• NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 32
  • Few words to say about this book




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    THE-BIBLE-OF-IELTS-READING-BOOK

     
     
     
    Questions 32-35 
    YES
    if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
    NO
    if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
    NOT GIVEN
     if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 
    32
    Disease-spreading pests respond more quickly to pesticides than agricultural pests do. 
    33
    A number of pests are now born with an innate immunity to some pesticides. 
    34
    Biological control entails using synthetic chemicals to try and change the genetic make-up of the pests’ 
    offspring. 
    35 
    Bio-control is free from danger under certain circumstances. 
     
     
     
     


    76 
    READING PASSAGE 7 
    The psychology of innovation 
    Why are so few companies truly innovative?
    Innovation is key to business survival

    and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to 
    develop new ideas. There are, nevertheless, people working in luxurious, state-of-the-art centres designed 
    to stimulate innovation who find that their environment doesn’t make them feel at all creative. And there are 
    those who don’t have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully. 
    For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies don’t 
    succeed as often as they should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that the fit between 
    an employee’s values and a company’s values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, 
    two years after they join, they’re still at the company. Studies at Harvard Business School show that, although 
    some individuals may be more creative than others, almost every individual can be creative in the right 
    circumstances. 
    One of the most famous photographs in the story of rock’n’roll emphasises Ciaidini’s views. The 1956 picture 
    of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in 
    Memphis tells a hidden story. Sun’s ‘million-dollar quartet’ could have been a quintet. Missing from the 
    picture is Roy Orbison’ a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, 
    wanted to revolutionise popular music with songs that fused black and white music, and country and blues. 
    Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis instinctively understood Phillips’s ambition and believed in it. Orbison 
    wasn’t inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label. 
    The value fit matters, says Cialdini, because innovation is, in part, a process of change, and under that pressure 
    we, as a species, behave differently, ‘When things change, we are hard-wired to play it safe.’ Managers 
    should therefore adopt an approach that appears counterintuitive -they should explain what stands to be lost if 
    the company fails to seize a particular opportunity. Studies show that we invariably take more gambles when 
    threatened with a loss than when offered a reward. 
    Managing innovation is a delicate art. It’s easy for a company to be pulled in conflicting directions as the 
    marketing, product development, and finance departments each get different feedback from different sets of 
    people. And without a system which ensures collaborative exchanges within the company, it’s also easy for 
    small ‘pockets of innovation‟ to disappear. Innovation is a contact sport. You can‟t brief people just by saying, 
    ‘We’re going in this direction and I’m going to take you with me.’ 
    Cialdini believes that this ‘follow-the-leader syndrome, is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to 
    go it alone. ‘It’s been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if 
    that one person is the smartest person in the field.’ To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with 
    molecular biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, the 
    genetic information carrier of all living organisms. ‘When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of an 
    array of highly accomplished rival investigators, he said something that stunned me. He said ”he and Crick had 
    succeeded because they were aware that they weren’t the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. 
    The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, “was so intelligent she rarely sought 
    advice”.’ 
    Teamwork taps into one of the basic drivers of human behaviour. ‘The principle of social proof is so pervasive 
    that we don’t even recognise it,’ says Cialdini. ‘If your project is being resisted, for example, by a group of 
    veteran employees, ask another old-timer to speak up for it.’ Cialdini is not alone in advocating 
    this strategy. Research shows that peer power, used horizontally not vertically, is much more powerful than 
    any boss’s speech. 


    77 
    Writing, visualising and prototyping can stimulate the flow of new ideas. Cialdini cites scores 
    of research papers and historical events that prove that even something as simple as writing deepens 
    every individual’s engagement in the project. It is, he says, the reason why all those competitions on breakfast 
    cereal packets encouraged us to write in saying, in no more than 10 words: ‘I like Kellogg’s Com Flakes 
    because… .’ The very act of writing makes us more likely to believe it. 
    Authority doesn’t have to inhibit innovation but it often does. The wrong kind of leadership will lead to what 
    Cialdini calls ”captainitis, the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out of team responsibilities that are 
    properly their’. He calls it captainitis because, he says, ”crew members of multipilot aircraft exhibit a 
    sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision”. This behaviour is 
    not, he says, unique to air travel, but can happen in any workplace where the leader is overbearing. 
    At the other end of the scale is the 1980s Memphis design collective, a group of young designers for whom 
    ”the only rule was that there were no rule”. This environment encouraged a free interchange of ideas, which 
    led to more creativity with form, function, colour and materials that revolutionised attitudes to furniture design. 
    Many theorists believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and 
    giving credit where it is due. Cialdini says:”Leaders should encourage everyone 
    to contribute and simultaneously assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the 
    right decision and will be given full attention” The frustrating thing about innovation is that there are many 
    approaches, but no magic formula. However, a manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can 
    make their job a lot easier by recognising these psychological realities. 

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