Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Most organizations say they want to foster creativity. But decades of research by Jack Goncalo, PhD 04, reveals they misunderstand it in fundamental ways: Leaders often implicitly reject novel ideas and penalize creative people when they’re up for leadership roles.
In our Season 5 kickoff, Goncalo unpacks the science behind why—and shares some genuinely counterintuitive findings: the conditions we think suppress creativity sometimes do the opposite. And the costs of creative work? They show up in places no one is tracking—including what your employees might eat and drink after a big brainstorm.
Goncalo joins organizational culture experts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava to discuss why the bias against creativity is worst precisely when organizations need it most, why constraints and even social rejection can actually fuel original thinking, and why asking people to be creative all day has downstream consequences leaders aren't accounting for.
Read the transcript: https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/posts/jack-goncalo-on-what-organizations-get-wrong-about-creativity-and-what-its-costing-them/
Jenny & Sameer’s 3 Main Takeaways:
1. When building teams, look for the people who have a history of not fitting in or seeing things the way everyone else sees them.
2. Build norms, not just freedom: provide a framework that guides people and gives them a set of expectations that make them feel comfortable sharing their creative ideas.
3. Create fair and deliberate processes for assessing novel ideas that counteracts any evaluation bias.
Show Links:
• Jack Goncalo faculty bio (https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/profile/jack-goncalo) at Gies College of Business
• The bias against creativity: Why people desire but reject creative ideas (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611421018) (Psychological Science)
• Creativity from constraint? How political correctness influences creativity in mixed-sex work groups (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0001839214563975) (Administrative Science Quarterly)
• Outside advantage: Can social rejection fuel creative thought? (psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-22061-001) (Journal of Experimental Psychology)
• Your soul spills out: The creative act feels self-disclosing (journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167219873480) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Are two narcissists better than one? The link between narcissism, perceived creativity and creative performance (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167210385109) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Creativity Connects: Generating Creative Ideas on Behalf of a Brand Increases Feelings of Connection (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672251338686) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Creative Ideation Activates Disinhibited Reward-Seeking and Indulgent Choices (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39207437/) (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)
Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at haas.org/culture-kit (haas.org/culture-kit) .
*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.
Most organizations say they want to foster creativity. But decades of research by Jack Goncalo, PhD 04, reveals they misunderstand it in fundamental ways: Leaders often implicitly reject novel ideas and penalize creative people when they’re up for leadership roles.
In our Season 5 kickoff, Goncalo unpacks the science behind why—and shares some genuinely counterintuitive findings: the conditions we think suppress creativity sometimes do the opposite. And the costs of creative work? They show up in places no one is tracking—including what your employees might eat and drink after a big brainstorm.
Goncalo joins organizational culture experts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava to discuss why the bias against creativity is worst precisely when organizations need it most, why constraints and even social rejection can actually fuel original thinking, and why asking people to be creative all day has downstream consequences leaders aren't accounting for.
Read the transcript: https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/posts/jack-goncalo-on-what-organizations-get-wrong-about-creativity-and-what-its-costing-them/
Jenny & Sameer’s 3 Main Takeaways:
1. When building teams, look for the people who have a history of not fitting in or seeing things the way everyone else sees them.
2. Build norms, not just freedom: provide a framework that guides people and gives them a set of expectations that make them feel comfortable sharing their creative ideas.
3. Create fair and deliberate processes for assessing novel ideas that counteracts any evaluation bias.
Show Links:
• Jack Goncalo faculty bio (https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/profile/jack-goncalo) at Gies College of Business
• The bias against creativity: Why people desire but reject creative ideas (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611421018) (Psychological Science)
• Creativity from constraint? How political correctness influences creativity in mixed-sex work groups (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0001839214563975) (Administrative Science Quarterly)
• Outside advantage: Can social rejection fuel creative thought? (psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-22061-001) (Journal of Experimental Psychology)
• Your soul spills out: The creative act feels self-disclosing (journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167219873480) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Are two narcissists better than one? The link between narcissism, perceived creativity and creative performance (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167210385109) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Creativity Connects: Generating Creative Ideas on Behalf of a Brand Increases Feelings of Connection (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672251338686) (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)
• Creative Ideation Activates Disinhibited Reward-Seeking and Indulgent Choices (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39207437/) (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)
Learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at haas.org/culture-kit (haas.org/culture-kit) .
*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.
