THE
RECOMMENDER
What are you
loving this month?
Habitual Learning
The Power of Habit, by New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg,
examines habits good and bad. Duhigg talks us through four companies that found success by swapping business-as-usual routines with
smarter habits. —PHILIP BUTTA
FC: How does
creativity work?
Lehrer: The
word itself is a
misnomer. We
use creativity in
the singular, as if
there’s one way
the brain gener-
ates new connections. But there
are probably three neurologically
distinct forms of creativity. One
is when you have these mo-
ments of insight that come out
of the blue—when you have
epiphanies in the shower. Those
seem to come from the part of
the brain that’s involved in
things like the interpretation of
metaphors and the processing
of jokes. Another form is really
working hard at solving a
problem—it’s not nearly as fun
as having an epiphany, but it’s
just as important. The last form
is spontaneous improvisation—
what Miles Davis did.
Can a person choose which
kind of creativity to use?
The type of mental process we
should use really depends on the
type of problems we’re solving. I
think we have to do a better job
of diagnosing where we are in
the creative process and adjusting our thought process accordingly. When I’m stuck, I realize
now I need to let myself relax, be-
An exploration both artistic and scientific, Jonah Lehrer’s Imagine:
How Creativity Works tells us why a walk can lead to a big idea and how
brainstorming dulls imagination. —Rachel Z. Arndt
TAKE A NAP, BE MORE
CREATIVE
cause the answer will arrive only
when I stop looking for it. The
things that are most essential for
big ideas aren’t going to look
productive. It’s going to involve
taking a nap, finding a way to relax. It may look like goofing off,
but it’s absolutely essential.
You say brainstorming
doesn’t work. Why?
When you look at scientific literature, it’s very unambiguous that
brainstorming doesn’t work. The
first reason is because of its main
rule: Thou shalt not criticize. As
long as the criticism is constructive, it forces people to engage
on a deeper level. The problem
with brainstorming is free associations are really superficial and
constricted by language and clichés. Criticism is important to
get past that.
Why are we so fascinated by the
idea of creativity?
It’s one of the defining tricks of
human nature. We somehow
conjure up new ideas out of thin
air—we can’t help but find new
connections. But you really can’t
just address it from the perspective of the brain. It’s also about
the cultures we’re embedded in
and the people we work with,
how we work with them, and
which cities we live in.
CALI WILLIAMS
YOST
CEO,
Flex+Strategy
Group
Quiet: The
Power of Introverts in a World
That Can’t Stop
Talking, by Susan Cain: “As an
extreme extrovert, I used to
be misunderstood by colleagues, friends,
and family who
are much quieter. Quiet gives
me awareness
of and appreciation for the gifts
of those who
get their energy
from within.”
Jay-Z and Kanye
West’s Watch
the Throne:
“Ever since I read
Jay-Z’s autobiography, Decoded,
I’ve been a true
fan. Did you
know he studied
the dictionary
for hours in seventh grade to
prepare for rap-off challenges?
Yes, he did.”
Starbucks
As Starbucks planned its
growth strategy in the ’90s,
managers realized that employees regularly cracked
under pressure. ( Tears were
common.) Starbucks implemented institutional habits
for baristas, called the LAT TE
method: listen, acknowledge,
take action, thank the customer, and explain why the
problem occurred. Customer
(and employee) satisfaction
skyrocketed.
Alcoa
The sluggish aluminum company hired Paul O’Neill as
CEO in 1987, hoping he’d
boost revenue. To the chagrin
of investors, he chose to focus
his energies on decreasing
employee accidents, the result of unsafe work habits.
O’Neill streamlined the company’s production process to
force cautiousness, and by
the time he retired in 2000,
Alcoa’s net income had increased fivefold.
CHRISTY LIU
Cofounder,
Wanderfly
Breaking Bad
and Top Chef:
“While these
t wo shows are
polar opposites,
they’re equally
entertaining.
Well, actually,
both are about
cooking.”
Febreze
Launched in 1993 as an odor-killing product, Febreze was a
flop. Why? “The people who
needed it, who lived with nine
cats, had adapted to the
odor,” says Duhigg. While
studying videos of folks making their beds, P&G marketers
noticed one consistent habit:
Subjects looked proud upon
chore completion. Febreze
was rebranded as a post-cleaning reward; it now
makes $1 billion annually.
Arista Records
When Arista introduced radio
to Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” in 2003,
listeners weren’t interested.
“We like songs that are familiar,” Duhigg says, and “Hey
Ya!” was too unusual. Arista
got some help when stations
sandwiched the tune between
“sticky” artists such as Christina Aguilera and Celine Dion.
In four months, the number
of folks tuning out dropped
significantly, and “Hey Ya!” is
still stuck in our heads.
