Generation Y is a kind generation. Our conservative lifestyles and penchants for quiet opinions have led us to work together happily with healthy doses of idealism. We are a teamwork generation, fully in line with each other.
Top-down management and the clutch of hierarchal authority no longer illustrate the strokes of success, but instead lead to siloed rows of depressed employees and opportunistic managers.
Gen Y, in contrast, is all about the team, preferring conformity inside the lines over pushing boundaries or ourselves. “In many respects,” psychology expert Jeremy Dean argues, “[these] norms have a beneficial effect, bolstering society’s foundations and keeping it from falling into chaos.”
We’re the soothing wall fountain over a fire of greed, instability and unethical behavior. We dislike ambiguity and risk and mitigate the risks that we have inherited accordingly. We “provide a stable and predictable social world, to regulate our behavior with each other.”
The world these group norms create are so safe and sound that one research study found that “groups don’t even need to be that well-established, people will conform to others with only the slightest encouragement.”
It’s incredibly easy for crowdsourcing and group-think to take over. The wisdom of the crowd is everywhere.
“The power of groups, the clout that crowds can exercise to get what they want, is nothing new,” one trend briefing reports. “What is new, however, is the dizzying ease with which likeminded, action-ready citizens and consumers can now go online and connect, group and ultimately exert influence on a global scale.”
We can no longer buy a camera without checking the product recommendations, go on a trip without researching hotel reviews, or visit a new restaurant without the prodding of a friend. Wikipedia is one of the best known examples of the concept at work. Revering social media “influencers” is another. Do other people like it? What do they think? Have they legitimized it, given it their stamp of approval and a gold star? And did their mother try it?
Such trends make it incredibly easy to live in society, but also threaten the individual mind, intuition and originality. Consensus isn’t all gravy.
“Unfortunately groups only rarely foment great ideas,” Dean reports, “because people in them are powerfully shaped by group norms: the unwritten rules which describe how individuals in a group ‘are’ and how they ‘ought’ to behave. Norms influence what people believe is right and wrong just as surely as real laws, but with none of the permanence or transparency of written regulations.”
Teamwork threatens creativity.
Reverting back to a command and control structure is obviously not the answer, but decentralized leadership doesn’t mean we all have to hold hands. We can’t let the pendulum swing so far from one extreme to the other that we miss that happy medium where innovation soars.
Groups do such a good job breeding mediocrity that we can’t be so afraid to be alone and listen to the sound of our own voice and let out a real note while we lip-synch. March to the beat of our own drum as it goes. We can’t be afraid to sit with our own thoughts where that nugget just needs some dedicated commitment to the state of flow to turn into something wonderful.
Groups are for brainstorms, not conclusions. Teamwork is for energy, not leadership. Conformity is overrated.
And while it’s important to be the healing generation, the calm ones, the group that will bring people together to make things okay again, there’s no reason not to leave some solitary footprints on another path for future generations to follow.
30 replies on “Is Gen Y teamwork killing creativity?”
“Teamwork threatens creativity.”…what a load of bologna…
Have you ever heard the concept of “friendly competition”?
Yes, great ideas come from individuals not groups. But it’s the group that pushes those ideas to to it’s limits and makes it no longer great but amazing.
Groups can actually push an individual to do more than they thought they were capable of. Groups allow individuals to measure up to one another and continuously improve each others ideas.
If you fail to see how much our society has benefited from groups and teamwork, then you should probably remove the veil from your eyes and take a closer look.
“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent”
– John Donne
While it’s true teamwork can spark creativity, anyone who’s ever had a presentation highjacked due to decision-by-committee understands the wisdom of what you’ve written. Groups can often defer decision-making or, as you rightly point out, ensure a mediocre status quo so that it takes a highly remarkable leader to break through the limits.
@ Maurice – I so agree, I love competition and the idea that other people push you to do your best. While teamwork can and should function that way, it’s rare that groups actually do instead degenerating into the type of situation Betsy commented on.
Groups have done a great amount for our society and are a great thing. Absolutely. But we shouldn’t hold them up to be the holy grail of getting things done because it often takes a single person to lead, to create and to truly move things forward. And Gen Y lacks a leader or single vision- although Obama may be that person now. Another post all together though ; ) Thanks for the comment!
@ Betsy – Ah, I have been in those situations too many times to count! Decision by committee is the worst and reminds me of a business leadership fable called Death by Meeting, by Patrick Lencioni which offers some great tips to escape such a fate.
Yes and no. Mainly because some of us prefer to not sacrifice our own best interests for the sake of the tea. Can teamwork be beneficial? Absolutely…but I don’t view anything as “teamwork” unless both parties gain a benefit from it. Otherwise, what’s the point?
This post is very smartly written (like everything else on this blog), but its conclusions are not universal.
It depends on the team, it depends on the decision being made, it depends on the company, it depends on the budget and timeline…in other words, it’s all relative as to whether or not teamwork stifles creativity.
We can all tell tales of teams that hurt progress and teams that helped it.
So, at the end of the day, instead of asking, “Do teams hurt creativity?” we should ask, “When should a team be put together to allow for maximum benefit to the work being done?”
Some situations need teamwork, others clearly don’t.
The other downside of teamwork: who takes the blame when things go wrong?
Great conversation starter Rebecca! The power of ‘group think’ can be both a blessing and a curse. I was talking with a friend yesterday, expressing the value in having people who you trust (either within your company or community) to bounce ideas off of. Something that sounds awesome to me might look ridiculous to the masses. It’s important to have an ‘outside looking in’ perspective.
But, at the same time – you don’t want to let others hinder your creative thinking. Some of the best innovators probably sounded ridiculous when initially describing their ideas to a group – and look where they are today.
As Sam said above – it’s not so much a decision on whether to have a vertical or horizontal management hierarchy – but WHEN one or the other would be the most effective.
Rebecca,
You’ve done a wonderful job of capturing the tension between the individual and the team in both the work environment and society as a whole. While you have positioned it as a generational issue for Millennials, who by nature have that wonderful tendency toward collaboration, I think the issue is a larger one and has been around since the ’60’s when the Tuckman group from the University of Wisconsin (I think) did their research on teams.
In reality, what we are talking about is managing the polarity between the benefits of the “solitary footprints” of the individual and the collaboration of a team. (Barry Johnson wrote this wonderful book called Polarity Management which I recommend.). It is not about picking the individual OR the team, but instead managing the polarity to get the best from the individual AND the team. Because if we pick one over the other, we lose the benefits of the one we don’t pick. Thanks getting my brain working this morning!
Are teams bad for creativity? Perhaps, especially if there is a void of leadership. But leaders with no teams behind them are just as ineffefective.
John Maxwell is known to say “everything rises and falls on leadership.” I think that truly, this is where our generation is right now – realizing the vital importance of leadership, and dealing with the growin pains a transformation from the groupthink comfort zone to the responsibility and maturity of true leadership requires.
This doens’t mean teams make us less innovative. Instead, it means that unless (or, until) our generation can figure out how to lead and inspire innovative teams, we may not be able to realize our ideals as quickly and as fully as we have hoped.
@ Stuart – How often do you think both parties benefit though? Two minds is better than one, but how often is the conclusion better than the two original thoughts? Research shows not often… : )
@ Sam – Everything depends is such a useless argument. If everything depends, how will you ever make a decision? This is exactly the kind of thinking that plagues groups. We can all find exceptions to a conclusion or a situation, but perhaps it’s better to take a look at the research (which says groups stifle creativity),and make informed decisions from there : ) Which is like your question and I love that.
We like the ideal of teamwork, not the reality.
@ Matt – Thanks for the kind words and sharing your thoughts. I’m not sure that bouncing ideas off of someone is the same as groups although I think that sentiment is the beginning of what can make groups work. That is, you brainstorm together, you talk out the issues, and then you – individually – go back and create. There are situations, many of them, that make teamwork shine, but so few people know how to use it efficiently that we’re more attached to the idea than actual results.
@ Dr John – Thanks so much for the kind words and for pointing to some more research and the book recommendation. I love, LOVE how you summed up the post in your second paragraph. That is exactly the point that we need to balance the two for maximum results. Right now, groups is overwhelming individual thought and creativity.
@ Tiffany – Great synopsis as always. I do think there is a lack of leadership within Gen Y as I mentioned above and think this is a large part of the problem – we don’t trust our own voices. But the research shows that teams are indeed less innovative. If Gen Y can figure out how to lead and inspire innovative teams, that would indeed be an accomplishment.
Thought provoking post. We communicate, we network, we share opinions, etc because we’re the generation that’s really embracing the most powerful and comprehensive tool of communication and information, the internet. And while that tool allows us to do such things, we don’t want to fall into a Gen-Y hive mind because we’re all a little too closely connected.
At the same time, I’d say I’ve personally experienced the opposite effect as well. So many people sharing so many things, I’ve often felt inspired to create my own thoughts or writings based on the online community. I’d say we’ve still retained a great deal of our creativity.
We don’t want the Gen-Y community to turn into a hall of echoes repeating the same things and killing creativity. But I think because we know how overwhelming our methods of communications are, and as long as we can take a step back (like this post is doing) and realize we have to be ourselves, we’ll be alright.
@ Rebecca – I looked at some of the research you cite, and the studies examined what may be considered cases of “pure” groups. So perhaps in this scenario, yes, a group without a leader is less creative.
In fact, this study http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/i-cant-believe-my-eyes-conforming-to.php shows how groups pressure you to conform, which I guess is interpreted here as lacking creativity. But I think this study also illustrates the importance of leadership within groups. High anonymity and high need for approval are often indicators of conformity within groups (and low creativity, as you argue).
Yet, this study http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/02/leaders-emerge-by-talking-first-and.php shows that most people who emerge as group leaders by contributing more and being more vocal.
So what I’m saying is that the effectiveness of the leader within the creative process of groups is crucual to the outcome when it comes to establishing norms and developing ideas. If the leader is championing in-box thinking, that will predict much lower creativity than if they can lead with out-of-bounds vision.
This is the best explanation for both the successful and the failed creative group efforts I’ve experienced.
Groupthink only happens when everyone on the team thinks the same. I have worked very creatively in teams, at work and in school, because my team members and I are all creative, intuitive and individual.
People of all generations are susceptible to groupthink when everyone (or a majority) of the team members are of the same background, education, class, etc, etc. Maybe THATS the problem with gen y. Are we as into diversity are we claim to be?
@ Preston – Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. While working in groups can be productive, can spark innovation, can lead to new thinking as long as the group doesn’t make the ultimate decision. It is important to embrace both but right now we fully embrace teamwork over the value of the individual.
@ Tiffany – I didn’t link to either of those, but they’re both great further examples that help prove the thesis. I think your comment is a great example of how we can balance both the group mentality and individual thought. The only danger is if the leader comes up with an idea that research or evidence clearly points to as wrong, and the groupthink mentality pushes forward anyway. But yes, the ideal of teamwork is powerful. Just wish it happened more often.
@ Monica – Great insight and points to bring up. I do believe that we tend to favor information that we’ve heard the most times, or that comes from people we like, over other sources. I think Gen Y does value diversity, but through simple situational issues aren’t always able to practice what we preach. Like here in Madison, diversity sucks. Thanks for the comment!
I have a hard time believing just because Gen Y has an emphasis on teamwork that creativity will go by the wayside.
Teamwork and creativity are *not* mutually exclusive. In such cases, the group has been designed to stifle creative effort – the creative effort isn’t rewarded.
If anything, teamwork encourages creative thinkers to come out… and -more- creative thinkers can help to build on that idea.
I would contend that you have to have both teamwork and individual, motivated purpose to fully succeed, since the creative guru is likely the only one to really see the correct path to completion on their own ideas. But, I totally disagree that you can’t have creativity with teamwork.
Properly maintained and cultivated, the right team will breed more creative ideas than a lone individual ever could.
-Nick Armstrong
Psychotic Resumes . Com
Think this article is really about how poorly many organizations and groups work together.
Effective collaboration is a vital new competence of the new, flat and networked economy. The problem isn’t teamwork, its learning to work effectively in teams in new, less hierarchical ways.
There are so many comments that can be made on this article.
Great topic, and well-written. However, I found it interesting that for the arguments you make on why Gen-Y’s collaborative nature will be society’s salvation, more than half of your references came from your own blog. Did the rest of the team agree to be silent? ;-)
In my line of work, I am always working with teams. Gen-Yers, Xers, Baby Boomers, Echo Boomers, and everything in-between. I certainly see that crowds and collaboration can enhance individual expression, and as such, increase creativity when applied to a specific project, problem, or goal.
Leadership by crowd, on the other hand, is a different story. This is a particularly daunting challenge to a related topic – open innovation. If the rules of teamwork are defined by the Gen-Y mantras you’ve described, I think it is highly unlikely than any team which embraces such rules will have an easy time succeeding.
Put more succinctly, if you wait to include everyone on your journey, the train will never leave the station.
If Gen-Y philosophies diminish individual leadership skills, creativity will suffer as a result.
Creativity is meaningless without leadership
I had to manage several Gen Yers who believed in teamwork. It was discouraged by management, so I tried to enforce their doing their own work. It became hard to tell who had done or written what and who was growing in their space. Management really wanted them to grow and was willing to promote, but it is hard to give promotions when you’re not sure the person really owned a project or their work or whether their seemingly progress was due to assistance by their colleagues. I became the dreaded manager trying to follow the dictates of my manager and morale really fell to an all time low.
I like this blog because it helps me understand the Gen Yers.
On creativity – and the compromise that results from too willing collobaration and the perceived necessity of groupthink:
“A camel is a horse designed by committee”
As a Gen Y entrepreneur, I realize that I need to lead as a chief, and though group consensus feels good at times, it rarely moves mountains or creates that known as ‘Extraordinary’.
Grant
“Teamwork threatens creativity.”
“Two minds is better than one, but how often is the conclusion better than the two original thoughts? Research shows not often… : )”
You’re equivocating between groupthink and teamwork. The article you link to as research, the one I assume you are referring to in this quote above, is about group norms, not teamwork and not the ideas of two people coming together.
Read this article by Malcom Gladwell, in particular the amazing amount of team-generated innovation done by Intellectual Ventures as a concrete example of something that refutes your main point here.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all
More broadly, Gladwell’s article does damage to this romantic notion of the solitary genius and the fragile great idea. I’d hazard a guess that upwards of 90% of all creative accomplishments in human history would have been impossible without influence of the creative community preceding and surrounding the individual who ultimately gets the credit.
Innovation, creativity, and great ideas are not only able to withstand the dynamics of teamwork, they are utterly dependent upon them.
“Everything depends” is not a useless argument. It also doesn’t mean that decisions won’t get made. Quite the opposite – it the way that the best decisions get made.
Making a blanket pronouncement that I want to apply in all situations is then what you seem to be advocating for. Therefore, I should walk into my staff meeting and say, “The research says teams are bad for creativity. No more teams.” Are you being serious?
Instead, I should say, “The research says teams are bad for creativity. Are they bad for our creativity? Are they bad for our current projects? Are they bad in the way that our teams are formed? Are they not the most productive and best ways for us to work?”
You see…it depends. :)
Interesting post, although I’m not sure I agree that Gen Y will be our salvation because they are all about team work necessarily. I’ve never observed that myself or had people describe Gen Y in this way so it’s an interesting point.
One more thing, Gen Y is DEFINITELY not a generation of quiet opinions.
> “provide a stable and predictable social world, to regulate our behavior with each other.”
That is an incredibly interesting point with lots of ramifications.
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I agree with Sam (and others here) that teamwork does not necessarily kill creativity – in fact, in can spawn new and exciting ideas that an individual working independently might not have come up with on his/her own. Different times call for different measures and methods. As Sam said, it does ‘depend’ and is about as far away from a useless argument as you can get.
I actually think teams are a catalyst for innovation. I rarely have any original ideas that didn’t get sparked from another concept/source.
I think where you run into trouble is having a “point person” in a Gen Y team. There tends to be “team leadership” mentality and sometimes that can shy away from taking personal responsibility.
[…] of what it teaches me about things that are important to me. Work. Life. Leadership. Innovation. Collaboration. Integrity. Creativity. […]
Thank you for your great post! I think it’s important to realize that while all Millennials can be categorized into the single group by virtue of sharing all the same characteristics, such as wanting to succeed but not wanting to sacrifice our values, we are also the most diverse generation ever! I really believe that we are “the group that will bring people together to make things okay again” but will also “leave some solitary footprints on another path for future generations to follow.” Strong stuff! It really makes me think.
[…] collaboration and consensus-finding leading to the dilution of any shred of creativity. In “Is Gen Y Teamwork Killing Creativity?,” blogger Rebecca Thorman argues that while there are many positive benefits of teamwork that […]
[…] collaboration and consensus-finding leading to the dilution of any shred of creativity. In “Is Gen Y Teamwork Killing Creativity?,” blogger Rebecca Thorman argues that while there are many positive benefits of teamwork that […]