Innovation is key to business survival, and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas. 创新是商业能够存活的关键因素，因此一些公司在激励员工形成创新思维方面投入大量资源。 There are, nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres designed to stimulate innovation who find that their environment doesn’t make them feel at all creative. 然而，一些人工作在设计豪华的高科技中心里，虽然这些中心的设计旨在刺激他们的创造力，但是他们认为他们的工作环境根本没有给他们这种感觉。 And there are those who don’t have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully. 相反，其他工作上没有预算也没有很大工作空间的人却成功地做出很多创新。

For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies don’t succeed as often as they should is that Innovation starts with recruitment. 亚利桑那州心理学教授Robert B. Cialdini 认为，一些公司没有像他们被认为的那样总是成功的原因是他们把创新源头放在雇佣的员工身上。 Research shows that the fit between an employee’s values and a company’s values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years after they join, they’re still at the company. 研究表明雇佣者的价值观和公司的价值观匹配与否会让他们做出的贡献有所不同，以及两年时间内他们是否还在这家公司也受到两者之间关系的影响。 Studies at Harvard Business School show that, although some individuals may be more creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the right circumstances. 哈佛大学商学院的研究表明，尽管一些人确实比其他人更富有创造力，但在适当的环境中几乎每一个人的创造力都是相同的。

One of the most famous photographs in the story of rock’n’roll emphasises Cialdini’s views. 在rock’n’roll 的故事里最著名的一幅图片证明了Cialdini 的观点。 The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. 这张1956 年的图片里，歌手 Elvis Presley、Carl Perkins、Johnny Cash 以及Jerry Lee Lewis 围绕在太阳演播厅的一架钢琴边。这幅图片后面隐含着一个故事。 Sun’s ‘million-dollar quartet’ could have been a quintet. 太阳演播厅里这个数百万美元的四重奏本可能是五重奏。 Missing from the picture is Roy Orbison, a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. 图片中缺少的人是Roy Orbison，他甚至比 Lewis, Perkins 或者Cash 都更加优秀。 Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionise popular music with songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues. 太阳演播厅的拥有者 Sam Phillips 想要通过融合黑人音乐、白人音乐、乡村音乐和蓝调音乐来彻底革新流行音乐。 Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillips’s ambition and believed in it. Presley、Cash、Perkins、和Lewis 都非常明白他的抱负并充满信任。 Orbison wasn’t inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label. 然而Orbison 却没有被这个目标鼓舞，在太阳演播厅也只有一次是成功的。

The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a process of change, and under that pressure we, as a species, behave differently, ‘When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe.’ Cialdini 说：价值观的匹配很重要，因为在某种程度上创新是一个改变的过程，在这种压力下我们虽然是一个物种却又是不同的，“当事情变化的时候，我们与生俱来地考虑安全性。” Managers should therefore adopt an approach that appears counterintuitive ­— they should explain what stands to be lost if the company fails to seize a particular opportunity. 因此管理者们采取了一种看上去与直觉相违背的方法——如果公司没有抓住一个特别的机会，他们应该说出在立场上需要做什么样的取舍。 Studies show that we invariably take more gambles when threatened with a loss than when offered a reward. 研究表明：与我们得到奖励的时候相比，在面对损失威胁的时候我们能抓住更多的机会。

Managing innovation is a delicate art. 管理创造力是一门微妙的艺术。 It’s easy for a company to be pulled in conflicting directions as the marketing, product development, and finance departments each get different feedback from different sets of people. 一个公司很容易就陷入冲突之中，比如市场、产品发展、财务部会从不同的部门人员那里得到不同的反馈。 And without a system which ensures collaborative exchanges within the company, it's also easy for small ‘pockets of innovation’ to disappear. 如果在公司里没有一个能够确保合作交换的体制，那么即使是一个小的创新也很容易消失。 Innovation is a contact sport. 创新是一项接触性运动。 You can’t brief people just by saying, ‘We’re going in this direction and I’m going to take you with me.’ 你不能够仅仅通过说“我要去这个方向，我想你和我一起去” 就简要地表达你的目标。

Cialdini believes that this 'follow-the-leader syndrome, is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. Cialdini 认为什么事情都听从领导的这种现象很危险，尤其是因为它怂恿了老板们刚愎自用。 ‘It’s been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the field.’ “ 已经被充分证明，在解决问题上三个人总比一个人要好，即使那个人是这个领域最聪明的人。” To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular biologist James Watson. 为了证明他自己的观点，Cialsini 使用了对分子科学家James Watson 的采访。 Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, the genetic information carrier of all living organisms. James Watson 和Francis Crick 一同发现了DNA 结构——所有有机体的基因形成承载者。 ‘When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of an array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said something that stunned me. “当被问到他们是如何在技艺高超的竞争者之前破译基因密码的时候，他说有一些东西刺激了他。 He said he and Crick had succeeded because they were aware that they weren’t the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. 他说他和Crick 已经成功了，因为他们意识到他们并不是在寻求这个答案的科学家中最聪明的。 The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, “was so intelligent she rarely sought advice”.’ 最聪明的科学家是Rosalind Franklin， Watson 说‘她太聪明了，都很少寻求意见。’”

Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. 团队协作是推动人类行为能力的要因。 ‘The principle of social proof is so pervasive that we don’t even recognise it,’ says Cialdini. Cialdini 说：“社会证明原则是如此的普遍以至于我们甚至没有认识到它。” ‘If your project is being resisted, for example, by a group of veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it.’ “ 例如，如果你的计划被一组经验丰富的员工抵制了，那么就询问另一个老前辈来清楚地表达看法。” Cialdini is not alone in advocating this strategy. Cialdini 并不是唯一一个提倡这个策略的人。 Research shows that peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful than any boss’s speech. 研究表明同事的影响， 在横向使用而不是纵向使用的前提下，比老板的话语更加有力。

Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new ideas. 写出来、使其具象化以及拍成照片能够促进新想法涌动。 Cialdini cites scores of research papers and historical events that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens every individual’s engagement in the project. Cialdini 援引许多学术论文及一些历史事件，从而证明了即使是像写作一样简单的事情也能够加深每个个体在项目中的参与度。 It is, he says, the reason why all those competitions on breakfast cereal packets encouraged us to write in saying, in no more than 10 words: ‘I like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes because….’ 他说，这就是为什么我们在讨论选择何种谷物类早餐的时候，使用不到十个字的方式把原因写出来：“我喜欢Kellogg 的玉米薄片，因为……” The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it. 正是写作的这种行为使我们更可能相信它。

Authority doesn’t have to inhibit innovation but it often does. 权威并不一定禁止创新， 但它通常会。 The wrong kind of leadership will lead to what Cialdini calls ‘captainitis, the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team responsibilities that are properly theirs’. 错误的领导将会导致Cialdini 所谓的“captainitis, 即团队成员逃避责任的这种令人遗憾的趋势”。 He calls it captainitis because, he says, ‘crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision’. 他把它称之为captanitis，因为，他说：“因为当飞机的机长发出了一个明显错误的决定时，飞行员们有时候会表现得极度消极。” This behaviour is not, he says, unique to air travel, but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing. 他说，这种行为并不只出现在飞机旅行当中，在有专横的领导的地方都会发生。

At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a group of young designers for whom ‘the only rule was that there were no rules’. 这个范围的另一端是20 世纪80 年代，对于在Memphis 设计集团工作的年轻的设计师们而言“唯一的规则就是没有规则。” This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas, which led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design. 这个环境鼓励着想法自由交换，这就促成了更多的款式、功能、颜色、材料的创新，革新了设备设计的态度。

Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due. 许多理论家相信理想的老板应在后方指挥，以集团的成就为傲并给予应得的信誉。 Cialdini says: ‘Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the right decision and will be given full attention.’ Cialdini 说：“领导应该鼓励每个人做贡献，并确保所有人都意识到每一个建议对于正确决定的做出都是重要的，都会给予尽可能多的重视。” The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many approaches, but no magic formula. 关于创新令人沮丧的是有许多方法，却没有公式。 However, a manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by recognising these psychological realities. 然而对于想要创造出一个真正创新文化的管理者来说，认识到这些心理方面的真实情况可以使工作变得容易得多。