(gè)雜亂的房間里。

Sounds silly, right? A study conducted at the University of Minnesota, and published last year in the Journal of Psychological Science, found evidence that just being in a messy room can help people think more creatively.

聽起來很蠢吧?明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)(University of Minnesota)的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，雜亂的房間可以幫助人們更有創(chuàng)造性地思考。該研究已在去年的《心理科學(xué)雜志》(Journal of Psychological Science)上發(fā)表。

Participants in several experiments had to fill in questionnaires while sitting in an office. Some were given a clean and tidy office; others, an office in disorder, strewn with papers and supplies everywhere.

幾項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)的參與者均被要求在辦公室里填寫調(diào)查問卷。其中一部分坐在干凈整潔的辦公室里;其他人的辦公室則一片雜亂，到處都散落著文件和辦公用品。

Participants were then presented with various tasks to test their ability to think creatively. In a nutshell, those who had first spent time in the messy office trounced those who had been in the neat one. They were more likely to think up creative solutions to problems, and more likely to embrace new and innovative products over conventional ones.

參與者隨后被安排了各種任務(wù)，以測(cè)試他們進(jìn)行創(chuàng)造性思考的能力。簡(jiǎn)而言之，最開始在雜亂辦公室的參與者，完勝在清潔辦公室的人。他們更有可能想出有創(chuàng)意的解決方案，并且更有可能接受有創(chuàng)意的新產(chǎn)品。

“Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights,” wrote Minnesota’s Kathleen Vohls when reporting the findings. Just making the office untidy “made a whopping difference to people’s behavior,” she added.

明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)的凱思林•沃赫爾斯在報(bào)告中寫道：“雜亂的環(huán)境能夠啟發(fā)人們打破傳統(tǒng)，進(jìn)而產(chǎn)生新鮮的見解。”讓辦公室變得凌亂“會(huì)讓人們的行為產(chǎn)生巨大的變化，”她補(bǔ)充道。

2. Get them to play liar’s poker first

2. 玩“說謊者的撲克牌”游戲

“Liar’s Poker,” a game of bluff and double-bluff played with dollar bills, was made famous by the writer Michael Lewis 25 years ago. His book of the same name chronicled the dishonesty of Wall Street, where the game is popular.

“說謊者的撲克牌”(Liar’s Poker)是用美鈔玩的一種充滿欺詐的撲克牌游戲，25年前，作家邁克爾•劉易斯提高了這種游戲的知名度。他的同名圖書記錄了流行這種游戲的華爾街的各種欺詐行為。

The game puts a premium on lying. Basically, you have to lie to win.

這種游戲鼓勵(lì)撒謊。基本上，你只有撒謊才能贏。

If you can’t get enough fresh ideas out of your team, maybe you should play a few rounds. Or play any other game where participants have absolute carte blanche to lie, cheat, and steal as much as possible.

如果你的團(tuán)隊(duì)沒有足夠新鮮的創(chuàng)意，不妨他們玩幾把這種游戲，或者能夠讓參與者隨心所欲撒謊、欺騙和偷竊的其他游戲。

The reason? According to Francesca Gino at Harvard Business School and Scott Wiltermuth at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, there is a clear link between dishonesty and creativity.

推薦此類游戲的原因何在?哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)的弗朗西斯卡•吉諾和南加州大學(xué)(University of Southern California)馬歇爾商學(xué)院(Marshall School of Business)的斯科特•維爾特姆斯發(fā)現(xiàn)，欺詐與創(chuàng)造力之間有明確的聯(lián)系。

It isn’t just that the dishonest also tend to be creative, they found. It’s that even the honest become more creative if you can first persuade them to do a little lying, cheating, and stealing.

當(dāng)然，他們不僅發(fā)現(xiàn)不誠(chéng)實(shí)的人更有創(chuàng)造力。即便誠(chéng)實(shí)的人，只要你能說服他們進(jìn)行一定程度的撒謊、欺詐和偷竊，他們也可以變得更有創(chuàng)造力。

The pair conducted a series of experiments in which they tested participants’ honesty and then their creativity. They also conducted experiments in which they induced the honest to behave more dishonestly.

兩人進(jìn)行了一系列實(shí)驗(yàn)，相繼對(duì)參與者的誠(chéng)實(shí)度和創(chuàng)造力進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。此外，他們還進(jìn)行了一些實(shí)驗(yàn)，旨在誘使誠(chéng)實(shí)的人做出一些不太誠(chéng)實(shí)的行為。

Releasing people from their ethical boundaries seems to help free their minds from abiding other rules as well, the researchers concluded.

研究人員得出的結(jié)論是，讓人們突破自己的道德界限，似乎可以幫助他們解放思想，擺脫其他規(guī)則的約束。

3. Send them out for a walk

3. 讓他們?nèi)ド⑸⒉健?

Get out of the project room. Stop sitting around that table staring at the whiteboard. Stop thinking that the more hours you are all sitting in the same room eating doughnuts the more productive you’re being.

走出辦公室。不要整天坐在桌子前盯著白板。別再以為吃著甜甜圈坐在辦公室里的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，工作效率便越高。

People are most likely to do their best creative thinking while in motion—whether outdoors, down a corridor, or even just on a treadmill, according to research conducted recently at Stanford University.

斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford University)近期進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們?cè)谶\(yùn)動(dòng)中最有可能進(jìn)行最有效的創(chuàng)意思考——不論是在戶外，在走廊里還是在跑步機(jī)上。

In a series of experiments, participants were given a variety of tests to see how well they were able to come up with creative solutions to problems. Those who answered while walking, or just after walking, fared much better. Indeed, making participants walk while answering questions doubled the number of creative responses.

在一系列實(shí)驗(yàn)中，參與者接受了各種測(cè)試，研究他們提出創(chuàng)造性解決方案的能力。在走路過程中或剛剛結(jié)束走路后回答的參與者，表現(xiàn)更好。事實(shí)上，讓參與者在走路的同時(shí)回答問題，得到的創(chuàng)造性回答增加了一倍。

The research was conducted by MarilyOppezzo, now a psychologist at Santa Clara University, and was published earlier this year in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology.

該項(xiàng)研究由圣克拉拉大學(xué)(Santa Clara University)的心理學(xué)家瑪麗莉•奧佩佐主持，并已于今年早些時(shí)候在美國(guó)心理學(xué)協(xié)會(huì)(American Psychological Association)的《實(shí)驗(yàn)心理學(xué)》雜志(Journal of Experimental Psychology)上發(fā)表。

4. Make them read the phone book first

4. 首先讓他們閱讀電話簿。

Yes, really.

是的，沒錯(cuò)。

If you want to get people to think creatively, first make them bored. Really bored. The more bored they are, the more they will daydream, and good things will follow.

如果你想讓員工的思維更有創(chuàng)造性，首先要讓他們變得無聊。真正感到無聊。他們?cè)綗o聊，就越可能幻想，產(chǎn)生好的想法自然就水到渠成。

It sounds like a spoof, but a couple of years ago British researchers found it was no joke.

聽起來像是惡搞，但幾年前，英國(guó)研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)這并非玩笑。

Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman at the University of Central Lancashire conducted experiments in which participants had to come up with creative uses for a pair of styrofoam cups.

中央蘭開夏大學(xué)(University of Central Lancashire)的桑蒂•曼恩和麗貝卡•卡德曼進(jìn)行了多項(xiàng)實(shí)驗(yàn)，讓參與者想出兩個(gè)泡沫塑料杯子的創(chuàng)意用途。

Those who had to copy out the phone book first for 15 minutes performed better than those who didn’t. Those who just had to read the phone book first did even better. Researchers believed that reading the phone book was even more boring than copying it out.

首先抄寫15分鐘電話簿的參與者，表現(xiàn)好于沒有抄寫的參與者。而首先閱讀電話簿的參與者，甚至表現(xiàn)得更好。研究人員相信，閱讀電話簿比抄寫更無聊。

“Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be eliminated,” Mann said when announcing the results early last year, “but perhaps we should be embracing it in order to enhance our creativity.”

去年年初，曼恩在宣布研究結(jié)果時(shí)表示：“在工作中，無聊一直是必須被杜絕的狀態(tài)之一，但為了提高創(chuàng)造力，我們或許應(yīng)該接受它。”

外語

[發(fā)布者：yezi]

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