Adam Grant Quotes

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.

When you have a creative mind it doesn't stop going.

I think we always move from imitation to assimilation to innovation, but I can't name you 20 people outside those we've already recognized who ever got to point three: innovation.

I'm always looking for the creative spark. Always.

If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Usually my ideas are small.

It really hasn't been demonstrated at any level by any major corporation that it can nurture what is euphemistically called creativity.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random.

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.

An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.

Creativity requires input, and that's what research is. You're gathering material with which to build.

It's not enough to tell people to be creative; they need to know how, and what to create.

Usually, the best ideas come from having to fix a really hard problem.

Creativity is a spark. It can be excruciating when we're rubbing two rocks together and getting nothing. And it can be intensely satisfying when the flame catches and a new idea sweeps around the world.

Opportunity ideas do not lie around waiting to be discovered. Such ideas need to be produced.

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

I'm kind of an idea guy.

I have never had too much trouble for creative ideas to spring up in my mind.

One rule of invention: before you can invent it, you have to imagine it.

There can be no technique or formula for creativity.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

Geniuses don't have better ideas than the rest of us. They just have more of them.

Creativity requires novelty. Imagination is all about counterfactuals and untested possibilities that don't yet exist.