How do Innovators think?: More in defense of Creativity

Call it theme of the week but this topic - fostering and harnessing, not squashing, our innate creativity - just keeps coming up.

I briefly commented on it here and here and this time it’s straight from the Harvard Business Review and in the context of what might be considered the least “creative” field ever: Business executive-dom.

HBR contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer (can I just note how utterly Haavaaad that name is?) speaks with Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregerson of Instead to uncover some insights into what shared between this era’s great business leaders. The concluding point?

“We … believe that the most innovative entrepreneurs were very lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere where inquisitiveness was encouraged. We were stuck by the stories they told about being sustained by people who cared about experimentation and exploration. Sometimes these people were relatives, but sometimes they were neighbors, teachers or other influential adults. A number of the innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori schools, where they learned to follow their curiosity. To paraphrase the famous Apple ad campaign, innovators not only learned early on to think different, they act different (and even talk different).”

Worth the read, you can find the entire article here.

(Thanks @racheltipograph for sharing the goods :)