Shy, sensitive, serious. These are all words perceived as, generally,
negative attributes. But these are also words people associate with introverts.
One in three people are introverts and society makes us believe that if you’re
anything other than an extrovert you’re made to think something is wrong with
you.
I've recently read Quiet by
Susan Cain, a book about the power of introverts in a world dominated by extroverts. It's an insightful read and one that has
taught me that the environment we live in is not suited for introverts.
Take our schooling system, for example. From a young age we are taught
to work in groups. Now you could argue that this is teaching us to communicate
with others and build confidence, but for those introverted children it's
incredibly daunting.
Introverts are typically very intelligent but feel more at ease working
individually or in pairs, and are more productive knowing they have a
particular role – taking the notes in a group discussion, or feeding back their
findings to the class. In bigger groups there
are always kids who have no problem taking charge and contributing ideas but,
for those overwhelmed by the pressure to contribute, many introverted kids feel
their views are insufficient.
Some people believe that introversion is something we grow out of when
we get older, that it’s just a phase or a confidence thing. But the reality is
it’s the environment we’re in that makes a difference. Once we can chose our
environment, whether that’s our work or home environment, we come into our own.
Steve Wozniak, inventor and co-founder of Apple, was incredibly shy at
school and hated small talk. He wasn’t a popular kid at school but was
fascinated by engineering and electronics from a very young age. He spent most
days working alone, even when he worked at Hewlett Packard, and believes this
approach led him to creating the Apple I and Apple II.
“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me – they’re shy and
they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best
of them are artists. And artists work best alone – best outside
of corporate environments, best where they can control an invention’s design
without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other
committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented
by committee...”
Whether you agree with Wozniak’s way of working or not, it’s
interesting to note that in the same way school is not adapted for introverts,
neither is brainstorming. In the workplace, brainstorming is a widely used
creative tool. However, psychological research shows that enforced teamwork –
like we experience at school – signals a fear of rejection in people (not just
introverts) and discourages potentially valuable contributions.
In fact, brainstorming is guilty of three things; social loafing where
people sit back and let the others do the work, production blocking by letting
only one person speak at any one time and evaluation apprehension, the fear of
looking stupid. Teamwork is, of course, a necessary part of business life but
employers shouldn’t underestimate the creativity harvested by those who work
individually – especially as a third of employees will be introverts.
So the next time someone calls you shy or quiet, just remember –
without introverts the world would be missing the theory of relativity, the Civil
Rights movement and Google.
By Stephanie Rock
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