{"id":3890,"date":"2025-04-14T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:24:56","slug":"two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Creators Working Together Are Better Than One"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

There are many examples of creative and productive partners, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the Coen brothers, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, William Procter and James Gamble, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard; the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Bess Rouse<\/a> of Boston College said that people who create together engage in intimate creative interactions that lead to a shared interpersonal boundary\u2014\u201cI created it\u201d becomes \u201cWe created it.\u201d This shared interpersonal boundary influences creativity by forming a closed, safe space in which duos can explore divergent ideas and navigate creative blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know a lot about team creativity, and we know a lot about individual creativity, and one of the things I was really interested in exploring is this idea of two people working together and the balance that happens in that space,\u201d Rouse said. \u201cYou look at a lot of successful, creative people in the world, and they\u2019re often working in pairs, and it\u2019s either a very explicit pair or a well-known person who works with a shadow person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a husband and wife, or it might be a more dominant person and a secondary person who are working together,\u201d she said. \u201cThat creative space is really special, because you can challenge that person and they\u2019re trusted, and it\u2019s in this bounded space where you develop the sense of a shared interpersonal boundary, where you feel very connected to this other person, and so they\u2019re able to challenge each other and get some of the benefits of having an outsider voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet the trust and the support are built into the relationship as well, and that seems to be a really powerful dynamic for developing really high-quality creativity and sustaining it over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

An example that Rouse cited in an Academy of Management Review<\/em> article<\/a> is from Michael Lewis\u2019s book, The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds<\/em>, on social psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were social psychologists very well known for doing their work together, and Lewis does a really good job of fleshing out the sorts of tensions in that kind of relationship, but they\u2019re also a very powerful example of two people collaborating and working together successfully and bringing out the best in each other over time,\u201d Rouse said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher There are many examples of creative and productive partners, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the Coen brothers, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, William Procter and James Gamble, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard; the list goes on and on. Academy of Management Scholar Bess Rouse of Boston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21,76,79],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-performance","category-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Creators Working Together Are Better Than One - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Two Creators Working Together Are Better Than One\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-14T21:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:24:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":406,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/man-and-woman-shake-hands.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"PERFORMANCE\",\"TEAMS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/two-creators-working-together-are-better-than-one\\\/\",\"name\":\"Two Creators Working Together Are Better Than One - 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