To season or not to season?
The American inventor Thomas Edison had a rather unusual method for selecting employees.
Before making a job offer, he would take the candidate out for dinner and order them a bowl of soup.
He would then sit back in his chair and watch what they did next.
If they seasoned the soup with salt before tasting it, Edison wouldn’t offer them the job.
If they didn’t, he would.
While this seems like an unusual selection method at first, it makes a lot more sense on closer examination.
The truth is that to be creative you have to challenge your own assumptions.
You must be able to free your mind from existing beliefs and allow it to form connections between things that it might not normally have considered.
Edison reasoned that a candidate who seasoned their soup before tasting it would be the type of person already full of unhelpful assumptions.
He wanted to work with the type of person who was the opposite.
Someone who would challenge the status quo and come without any preconceived ideas.
Someone who tastes soup first before adding salt to it.
Creativity is a vital skill for any company. The ability to solve problems and spot new opportunities is what separates those that survive and prosper from those that fail.
If you’re interested in how creativity can transform your business then pre-register for our upcoming course ‘Creativity for Business’ for more info.
