Every year, Amy B., a buyer for a large retail chain store, hosts an Easter egg decorating team-building party where she and a bunch of her suppliers spend an entire afternoon coloring and bedazzling boiled eggs. None of them bring kids—they do this for the sheer pleasure of out of the office bonding, creating interesting and attractive objects. The group is always amazed at the creativity of the resulting eggs. (And, no, none of them are artists.) 

So why don’t adults exercise their inner childlike creativity more often? And what is it about the Easter egg party that allows them to so freely generate and express such range and diversity of ideas? There are several factors, all of which also apply to innovation.

Each egg represents a very low commitment. It’s cheap in both time and materials to try any idea they think of, so they try lots of ideas. If one doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter; it’s just one egg. 

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