Why every team needs a deviant.
Most of us in the creativity brainstorming world are professional deviants.
We don't typically use the term deviant, preferring the less harsh term gadfly. Or in a politically correct world, idea catalyst.
But deviant is good enough for J. Richard Hackman, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and leading expert on teams. Hackman has spent his career exploring and questioning -- the wisdom of teams.
In a recent interview with Diane Coutu called "Why Teams Don't Work" he talks about why every team needs a deviant.
Coutu: "If teams need to stay together to achieve the best performance, how do you prevent them from becoming complacent?"
Hackman: "This is where what I call the deviant comes in. Every team needs a deviant, someone who can help the team by challenging the tendency to want too much homogeneity, which can stifle creativity and learning.
Deviants are the ones who stand back and say, "Well wait a minute, why are we even doing this at all?" What if we looked at the thing backwards or turned it inside out?" That's when people say, "Oh, no, no, no, that's ridiculous" and so the discussion about what's ridiculous comes up...the deviant opens up more ideas and that gives you a lot more originality.
In our research, we've looked carefully at at both teams that produced something original and those that were merely average, where nothing really sparkled. It turned out that the teams with deviants outperformed teams without them. In many cases, deviant thinking is a source of great innovation."
"I would add, though, that often the deviant veers from the norm at great possible cost. Deviants are individuals who are willing to say the thing that nobody else is willing to say."
"It's when you lose the deviant that the team can become mediocre."
This is what creativity coaches, innovation gurus and crazy marketing guys like me have been saying for years, but it's nice to get a scholar with lots of studies under his diploma to confirm it.
Richard Feynman, the American physicist and Nobel Prize winner (for quantum electrodynamics) was known as gadfly, a deviant. He was regarded as an eccentric and free spirit. He was a prankster, safecracker, proud amateur painter, and bongo player.
But, as you can see in his contributions to the panel that investigated the NASA Challenger disaster -- he found ways to take his eccentricities to make compelling and persuasive arguments.
So, when you create a team, make sure you've got the deviant, the gadfly, the questioner. It won't always be a civil and coherent meeting, but at least you're not slouching towards mediocrity
Read more in the Harvard Business Review (May 2009).
Creativity Central
5 Comments
Reader Comments (5)
I suppose when we say deviant, we are saying outlier. It's interesting that what really leads to a competitive advantage is an idea that stands out. One that usually comes from someone who is exceptional.
Unfortunately, most organizations do not reward deviants so often the only avenue for success for them is to strike out on their own. I can't count how many successful entrepreneurs have told me that they started their business because their boss would not listen to their ideas.
Dear Wisepreneur:
Hackman uses the term deviant -- which is an interesting choice of word. But the classic meaning is to zag from the usual. Nice comment.
I worked as a Freelancer for Disney, if you know Disney's early history, no other studio in Hollywood wanted his work. So Walt and his brother opened their own.
Fast forward many years -- and Disney did not immediately embrace the Pixar concept and had the opportunity to own a lot of the company in the early stages. They finally bought the company at a much higher price.
The key, I think, is to include those people who are outliers and who may disrupt the usual flow of consensus but who may shed some light. Like you, I wish more companies would embrace the intraprenur -- but I doubt it.
I like your example of Disney. Of course when the Disney company rejected Pixar, Walt was no longer there. I wonder what he might have done if he were there. Would a deviant recognize and accept another deviant?
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