140 THE CREATIVE INVESTMENT TEAM
No. Conflict is part of creativity. So is fear, at times. People
will feel frightened as they go deeply into their creative spirits and
touch new edges, especially when it involves revealing their weak-
nesses. Most of us—with the help of our crafty critics—spend our
lives developing successful strategies for protecting the tender spots.
We know how to appear smart, commanding, steady, “together.”
We know how to fit in and look good. But true creativity requires
that you leave that need for approval behind, and the only way to
do that in a group is by building trust and mutual respect. Most
people have a best friend to whom they can tell anything and still
be accepted; a creative group requires a similar level of uncondi-
tional acceptance.
In my experience, investment groups tend to be poor at creat-
ing safe spaces for creativity. Their lion-like, left-brained tempera-
ments are focused on performance and competence. They want the
right answer and they want it quickly. They want results. Above
all, they don’t want to look foolish. Foolish people get mocked,
ignored, left behind, rejected. In fact, in a meeting with lions, if
one of them does lower the shield just a bit, the others tend to
converge on the vulnerable spot like sharks in a feeding frenzy. I
saw this phenomenon repeatedly when I led diversity training for
investment managers. Some poor soul, usually a secretary or sup-
port staff person, would bring up a personal life trauma—a di-
vorce, a son’s drug addiction, a bankruptcy—and the room tem-
perature would drop ten degrees. Body language and mocking com-
ments gave a clear signal: Don’t go there. Don’t make the rest of
us feel uncomfortable.
A wonderfully ironic example of this occurred in my first di-
versity training. I had asked the group to do an exercise on stereo-
types. They were to choose some commonly stereotyped groups—
African Americans, overweight people, lawyers, Asians, middle-
aged white executives—and list the attributes of that group. As
soon as I explained the instructions, the room temperature dropped
three degrees. A hand went up and one portfolio manager said,14-25 ware 140 1/19/01, 1:14 PM