Creativity, Truth: 3 authors, 5 books that change everything

If you are looking for resources to reinforce creativity, encourage honesty and dispel the illusions that undermine performance, I recommend three authors and five books.  The first is Daniel Pink.  I have read two of Daniel’s four books A Whole New Mind and Drive.  The first in particular provides powerful examples of why the “Right Brainers” of the world will be a driving force in designing the future.   After earning a Law degree from Yale (a profession which he has proudly never practiced) Dan spent time as the chief speech writer for Vice President Al Gore before devoting his keen mind to connecting the dots between present, past a future.  I had listened to this book many times before finally giving up and buying the print version.

Dan’s work is amazingly consistent with the research published in Jonah Lehrer’s new book IMAGINE, How Creativity Works.  This is the second book I have read from Lehrer.  The first How We Decide reveals many of the ways our need to find patterns actually distorts reality in very significant ways.  The gambling industry is particularly grateful for our proclivity for self deception.  Taking full advantage of our own antiquated wiring, Casinos exploit our primitive physiology to extract $48 billion per year from our perceived ability to see patterns in purely random events.  Following the wisdom of the masses is apparently of little help in discerning that which is really true.  As the NBA finals are in full swing 91% of serious fans will plead with their televisions to feed the “hot hand” which, statistically speaking, does not even exist.

The last author I would recommend is also perhaps the most disconcerting.  Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist from Duke University, shares the secrets behind many of those volunteer studies to prove that All of us lie All of the time in The Honest truth about Dishonesty.

I found the most disturbing component of his research to be the inverse impact of so called “statements of disclosure”.  It seems that when we are told there may be significant reasons to distrust the advice or direction we are given by “experts”, the fact these ulterior motives were revealed actually increases our sense of confidence in their validity.  I cannot help but cringe when I think of one of our previous financial advisors who enhanced his own credibility with the seemingly offhand quote that “figures lie and liars figure”.

The area of most pervasive prevarication is, not surprisingly, self deception.  The predisposition to believing our own “stuff” may be the single greatest cause of self inflicted discontent in our society.  One other disheartening discovery was to learn how insidiously the “dishonesty disease” spreads throughout seemingly disparate parts of our own lives and organizations.  There is so much more to share but here are seven of my own personal takeaways from listening to just the first half of this book.

1. Induce an “awareness of honesty” immediately BEFORE the performance of an activity.  (A solution though proven to reduce cheating by 15% that was adamantly rejected by the IRS which estimates tax fraud at $4-500B annually.)

2. Reduce the “distance” between the dishonest activity and the monetary results.

3. Clearly delineate the costs of and proclivities toward dishonesty.

4. Catch and discourage dishonesty at its earliest stages.

5. Don’t create an environment where dishonesty is deserved.

6. Self control is highly overrated.  Avoid situations that tax self control.

7. Be rested.  Exhausted minds easily rationalize a little “fudge factor”.

The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational are next on my list of Ariely’s accomplishments and after (finally) reading Outliers I will rush to absorb anything that Malcolm Gladwell has to say.  If you have other illuminating authors you would like to share please send me a note or give me a call.