Cues Podcast

Creativity is a skill that can be taught, asserts Beta Mannix, Ph.D., in the latest episode of the CUES Podcast.“There are techniques that we can use to teach people how to be more creative,” explains Mannix, Ann Whitney Olin professor of management at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and a lead faculty member for CEO Institute II. For example, teaching team members how to do “structured brainstorming” can help foster creativity.Overall company culture also plays a role in team creativity, Mannix emphasizes. More specifically, to promote creativity, a company’s culture needs to embrace generating lots of possibilities rather than finding that one right answer.In addition, supporting innovation supports creativity. In the episode, Mannix defines both creativity and innovation and explains the link between them. The simplest way to define creativity is as generating the idea itself, she says. “As an example, [think of] the first person who came up with the drive-up window or the ATM. That person was creati