Creative Abrasion

= "creating a culture where ideas are challenged and new “intersections” are constantly made".[1]

Example

Randy M. Haykin:

"What do we mean by Creative Abrasion and what causes this sort of friction within companies?

The terms was apparently created by Jerry Hirshberg, founder and president of Nissan Design International (NDI). Xerox Parc leader John Seeley Brown refers to “creative abrasion” as: ideas that really rub against each other productively as opposed to destructively.”

A good example of creative abrasion was the birth of the Apple Macintosh computer. It’s a well-known fact that Jobs took the original team out of the mainstream organization, created a sort of “skunk-works” within Apple, to complete the entire product (hardware, software) without having to deal with the hierarchy or politics of Apple corporate. What is less often discussed is WHY this particular team was so successful. Jobs – a stickler for detail – who often became involved in the smallest of details, created an environment of creative abrasion among team members. The heart of creative abrasion was DIVERSITY, although it might not have seemed this way from afar. The team members themselves, where hand-chosen by Jobs – and included a very wide array of artists, musicians and deep thinkers – even though you could label them all “software programmers”.

Diversity of talents, viewpoints, cultural differences, etc – this is what enables abrasive behavior, because the team with diversity will challenge itself." (http://haykin.net/innovationsparks/2009/10/02/creative-abrasion-vs-creative-collaboration/)