The wild-eyed, tousle-haired genius is a stock character in our culture. When it comes to creativity in the office, however, workers' personalities may not count as much as the type of feedback they receive from their supervisors.
What's important is not just what is said, but how, declares Jing Zhou, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Texas A & M University. Informational feedback, which delivers reactions in a low-key constructive way, does a better job than controlling feedback, which tells recipients exactly what they did wrong and how to do it right.
The first approach, explains Zhou, promotes creativity because it focuses workers on the task itself -- one of the prerequisites for innovation -- rather than on external rewards. Even small switches in phrasing can better performance: for example, telling people what they "might" do instead of what they "must" do. Other inducements include assuring freedom and autonomy to work as individuals choose. To be avoided: putting employees under time pressure and having the boss look over shoulders.
