Podcast: Can a Little Embarrassment Make Your Team More Creative?
Skip to content
Insight Unpacked Season 2, "American Healthcare and Its Web of Misaligned Incentives" | Listen Now
Leadership Organizations Nov 6, 2019

Podcast: Can a Little Embarrassment Make Your Team More Creative?

On this episode of The Insightful Leader: new research suggests an unusual icebreaker to try at your next brainstorming session.

insightful leader presenting ourselves in a positive light
Based on the research of

Leigh Thompson

Listening: Can a Little Embarrassment Make Your Team More Creative?
download
0:00 Skip back button Play Skip forward button 13:38

It’s important to celebrate your accomplishments. But as Leigh Thompson watched executives engaging in a “brag session” at a corporate retreat, she began to wonder if feeling proud could also inhibit creativity. “Because if you are engaging in a brag session or being prideful, you are unwittingly encouraging people to self-censor their own ideas,” says Thompson, a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg.

So she began to wonder: could the opposite of pride make one more innovative? On this episode of The Insightful Leader, Thompson describes a series of experiments examining how feeling embarrassed can affect creativity. The results point to an unusual icebreaker to try at your next brainstorming meeting.

Note: The Insightful Leader is produced for the ear, and not meant to be read as a transcript. We encourage you to listen to the audio version above. However, a transcript of this episode is available here.

Featured Faculty

J. Jay Gerber Professor of Dispute Resolution & Organizations; Professor of Management & Organizations; Director of Kellogg Team and Group Research Center; Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences (Courtesy)

Add Insight to your inbox.
This website uses cookies and similar technologies to analyze and optimize site usage. By continuing to use our websites, you consent to this. For more information, please read our Privacy Statement.
More in Leadership