Remind Yourself of Your Identities

Much has been written about the value that diverse perspectives bring to driving fresh thinking. After all, new ideas are often simply new combinations, and one of the most effective ways to encourage new combinations is to diversify the perspectives involved in the conversation. I’ve mentioned this phenomenon in fields as diverse as entertainment (need to fix link, apologies), science, and education.

What’s less obvious, but equally true, is that we each, as individuals, hold various identities ourselves. For example: I’m a father; I’m a teacher; I’m a husband; I’m a dabbler in painting; I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ; I’m a brother; I’m a ping pong player; I’m a lover of puns; etc etc. A couple of interesting studies suggest that emphasizing and exploring the diversity of perspectives one has within oneself can drive creativity and innovation. This Stanford study found that “This form of diversity — ‘intrapersonal heterogeneity’ is a sign of an individual’s ability to acknowledge multiple and sometimes polarized beliefs. Firms that ‘commonly encourage their employees to adopt a broad and potentially inconsistent set of values’ were found to have greater market valuation and more patents of higher quality — measures of a firm’s innovativeness and growth potential.”

Perhaps even more immediately actionable, this study found that reminding people prior to an insight- and creativity-oriented puzzle that they “have multiple identities increased creativity.” The hypothesis is that such personal reflections serve to break up rigidity of thinking, which constrains creative problem solving. So as my friend and colleague, the fabulous Dr. Anja Svetina Nabergoj suggests, prior to engaging with a challenge requiring creative thinking, “Situational priming (eg reminding people of their multifaceted social identities) should facilitate a more versatile, integrated or flexible self-view that transfers to cognitive outcomes and may offer a simple way to boost creativity.” To prime multiple identities, simply ask folks to “Write a few sentences about all of the different identities that you have (ie social identities, gender, race, family identities, group identities, etc). Write about how these multiple identities overlap and affect your life and what they mean to you.”

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