Coaching World Issue 19: Science of Coaching

Shutterstock.com/Aila Images Keeping Current When Collaborating, Don’t Mark Your Territory What’s the quickest way to stop feedback in a creative collaboration? According to a recent study, marking your territory—which is to say, claiming ownership of the idea being discussed—can be enough to stifle feedback from collaborators. who has the original idea, they will try to signal their ownership of it. Naturally, this makes other people less motivated to contribute and can squelch the creativity of their comments and suggestions. The original idea may never be developed to its fullest potential.” marketing, content marketing and company website/app usage. The majority of those surveyed (73 percent) were businesses with one to 10 employees and less than $1 million USD in annual revenue, matching the makeup of the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau data on small businesses. What’s the best way to avoid this creative dead-end? We must learn to value collaboration as much as we do innovation. According to Baer, “What you want is an environment in which offering creative feedback is valued as much as having the original idea. The credit has to be shared equally.” According to the survey, many small businesses aren’t using digital marketing because of the associated expense and inexperience with relevant tools and strategies, but Clutch argues it offers many advantages for small businesses, including: The study appeared in the November 2015 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. —Justin Hannah 6 Coaching World The researchers performed two studies and found that a person is more likely to mark a territory in which he or she feels a strong sense of ownership. However, this marking leads to less creative, constructive feedback from peers. In work environments, a creative or original idea is often more highly valued than the feedback that improves it, so collaborators feel little investment in the idea’s outcome and little motivation to provide constructive input. This tends to greatly limit an idea’s potential, said Markus Baer, associate professor of organizational behavior at Olin Business School and one of the study’s co-authors. “The first idea is rarely the best,” Baer said. “Creative ideas have to be nurtured and developed and this often happens in the context of collaborating with others. However, when all the credit goes to the person Shutterstock.com/Pure Solution Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and the University of Victoria were interested in the concept of territorial marking, and how it affects collaboration in the workplace. In this context, “territorial marking” refers to laying claim to a territory, specifically an idea. Lack of Digital Marketing Can Be Cost

Coaching World Issue 19: Science of Coaching | Page 6