Daniel H Pink: employees are faster and more creative when solving other people's problems

Article of The Telegraph, 22 May 2011

Recent research reveals that people are more capable of mental novelty when thinking on behalf of others than for themselves. This has far-reaching practical implications at every level of business.

...Evan Polman of New York University and Kyle Emich of Cornell University...

Over the years, social scientists have found that abstract thinking leads to greater creativity. That means that if we care about innovation we need to be more abstract and therefore more distant. But in our businesses and our lives, we often do the opposite. We intensify our focus rather than widen our view. We draw closer rather than step back.

That's a mistake, Polman and Emich suggest..