Mix Creativity With the Right Mindset to Serve Up Innovation

First-time inventors, film directors, and novelists often have a hard time replicating their early success. In our recent study about creativity in the United Kingdom, we found that first-time cookbook writers suffered a similar challenge, and for similar reasons.1

While cookbooks and management may have little in common, understanding who publishes a second cookbook and who doesn’t does shed some light on what it takes to sustain creativity, in the kitchen or out. Of the first-time cookbook authors we studied, 50% published a second book within the next five years — often a variation of or sequel to the first idea. The other 50% stopped writing.

Interestingly, our research found that when the underlying idea is original and award winning, a lack of follow-up projects is more likely. Indeed, authors of novel cookbooks that won awards or earned other public recognition were less likely to write a second book than award winners whose work covered less-creative topics.

Why would some of the most promising candidates not deliver? Call it the Harper Lee effect: After the tremendous success of To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, Lee released (to great controversy) only one more book, Go Set a Watchman. Published in 2015 but written in the mid-1950s, the novel has been largely dismissed by critics as a first draft of the classic that is of interest mostly to literary scholars.

The Role of Creative Identity Threat

To better explain why objectively successful writers would choose not to keep producing cookbooks, we looked to role identity theory. This psychological framework holds that once people have a particular view of themselves — such as being a creative chef, for example — losing that identity can be psychologically threatening. Viewed from this angle, not taking a chance on a new project seems perfectly rational if the second book’s potential failure could undermine that sense of self.

To test whether developing novel, award-winning ideas indeed causes people to experience what we call a creative identity threat that subsequently decreases their likelihood of producing follow-up ideas, we designed two experiments.

The first experiment involved 264 university students who were asked to develop a creative theme for a cookbook that would be written for students by students. To ensure that participants felt that their personal identity was intertwined with their book idea, we also asked them to explain how their idea reflected their personal background.

Next, we gave the students false feedback about their ideas that we claimed was based on an algorithm and other participants’ evaluations. We told some students that their idea was highly original and others that their idea was more conventional. We then told some students in both groups that we thought their idea could make a big splash in the food world and were considering featuring them on the cover of the university’s magazine and on its social media channels. This was an attempt to simulate winning a prestigious award.

After this stage, we asked participants to choose between developing an idea for either a second, different cookbook or a strategy to market, publicize, or otherwise exploit their first idea. After indicating their choice, we asked them to indicate the extent to which developing a second idea or the marketing strategy felt threatening to their creative identity.

We found that participants who were told that their idea was novel and that it would receive special recognition (the award-winner condition) were more likely to experience an increased threat to their creative identity than participants in the other conditions (novel idea without award, conventional idea with award, and conventional idea without award). In turn, those who experienced a greater threat to their creative identity were less likely to want to produce a second idea for a cookbook.

As a further test, we designed a second experiment in which 289 participants were asked to imagine that they were first-time cookbook authors. We then described their cookbook, which was centered around the healing powers of food. Again, after giving imaginary feedback about whether their idea was “highly original and novel” or “very solid and traditional,” we told them that they either had or had not won a major award for that cookbook.

Next, we gave them the option to develop a new idea for a second book or exploit the success of the first cookbook by developing either a sequel based on the first book or a marketing campaign for the first cookbook. Before participants made a choice, they again completed a survey measuring the extent to which they perceived that these options would produce a threat to their creative identity.

The result confirmed the results of our first experiment: Participants who were told that they had a novel idea and that they had won an award were more likely to perceive a greater threat to their creative identity. As a result, they were less likely to develop a new idea for another book than people in all other conditions.

Lessons for Sustaining Innovation

Whether you’re a cookbook writer, a creative professional, or the leader of a team that needs to innovate, sustaining creativity comes down to your ability to stay focused on the challenge rather than on your identity as a creative professional. In fact, focusing too much on the outcome — the thing that is being created — rather than the process of creation seems to be counterproductive. Indeed, researchers have found that it’s easier to sustain creative work if you do the following.

Use a systematic process. Most of the cookbook authors we interviewed for this project seemed to lack a systematic process for developing and refining new ideas and relied more on moments of insight to drive their creativity. However, innovation experts have suggested that it’s helpful to have a systematic process for idea development. Design thinking offers one such process to follow to systematically develop new ideas.

Collaborate. Working with collaborators can make the creative process feel much less threatening to the individual. In another study, we found that once people had developed ideas on their own, they found teamwork to be a helpful way to sustain their creativity.2

Lower the stakes. Many studies have found that having a sense of psychological safety can enhance creativity. Indeed, developing a nurturing environment in which risks can be taken and failures are seen as opportunities for learning can help make the stakes feel lower.3 For our cookbook writers, this means seeing failure and the lessons that can be distilled from it as an inevitable aspect of a creative life.

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Ultimately, success in creative endeavors seems to come down to cultivating intrinsic motivation for the process of creation — irrespective of the success of the outcome, which is much less under the control of the individual creator. As Julia Child advised, “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”