The Rise of the New Groupthink

New York Times by Susan Cain | Jan. 15, 2012 (Opinion)
Collaboration is in. But it may not be conducive to creativity.

Solitude is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in. Full Story »

Posted by Fabrice Florin - via Howard Rheingold, New York Times (Most Emailed), New York Times (Opinion)

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Subjects: U.S., Business, Sci/Tech, Media, Health
Topics: Innovation, Psychology, Social Networks, Jobs
Member Tags: labor and jobs, workplace environment, computers and the internet, stephen wozniak, hewlett-packard company, apple incorporated, telefonaktiebolaget l m ericsson, Creativity, productivity, hpq, nyse, aapl, nasdaq, eric
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Posted by: Posted by Fabrice Florin - Jan 14, 2012 - 3:52 AM PST
Reviewed by: Fabrice Florin (review), Bob Herrschaft (review), Randy Morrow (review)
Content Type: Article
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Edited by: Fabrice Florin - Jan 15, 2012 - 4:46 PM PST

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Fabrice Florin
4.0
 by Fabrice Florin - Jan. 15, 2012

This thoughtful opinion by author Susan Cain suggests that solitude may be more important than collaboration for boosting creativity and effectiveness in the workplace. It cites a number of scientific studies to back its points, such as the fascinating Coding War Games. If all this is true, what would be reasonable proportions to strive for between 'quiet time' and 'social time'?

Fabrice posted this story.
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Bob Herrschaft
4.2
 by Bob Herrschaft - Jan. 16, 2012

There are a lot of insights here that challenge prevailing business concepts that emphasize group activity i.e. "brainstorming" as a productive use of time in order to promote creativity, when in reality it's often as productive as that other annoying concept invented by the Harvard Business Review, "multi-tasking".

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Randy Morrow
4.0
 by Randy Morrow - Jan. 16, 2012

Solitude can even help us learn. According to research on expert performance by the psychologist Anders Ericsson, the best way to master a field is to work on the task ... More »

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