Creative Collisions: Maximizing Innovative Thinking from Collaboration

George Bernard Shaw said “if you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” And, indeed, the collision and exchange of ideas that is generated from having diverse teams is by far the most powerful source of individual and collective inspiration to create more ideas and awake our curiosity and creativity that lead to discoveries and innovation. 

The potential for creativity and innovation as a result of collaboration is simply… huge. And even though today we talk about collaboration more than ever before (see below the use of the word “collaboration” in the past 150 years), it seems that we are still missing the profound value of collaboration, particularly when solving complex problems that generate useful conflict, diverse ideas and inspiration. I call this higher type of collaboration creative collisions. 

Solving complex problems, creating and expanding opportunities, and adding more value to the products and services we deliver is not an easy task, let alone one that can be done by people who think alike. The hypercomplexity of the problems we are dealing with today makes it certainly impossible for like-minded thinkers to see all the possible angles that a problem and its solutions might have. In consequence, the inability to incorporate multiple perspectives is also translated in the impossibility to connect seemingly disconnected ideas that might generate unforeseen and disruptive solutions to those problems. And simple collaboration is not enough either. 

Simple collaboration means working together with other people in order to produce or create things. It is certainly possible to collaborate with people who think like we do, who look like we do or who have the same background that we have. But this doesn’t really create better ideas or promotes more innovation. It is a way to maximize efficiencies and delegation. However, in order to maximize innovation from collaboration it is necessary to create diverse teams, with various backgrounds (from all kinds!), who through discussion, conflict and collisions can generate ideas that are far beyond what they individually had foreseen at the beginning. That is a higher level of collaboration, one that is founded upon creative collisions. 

Innovation is creating new products and services that add value in ways that were never thought, designed or experienced before, and getting to the point where a team is able to do that requires deep inspiration, curiosity and creativity. Sitting together with like-minded thinkers might solve simple problems in a quick fashion. Nevertheless, the ideas generated under that approach will solve problems, but most likely won’t create unexpected value at the highest possible levels. Doing that requires creative collisions. 

Creative collisions are the result of heated debates and discussions among people who have different perspectives about how to solve certain issues or create new opportunities. This is totally normal in the process of creative collisions. Promoting creative collisions and participating in them require a high level of maturity, just because it is very likely that an idea coming from a particular individual won’t be implemented as it was originally thought. People will get upset, they will need time to think and reflect, and then come back to the table after breathing in and out! And, ultimately, the beauty of a creative collision is that any idea can be exponentially grown into one that creates and adds more value by virtue of exposing it to other perspectives and more ideas. 

When the individuals within a team are deeply connected and aligned to the work they are doing, being the original author of an idea becomes less important than collectively creating the idea that adds the most value to their stakeholders. Therefore, in creative collisions what drives and keeps the team together is their passion for the potential solutions or opportunities they want to create. They don’t want to be individually protagonists, but team players. And in doing so, they learn how to endure interesting (and sometimes frustrating!) debates. That is ultimately the source of the best possible ideas and innovations they can come up with. 

In short, these are some of the benefits for individuals, teams and organizations from creative collisions: 

1. Promotes collective and individual awareness: everybody understands that the knowledge and information they possess is just one piece of the big innovation puzzle. Nobody at an individual level has the best answer or solution to a problem, at least if they want to make that solution sustainable and long-term relevant. Creative collisions generate awareness at all levels.
2. Inspires people: have you ever been in a meeting where everybody thinks alike? You probably get bored and disengaged. On the other hand, debates and discussions in which new ideas and perspective come up usually inspire people to think deeper, and create even better ideas. Creative collisions have the effect of promoting a safe space for people to debate. Useful and positive conflict is normal during creative collisions. It is the kind of conflict that inspires people to be open-minded about others’ ideas and incorporate them in their own thinking process.
3. Develops curiosity and creativity: creative collisions make people curious about what other people are thinking. Curiosity is the most powerful and fundamental skill that we need to sustain an innovative mindset in the long-term. In creative collisions, people feel free to ask all the possible questions. It is safe to do so, because everybody understands that ideas don’t always come in the form of an assertion, but are rather germinated from the seed that is planted by a question. And curiosity and questioning are a source of creativity, since the questions asked bring more debate and discussions.
4. Promotes learning opportunities: creative collisions are a source of learning opportunities. Imagine having a problem and putting a diverse team together in order to solve it. You bring people from various backgrounds, areas of expertise, generations, etc. The discussions and debates awake an inspiration to research, read and understand everybody’s perspectives. This process creates learning for everyone. It doesn’t really matter whether a person has an idea or not, just by the fact of him or her participating in the discussion new topics or concepts will be brought forward, thus inspiring others to learn more. 

Collaboration is fundamental for innovation. But simple collaboration, the one that comes from teams of like-minded thinkers, offers basic solutions to quickly respond to the problem. A higher level of collaboration, the one needed to promote a long-term innovative mindset, comes from profound debates and discussions from diverse people. And this type of collaboration, generated by creative collision, is a step forward in order to maximize innovative thinking.  

Follow me on Twitter: @erubio_p
Visit my blog: www.innovationdev.org

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About the Author: Enrique Rubio is an Electronic Engineer and a Fulbright scholar with an Executive Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University. Enrique is passionate about leadership, business and social entrepreneurship, curiosity, creativity and innovation. He is a blogger and podcaster, and also a competitive ultrarunner. Visit the blog: Innovation for Development and Podcast. Click here to follow Enrique on Twitter. 

Disclaimer: opinions are my own and not the views of my past of current employer