AI

Creativity is Social: The Interpersonal Dynamics

of Innovation in the Workplace
Innovate or Die: Creativity is the Key to Survival
Talk of creativity used to be relegated to fields such as the arts, fashion, and architecture, but today it is
on the minds of all kinds of business leaders. Market-leading products are rapidly replaced. Customers
quickly abandon popular services for faster, easier options. Companies that never considered themselves
as being in a business requiring creativity are suddenly highly attuned to the threat of disruption from a
competitor whose innovative new idea might change the industry completely.
With the accelerated lifecycles of products and services, companies have to think about problems and
business issues in new ways. Maximizing efficiencies is no longer enough for continued growth.
Businesses must get creative.
Creativity vs. Innovation
Creativity and innovation are sometimes used interchangeably. Although they are closely related, they
are different from each other:
 Creativity is the generation of novel and useful ideas, often by connecting knowledge in
new ways.
 Innovation is the realization of those ideas (as products, services, practices, etc.) and their
implementation to create value.
Once defined, it becomes clear that innovation is impossible without creativity. Fortunately, humans
inherently have a great deal of creative intelligence, but turning it into innovation requires that
organizations support an environment that encourages people to express and develop it and then to bring
that creativity together with data, expertise, networks of relationships, and resources to realize its full
potential.
In this paper, we lay out a model for doing that based on secondary research as well as related insights
from our own work, including our global study of creativity in the workplace.
Creativity Is In Demand
As evidenced by the long-running upward trend of patent, copyright, and trademark filings around the
world, the race to innovate is in full stride. 1 In their attempts to fuel this innovation, many employers now
seek to strengthen the creativity of their workforces. From fintech companies tapping into the imaginative
gifts of neurodiverse people on the autism spectrum to dancers and choreographers being hired to help
engineers program the movements of robots, creativity is receiving a new level of attention in business.
According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Reports in 2019 and 2020, creativity topped the list of the
most in-demand soft skills. Hiring managers now commonly ask candidates to share examples of their
creativity in interviews, and creativity ranks high among skill groups that employers expect to have
increasing importance in the lead up to 2025, according to the Future of Jobs Survey 2020 by the World
Economic Forum.2
The Covid-19 pandemic further emphasized the need for creativity as many companies suddenly had to
reinvent ways of doing business. It will continue to be a critical component of organizations’ quests to
become more agile in response to the world’s increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
Given creativity’s importance, Dale Carnegie Training conducted a survey of more than 6,500 employees
across twenty-one countries and territories around the world to better understand what influences
creativity and how well organizations are doing in cultivating an environment that encourages it. 3
Where Does Creativity Come From?
Our collective creativity is credited with having enabled humans to thrive in a range of climates,
geographies, and conditions far broader than other species.
While scientists are still at the beginning stages of
understanding the neuroscience of creativity, the myth of the
“creative right brain” has been disproven. It is now generally
accepted that the capacity for creativity—at least to some
extent—is common to all of us.
In our survey, 82% of respondents said there are creative
people on their own team, but creativity is the result of more
than just individual traits and skills. It also depends on the
situation or environment, and the transformation of creativity into innovation is the result of a process.
Despite the ongoing mystery as to exactly how the structures of our brain work in relation to creativity,
research in the field has produced clues to enhancing it.
Enhancing Creativity Involves Dealing with Paradoxes
At first glance, a review of the creativity literature reveals apparent paradoxes for those who want to
enhance creativity in their teams and organizations. For instance:
 It is widely held that increased diversity promotes creativity, but some research finds that when
diversity comes at the cost of adequate team cohesion, it can hinder creative performance. 4
 Scientists studying interpersonal relationships called “weak ties” know they facilitate the
generation of new ideas, but they also note that in the absence of “strong ties” those ideas are
unlikely to be shared due to fear of rejection. 5
 Creative concepts improve with constructive feedback and healthy conflict, yet too much criticism
can shut down idea generation.6
 While history books feature solo geniuses and their creative moments of insight, creative
invention inevitably builds on prior work, with “human society function[ing] like a collective brain.” 7
Understanding these apparent paradoxes (creativity as an individual vs. social process, the value of
conflict vs. cooperation, strong ties vs. weak ties, and diversity vs. homogeneity) requires a deeper look at
the journey of creative ideas as they are turned into useful innovation.
The Journey from Creativity to Innovation
A helpful way to think about the journey that successful ideas take was proposed by researchers Perry-
Smith and Mannucci in their paper “From Creativity to Innovation.” The figure that follows describes the
four phases, each of which has a distinct purpose and unique requirements for optimal functioning.

An animated movie is an obvious example of a creative idea that moves through the journey to become a
tangible product: a new feature film. Typically, an individual writer, making new connections between
personal experience, imagination, and perhaps the prior work of other artists, generates the concept and
then creates a synopsis that outlines the plot and characters. Incorporating feedback from mentors or
trusted colleagues, they clarify and develop the story further. It is pitched more widely to gain support and
additional resources for development. With final approval from executives, the entire studio then works
together to produce the movie. The same kind of process applies to creative ideas for new or improved
products, processes, user experiences, solutions to problems, and more.
The network model of creativity describes it as a
social process.8 The success of the creative idea is a
result of the interplay between individual efforts, that
of teams, interpersonal networks, and the
organization as a whole. Individuals generate the
core ideas, elaborate on those ideas with others,
leverage networks and relationships to win support,
and work within the organization’s processes and
structures to execute. At each phase of the journey,
a different type of interpersonal relationship becomes
important for success.
In the first phase of Idea Generation, the individual
combines their knowledge and experiences with insight gathered from others (often “weak ties”) to come
up with the core concept of the new idea. This phase is primarily a solo effort, driven by intrinsic
motivation, guided by purpose, and helped along when the individual either innately has or has been
trained in creative competencies.
During Idea Elaboration, the individual typically shares the idea with others, who may ask questions or
provide feedback that develop it further. New or better ideas can emerge from the collaborative synthesis.
At this stage, a high level of trust and psychological safety is beneficial. This is because the individual
must feel safe sharing the new idea without fear of criticism or
rejection. Homogenous groups (where “strong ties” are the
norm and members share similar backgrounds, interests,
outlooks, and sources of information) often have higher levels
of cohesiveness and trust. Yet this type of homogeneity often
leads to convergent thinking. Instead, sharing the idea with
people who have diverse experiences and perspectives at this
stage often yields greater creativity and more viable solutions. It
is divergent thinking that is needed at this stage.
When the idea is ready to promote to a wider audience, including those who have the power to assign
resources for implementation and grant approval, the phase involved is Idea Championing. Because
influence, perceived legitimacy, and persuasion are critical in this phase, having social capital outside of
the team and a network of contacts in key positions who are willing to lend the idea credibility can make it
easier for the owner of the creative idea to win approval from decision-makers.
For Idea Implementation, a clear, shared understanding and vision is essential to turn the creative idea
into useful innovation, requiring strong communication and collaboration across the implementation team.
Roadblocks, Bumps, and Detours on the Journey from Creativity to Innovation
Unfortunately, in such a complex journey, there are inevitable roadblocks, bumps, and detours along the
way in any organization. These may be processes, mindsets, or behaviors that make it more difficult for
creative ideas to succeed.
Unlike film studios, many organizations are not in the habit of seeking out and developing creative new
ideas. While nearly three-quarters of the respondents in our study agreed that their colleagues are good
at generating useful ideas, far fewer agreed that leaders actively seek ideas from anywhere and anyone
in the organization. Many good ideas seem destined for nowhere, with nearly 3 in 10 respondents unable
to agree that it is easy to get support for them. To sum up, as the following chart suggests, most
respondents feel their organizations could do more to make the journey for creative ideas easier.
The question is, what can organizations that value creativity do to enhance it and increase the chances of
creative ideas becoming useful innovation?
The answer lies in supporting creativity at the individual, team, and organization levels and doing so with
an awareness of the differing needs at each point in the transformation of creative ideas into innovation.
Creative Intelligence: An Often-Untapped
Resource
Since creative intelligence already exists in each of
us, we might start by asking ourselves, “How can
organizations avoid getting in the way of people’s
innate creativity and their willingness to apply it
toward achieving the organization’s purpose in better,
faster, or more efficient ways?”
The first step should be protecting people’s intrinsic
motivation: Keep them engaged. This is an ongoing
challenge for leaders and one that organizations
have devoted considerable time and effort to in
recent years. Our research at Dale Carnegie Training suggests that a focus on making people feel
valued, confident, empowered, and connected translates to higher engagement, yet in the survey, only
24% strongly agree that they feel empowered to make decisions at work. Only 38% strongly agree that
they feel confident in their skills and abilities at work, and just 27% strongly agree that their managers
make them feel valued and appreciated. To get people people’s best efforts—including their creativity—
many leaders could improve in these areas.
Helping employees broaden their expertise, deepen their knowledge, and learn new skills has also been
shown to support greater creativity.9 This strategy has the added benefit of making people feel more
valued and more confident at the same time, and it strengthens the case for making upskilling and
reskilling a business priority.10
As is clear from the Idea Journey, ensuring employees feel connected is another critical factor for
creativity. Encouraging them to broaden their professional networks promotes the “weak ties” that help
spark it. Of respondents who transitioned to remote work during the Covid-19 emergency, nearly 3 in 10
are aware they speak with a smaller, core group of
co-workers now compared with when they worked in
the physical office. This finding has been confirmed
by Microsoft: “Anonymized collaboration trends
between billions of Outlook emails and Microsoft
Teams meetings reveal a clear trend: The shift to
remote shrunk our networks. At the onset of the
pandemic, our analysis shows that interactions with
our close networks at work increased, while
interactions with our distant networks diminished.” 11
While a high level of within-team bonding is certainly
important, people must also maintain the peripheral relationships that provide access to broad networks
to get support for creative ideas.
Finally, research has found that there is limited capacity for invention when people’s “minds are
constantly occupied with urgent problems.” 12 While providing dedicated time to pursue innovative ideas
(as Google famously tried) may be unrealistic in most organizations, addressing employee well-being and
the burnout, stress, and exhausting workloads many employees are currently enduring could be a more
practical next step toward greater creativity.
All of this has implications for creativity at the individual level, especially for the Idea Generation phase.
But the Idea Journey tells us that beyond Idea Generation, the path from Creativity to Innovation
becomes more social. This suggests additional strategies to enhance the rest of the journey, ones that
balance the needs for diversity vs. homogeneity and cooperation vs. conflict.
Team Leaders Can Help Creativity Flourish
Teams are at the heart of innovation. It is within these smaller
work units that problems first surface and possible solutions are
vetted. Teams are where one person’s good idea is further
developed, finds early support, and (hopefully) a path to the
resources and approval that might turn it into real innovation.
Team leaders set the tone as to whether the team actively looks
for problems worth solving or is content to conduct business as
usual. Research suggests these three areas of focus for Team
Leaders to help them enhance creative performance:
First, actively promote an emotional connection to the team’s
work. Team leaders should seize every opportunity to emphasize
the connection between team tasks and the organization’s
purpose, something that has steadily declined since the
pandemic hit in 2020.13 Empathy for the end user of the product
or process often reveals opportunities for improvement, and a
focus on emotions and emotional intelligence has been shown to
encourage people to identify problems worth solving and
encourage them to generate more original ideas. 14
Second, team leaders should be skilled at creating, coaching,
and maintaining psychological safety. The level of psychological
safety on a team has been demonstrated to predict its
effectiveness and has implications for whether members can
work through conflict without damaging trusting relationships. A
high level increases people’s willingness to take a risk such as
sharing a “wild idea” or providing honest feedback. It supports an
environment of genuine inclusiveness conducive to sustaining
diversity on the team. A low level of psychological safety
discourages diversity in favor of conformity.
Everyone on a team needs strong interpersonal skills if they are
going to be able to contribute their technical expertise and
knowledge to the creative process in a productive way. Psychological safety is built relationship by
relationship, team by team, throughout the organization. Respectful engagement is essential; every
interaction has the chance to create it, maintain it, or break it down.
While 79% of our survey respondents agree that they have strong relationships with people at work, just
68% agreed that their team is comfortable with constructive controversy and disagreement about ideas.
Perhaps worse, only 65% of all respondents say employees are not afraid to bring up tough issues and
problems to their leaders. These data together suggest that many professional relationships may lack the
level of trust needed to facilitate the Idea Elaboration phase.
Finally, it is worth teaching teams essential creative competencies and processes. While most
organizations say they value creativity, only 61% of non-manager respondents said that management
supports people spending time coming up with better ways of doing things. By sharing the basics, Team
Leaders can send a strong, positive signal that they value creativity. This might include simply creating
awareness of the Idea Journey to help employees better understand how to leverage their interpersonal
relationships at each stage. It could also involve practicing new ways of making connections or devoting
time in problem-solving meetings to dig into the root causes of challenges before using techniques—such
as managing the interplay of brainstorming, convergent, and divergent thinking—to elicit creative
alternatives that go beyond the more obvious, superficial fixes that tend to surface first.
Senior Leaders Can Make or Break It
As is so often the case, success hinges on a commitment from top leaders. They alone have the power to
establish a norm where people accept that actively identifying challenges and finding solutions is
everyone’s business. Three areas of focus should stand out for leaders, because without them, efforts of
individuals and team leaders can’t succeed:
Begin by communicating the organizational purpose effectively to provide a focus for creativity. As the
definitions we used earlier make clear, creativity and innovation must be focused—ideas must be “useful”
and “create value”—but for whom? A customer-centered purpose gives direction to creativity. In other
words, novel ideas that fulfill the purpose more fully by meeting customer needs more efficiently and/or
effectively are potentially useful in providing value for customers. No manager can help employees see
how their work connects to the organization’s purpose when it is not clearly defined. Employees will
struggle to feel an emotional connection to work that exists only to turn a profit.
Second, consciously encourage a climate for creative initiative characterized by true empowerment and
support for risk-taking. Just 1 in 4 of respondents in our survey strongly agree that people in their
organization are generally open to new ways of doing things. The reason for that may lie in people’s
perception of whether risk-taking is truly acceptable. Fewer than 6 in 10 non-management employees
agree or strongly agree that “Leaders here make it safe for employees to experiment and learn from
mistakes” or that “Employees here are not afraid to bring up tough issues and problems to their leaders.”
Employees will recognize the empty words of leaders who ask for innovation but are quick to lay blame
when creative ideas do not pan out. Instead, leaders should express sincere appreciation for innovative
efforts—whether they’re successful or not—and focus
on the value of what has been learned, making sure
the organization integrates those lessons into future
initiatives.
Finally, foster diversity. Access to the diverse
perspectives, training, backgrounds, skills, ideas, and
experiences that teams need for creative
performance and imaginative problem-solving begins
with recruiting, hiring, and efforts to create genuine
inclusiveness. Diversity is most valuable when it adds
new information to the process, and this generally
comes from cognitive (or deep) diversity rather than demographic (or surface level) diversity alone. While
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has been receiving greater emphasis in recent years, just 1 in 4 survey
respondents strongly agreed that “people in our company value each other’s unique skills, perspectives,
and talents,” suggesting most organizations still have a long way to go.

The Bottom Line

Innovation is social. The fate of creative ideas depends in large part on the communication and
interpersonal skills of an organization’s people. The model that follows summarizes some of these key
interpersonal elements and suggests where they are especially important along the Ideal Journey.

Idea
Execution
Idea
Championing
Idea
Elaboration
Idea
Generation

Leaders provide a focus for the expression of creativity when their efforts to communicate the
organization’s purpose resonate. When they achieve an environment of genuine inclusiveness, their
organization can sustain the diversity of thought, experiences, and perspectives that support connecting
knowledge in new ways. Through sincerely empowering people and supporting risk-taking, leaders can
create a climate for creative initiative where everyone feels they have a part in advancing creative ideas
and innovation.
Team leaders reinforce that climate within their work units by strengthening people’s feeling of connection
between their own work and the organization’s purpose. Their ability to manage the level of psychological
safety on their team influences people’s willingness to take the risk of sharing their own ideas and to
engage in the productive conflict needed to help others develop theirs more fully. And while creativity
itself is innate, it can also be enhanced by teaching teams basic creative competencies and techniques.
Protecting people’s intrinsic motivation, freeing their minds from undue stress, and encouraging people to
broaden their knowledge and professional networks are all beneficial to creativity at the individual level.
Recognizing and embracing the social aspects of enhancing productive creativity may offer an edge in
the race to innovate. To learn more about how Dale Carnegie Training can help you develop creativity in
your people, teams, and organization, contact your local Dale Carnegie office today. Please go to:
dalecarnegie.com/office

About the Author:

Mark Marone, PhD., is the director of research and thought leadership for Dale Carnegie and Associates,
where he is responsible for ongoing research into current issues facing leaders, employees and
organizations worldwide. He has written frequently on various topics, including leadership, the
employee/customer experience, and sales. Mark can be reached at [email protected]
About Dale Carnegie:
Dale Carnegie is a global training and development organization specializing in leadership,
communication, human relations, and sales training solutions. More than 9 million people around the
world have graduated from Dale Carnegie training since it was founded in 1912. Through franchises in
over 90 countries and in all 50 states, Dale Carnegie’s mission is to empower organizations to create
enthusiastic and engaged workforces by fostering confidence, positivity, and productive, trust-based
relationships.

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