How to Get Better at Picking Creative Ideas

Justin M. Berg, assistant professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, investigates an understudied part of the creative process in a new paper that appears in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Berg conducted five experiments in which participants tackled creative projects, like devising an innovative piece of fitness equipment or a mechanism to keep people from falling asleep in self-driving cars.

He tested how well people were able to assess the potential creativity of their ideas. Berg found when participants spent only a little time developing their ideas, their predicted rankings remained correct. When they spent more time fleshing out their ideas, the idea they thought was their second best actually finished the highest in creativity.

Researchers also asked independent raters to judge how abstract each idea was. Berg found that the ideas initially ranked second in terms of creativity were also more abstract than the ideas ranked first.

Taking cue from the study, Berg offers simple takeaways when developing new ideas when opting for initial ideas that are more concrete, developing two rather than one idea to maturity, and not sharing a more abstract idea unless there is certainty in it. Read the Entire Article


Selected Grant News Headlines

A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.

Accelerating Government Efficiency through Advanced Technologies and Innovation

When it comes to getting a driver's license in the US, there's a lot of red tape. In fact, more than half of the country's DMV offices are still manual, according to a new report from the...more

7.4 Representative Jennifer Mcclellan Talks Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice ...

Virginia Rep. Jennifer McClellan is the first black woman elected to Congress from her home state, and she's also the first black woman to represent it in the House of Representatives. But...more

Editorial: Regional Projects Show Benefits of State Grant Money
Foundation: Lilly Endowment

Indiana is adding $500 million to its coffers and the Lilly Endowment is throwing in $250 million for community and economic development programs designed by communities themselves, the Columbus...more

Sandburg Nursing Program Receives State Grant for $96K

Carl Sandburg College in Monmouth, Ill., has been named one of 12 schools in the state to receive a $1.4 million grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education to help increase the number of...more

Texas Apparel Company and Digital Asset Advocacy Nonprofit File Suit Against the ...

When Beba, a startup based in Waco, Texas, offered customers a chance to buy exclusive products at a reduced price with its digital token, BEBA, it didn't think much about the Securities and...more

Nonprofit Mission Statements: 30 Examples of Brands Who Are Crushing It [Infographic]

If you're in the market for a new website, you might want to check out this list of 30 nonprofit mission statements, rounded up by Nonprofit World. They're great if you're in the market for a new...more

How Reading The Morning Paper Inspired an Alumnus' Mission to Shape Ethical Leadership

"One day, he decided to do something about it." That's how Steve Bachand describes his $5 million donation to the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, which will create the Stephen...more

Women'S Fund of Greater Milwaukee

"We are part of a global women's movement, and our effort is really directed towards the barriers that stand in the way for women in every aspect of their lives," Lisa Attonito, executive director...more

Emory Initiative for Arts and Humanistic Inquiry Awards New Grants for Creative Programming

Atlanta's Emory University is putting its money where its mouth is. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the university's provost announced this week that the Bill and Carol Fox Center for...more

Meet the Artist Who'S Elevating Baton Rouge'S Creative Community While Painting Upside Down

"I've taken classes throughout, but I never intentionally went to school to be a painter," Mike Weary tells NOLA.com. But the 36-year-old resident of Baton Rouge, La., has been self-taught since...more





Here are the star companies that have succeeded in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. The companies were gathered by Civic 50, a national initiative to survey and rank S&P 500 corporations on how they engage with the communities they serve and utilize best practices in their corporate cultures.




Social Services Jobs

  Foundation Related Jobs
  Education Jobs
  Fundraising & Development Jobs
  Substance Abuse Jobs
  Program Director Jobs