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today we're speaking with Wharton
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management professor Samir nur Mohammed
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and the topic is overcoming negative
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reactions to radical creativity we're to
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talk about eating insects along the way
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as well so thanks for joining us Samir
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thank you so much for having me so the
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title of the paper is hearing crickets
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an inductive study of overcoming
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negative reactions to radical creativity
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so he can give us a quick overview of
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what the research was about yeah so this
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is actually some cool new research that
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I've been doing with my colleague
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Spencer Harrison who's at Boston College
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is an expert on creativity as well and
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what we were really interested in was
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the idea that you know when creative
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products are introduced and creative
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ideas are are introduced how do people
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gain traction for them so if we think
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about some ideas some are extremely
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novel and extremely different from
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prevailing habits in society and we
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don't have much of an understanding of
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how these ideas gain traction and why
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some do versus others don't so what we
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thought would be interesting was to look
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at this and an emerging market such as
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the edible insects industry here in the
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United States and other Western
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countries and seeing this industry
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called entomophagy and seeing what
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companies and entrepreneurs are using to
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basically gain traction for these new
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products and new types of food that they
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have often when you think about the
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ideas of in a ting insects you probably
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think look disgusting well we are
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interested in well how are these
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companies entrepreneurs actually trying
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to get consumers and customers to try
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their products because they do offer a
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number of health benefits but of course
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they provoke this reaction to discuss so
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what we tried to do was look at these
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companies and see what types of tactics
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they're using not to just come up with
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their ideas but also to sell these ideas
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to the public and what we've come up
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with our number of tactics that
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companies and entrepreneurs are using to
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kind of what we call tuned down the
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novelty of their ideas so often when we
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think about creative products and
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creativity we think you need to be as
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out there in the world as possible to
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really wildly depart from existing norms
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but what we actually find is that you
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actually want to tone down or tune back
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your radical ideas you want to make them
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less novel and what these entrepreneurs
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are doing are some of these strategies
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to sell these issues and these ideas to
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customers so what they'll do is
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they'll actually come up with vocabulary
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so that these new products sound much
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more familiar to us similarly they'll
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put them in form so that they look just
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like a chocolate bar or a cookie but
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they're actually contained in sex so we
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come up with a wide variety tactics that
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entrepreneurs are using to convince
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consumers to try their products and so
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what were some of the key takeaways of
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the study yeah so this this big idea of
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kind of tuning back and tuning down the
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novelty of your ideas was was a big one
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so there's been some prior research
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looking at for instance Thomas Edison
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and what they found in that research
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with Thomas Edison is that he had better
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designs for disseminating electricity
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but what he actually did was use
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existing designs an existing
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infrastructure to his advantage so
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similarly here what we found is people
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are you know for instance they're
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scaling back their ideas by putting them
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in these familiar forms or using
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vocabulary that's familiar to us so
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instead of calling them you know
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crickets or wax worms they'll say that
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this tastes like you know this type of
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pistachio or this tastes like desert
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shrimp kind of these things that are
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somewhat familiar to us but also are
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kind of provoking a sense of curiosity
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to get people to try these products and
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I think this is really important for
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businesses because a lot of investment
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is spent on coming up with the design
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itself for coming up with the product
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itself rather than trying to think about
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okay well how can we how can we get the
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mainstream public how can we get our
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customers to really buy into these ideas
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that seem quite novel on the surface all
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right did any of these strategies really
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surprise you yeah I think there were
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there were a couple that really were
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waraa ha strategies for me so if I if I
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think about one of them was kind of
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managing the surplus of ideas that you
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have that's what we call it in the paper
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so if you think about you know the
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people working for you your employees
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often times you have to say well you
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know what Joe that idea is just way too
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out there right now and we assume that
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company shell those ideas what we found
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in this context was is that actually
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they're not shelving the ideas they're
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actually using those ideas for the
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future they're actually trying to work
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towards some of those ideas that are too
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extreme right now and then
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saying okay you know what we're going to
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put this idea on the back burner for now
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but they're using it as a way to get
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employees to be motivated for the future
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so instead of just putting it on the
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back burner they're saying okay well if
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we imagine a future maybe five years
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from now where that product will be
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important in an everyday thing can what
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would what do we need to do today to get
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there right and so if you had to advise
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a company that was introducing a really
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sort of novel product based on your
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research what kinds of practical advice
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would you give them yeah I think one of
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the big things for us was looking at you
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know when we think about creativity to
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assume that a lot of its being done
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inside the organization what was really
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took us by surprise was just how much
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companies are really using the public to
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to navigate whether this is an
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interesting idea or not or whether it'll
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be an idea that gains traction but not
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just that what's happening is some of
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their customers some of these clients
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that are outside of their organizations
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are actually the ones that are promoting
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it and using it in really interesting
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ways so for instance you know one one
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thing that we came across in our
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interviews is how they're using this
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this flower this cricket flour as a way
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of making waffles or pancakes and that
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was something that you know maybe the
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company's thought would happen at some
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point in time but it's really being left
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up to the customer to kind of come up
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with recipes and sharing those ideas
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online and then using that to kind of
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promote your product is really helpful
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similarly we found that entrepreneurs
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are really using the media to see what's
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going to gain traction versus not so
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they might think that you know an idea
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is too extreme right now but they'll
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kind of still pitch it to the media and
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the media will cover it and then kind of
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based on customer reactions to it
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they'll decide whether they want to
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produce or not what kinds of
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misperceptions do you think your
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research dispels yeah so I think one of
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the big mercy receptions of this of some
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of this research is that and Paul Rosen
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here at Penn has done some interesting
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work on this but it's this idea that of
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course when we see something discuss
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disgusting we're very much revolted by
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it I think that's still very much
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generally the case when I say we do you
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want to try you know this set of
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crickets here in my hand you'd probably
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see no that sounds really really gross
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but one of the things that we saw is
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that you know entrepreneurs are
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use some of these negative emotions and
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trying to harness them into more
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positive emotions or cognitions so this
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idea of okay well I have this set of
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insects or the set of crickets in my
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hand but they actually look like cookies
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or they actually look like chips which
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are very familiar to us it almost
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provokes this sense of surprise or
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curiosity so what we're seeing is
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entrepreneurs are playing a much more
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active role in shaping reactions to how
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people respond to their ideas and
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they're doing that through the designs
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that they're using for putting their
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products in they're also doing it in
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terms of how they're pitching in they're
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also using you know the people around
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the customer or the people around the
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audience to really gain traction so for
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instance you know we observed with these
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with these entrepreneurs they you know
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if they asked a parent to try you know
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one of these edible insects the parents
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would be really no uninterested in doing
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it but of course their kids would be
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super interested and by seeing their
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kids do that that would take their
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parents back to time in what you know
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eating dirt was actually okay so again
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it's kind of channeling these negative
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emotions into something that's more like
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surprise or something that's into
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curiosity and saying okay well you know
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if I let my son or daughter can do it I
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can kind of try it too right right how
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does your research for to stand apart
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from other research in this field yeah I
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think one of the big the big things for
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us is was really trying to find a
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context where you know radical
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creativity is taking shape I think one
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of the things that we see in existing
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research is that we either look at
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creativity in the lab or we look at more
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incremental innovation we don't see many
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you know ideas in our in our lifetimes
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actually that really changed the course
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of things for people so if you think
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about the edible insects industry that's
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really trying to not just change you
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know food itself but it's trying to
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change eating habits around the world
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and that's something that's you know
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it's seen as something that's very
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off-putting to people but these
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entrepreneurs are trying to change it so
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what we were trying to do in this
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research was really go to context where
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we'd see the phenomenon in action and
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whereas you know some of the prior work
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on radical creativity or radical
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innovation has really looked at things
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in hindsight and evaluating the
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practices we're actually seeing these
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entrepreneurs as they happen and as they
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as new businesses emerge so even over
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the course of our study
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we had to keep trying to update our
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lists of people in an interview because
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there are so many new companies and we
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got see companies that were not only
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well established and having you know
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great sales records but we also saw
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companies that were just starting to get
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kick-started donations and that we're
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really in that idea generation phase
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that really opened up all lines of the
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supply chain but also the creative
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process to us which is really really
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interesting and cool as a researcher now
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now think it won't be too long before
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the Girl Scouts introduced their new
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cricket cookies that's right um but what
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is it that you want to look at next yeah
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so I think for me you know a big a big
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curiosity of mine in terms of research
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is looking at you know when individuals
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or organizations are constrained in some
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way so whether that's in terms of
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resources or talent or you know in this
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situation they're constrained in terms
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of what they're trying to do in terms of
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their products they have a limited set
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of resources and they're trying to make
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things better for the world so that's
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something that generally interests me so
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I want to kind of keep pursuing this
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research related to creativity but also
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kind of take it back to you know our
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employees and and that you know the
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positions that our students will take
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here at warden and thinking about okay
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well how can we apply some of these
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insights to them how can they gain
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traction for their ideas when they're
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facing adversity great well thanks very
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much for joining us Samira thanks for
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having me
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you
