Synopsis

Creativity has long been thought to be an individual gift, best pursued alone; schools, organizations, and whole industries are built on this idea. But what if the most common beliefs about how creativity works are wrong? In this authoritative and fascinating new book, Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, tears down some of the most popular myths about creativity and erects new principles in their place. He reveals that creativity is always collaborative-even when you’re alone. (That "eureka” moment in the bathtub couldn’t have come to Archimedes if he hadn’t spent so many hours arguing and comparing notes with his fellow mathematicians and philosophers.) Sawyer draws on compelling stories of inventions and innovations: the inventors of the ATM, the mountain bike, and open source operating systems, among others, to demonstrate the freewheeling ways of true innovation. He shares the results of his own acclaimed research on jazz groups, theater ensembles, and conversation analysis, to show us how to be more creative in collaborative group settings, how to change organizational dynamics for the better, and how to tap into our own reserves of creativity.

Publishers Weekly

Forget about "the myth of the solitary genius": collaborative effort generates ideas and inventions, says this useful, upbeat book about how "innovation always emerges from a series of sparks-never a single flash of insight." Judiciously wielding exercises and dozens of examples, Sawyer (Explaining Creativity) helps the reader understand how people think and function in and out of groups. He looks at how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis composed their epic novels in concert, how unorganized individuals can come together to provide disaster relief more efficiently than government planners, how Charles Darwin and Samuel Morse built their work on others' discoveries, how information sharing helped Silicon Valley beat out Boston's computer startups. (Sawyer's riffs on jazz ensembles and improv comedy as sites of ingenuity are less convincing.) Basing much of his work on that of mentor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi-who writes about reaching the state of heightened consciousness he calls "flow"-Sawyer offers guidelines for creating "group flow." Insisting that "collaborative webs are more important than creative people," he calls for an "organizational culture that fosters equivocality, improvised innovation, and constant conversation-that's a recipe for group genius." Even if few readers are in a position to do away with their organizational chart, this is a solid recipe for "unexpected innovation." (June)

Biography

Keith Sawyer is Associate Professor of Education and of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, has designed video games for Atari, and lectures frequently to both academic and business audiences. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.