Who you are: a failure or a very creative person?

A new study examines the connection between the denial of work and creativity of man. Managers should read this carefully, maybe you too often recognized as unfit for work of creative people who are really you need?

In school you always had a reputation for boom, which still do not have a girl (guy)? If your class was divided into two teams for some of the game, you always take the team final, and then only because no one else had? When you watch the movie Office Space, you associate yourself with Milton Vadams? Even if you answered yes to all these questions, then do not rush to despair. Recent studies suggest that the least adapted to the society people are the most powerful creative personalities.

The findings are published in the journal "Experimental Psychology", an article called "Can social exclusion become fuel for creative thinking? "It tells about the people with the" inner core ", with its independent character, which have become more creative in the context of non their society. Says lead author Sharon Kim (professor at the University

Hopkins): "In our study, we were inspired by such an incredibly creative people, like Steve Jobs, or Lady Gaga. We wanted to prove that there is a blessing in disguise. And there are advantages to be like everyone else, to be different. "

The study involved 200 students attended the University of Cornell. The aim of the study was - to identify the relationship between the strength of personality and creativity level. First, Sharon Kim tested the strength of the individual students, assess their need for uniqueness. In other words, how important it is for that person to feel out the crowd. And then some students said they had taken in a focus group study, and the other part said that they will not participate in the study. Then they all got a seemingly simple, but in reality - a very difficult task: to draw an alien.

If you want to know about their own level of artistic development (in the framework of the study, Kim), then forward - to draw an alien. And then look at the interpretation of the results, which are presented below:

So, looking at his picture. You need to assign yourself one point for each "non-human" part that is present on it. For example, if your two alien eye between the nose and forehead, then you do not get any points if your alien has two eyes, but they are located around the mouth, eyes or three, spewing flames, you get one point. If your alien has no eyes or mouth, you can assign a bunch of points. As a result, the more does not look like an alien to human, the more "points of creativity" you can assign yourself.

We return to the Sharon Kim. Here's what's interesting, students with a strong personality, who were, as it were excluded from the focus groups drew more creative things than those students who were officially "incorporated" in the focus group. Professor Kim explains it this way: "When people do not care what they thought about their creations around and about themselves, they are open to ideas that are rejected by those who are very worried about the opinion others. "

But, unfortunately, the people, the independent third-party opinion often can not get a prestigious job as the big companies do not promote freedom and too developed their own opinion. So, it would seem, the advantage: a strong personality and a high level of creativity, becomes a pretext for refusing to work.

Kim and made another unexpected discovery. People with a weak character can be influenced by strengthening their identity. Part of the study was that the students were given to read a short story in which all the pronouns were the first person: I, me, we, us. After reading they had circles highlight pronouns. They are then "taken" or "not accepted" in the focus group and asked to draw aliens.

So students who first read the story, and then have been "dismissed" from the study, drew more creative aliens. This was true even for those students who initially had a weak personality. After reading the prose with lots of personal pronouns, they became more than individualize themselves, and this has made them more creative.

This does not mean that you can make someone strong personality, but it means that you can create a work environment that will promote independence and the development of creative thinking.

But interestingly, despite the fact that the company indicated in the ads on the search for employees that they need "Creative people", in fact, they prefer graduates typical school with a fairly conventional past and experience.

Kim hopes that her research will affect hiring policies in companies, as well as the treatment of employees, so that they could save most creative people, Kim also recommends that a corporate policy to stimulate the creative development employees. This may help in very small changes, such as less strict dress code.

Of course, Professor Sharon Kim has not escaped the ironic questions, such, for example, if it develops creativity when society is against you, then the company's leaders need to tighten up and vice versa does not encourage individuality? But Kim has an answer to this question: "Even if a company you feel comfortable, still there are moments when you reject. For example, you go to the boss with a brilliant idea, and he just grunts in response, and answers "no". "