What Is the Firefly Effect?

Do you remember the magic of a childhood summer evening? Catching fireflies with your friends? Watching in awe as they lit up the night?

The Firefly Effect will change how you discover and apply creativity within your team to get results. A lone firefly—like the lone genius—does not ignite the imagination of others. It takes the brilliant light of many, and the creative effort of the entire team, to truly spark innovation with impact.

You will learn about proven tools and techniques that have already generated qualitative and quantitative results for hundreds of teams in such companies as Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and AT&T. The use of the “firefly hunt” metaphor—as well as facts about these fascinating creatures—along with actual client examples will make the process easy to understand, to remember, and to achieve.

So what exactly is the Firefly Effect? Well, it is the behavior on display any time you see children chase fireflies. You might notice that:

• Few children chase fireflies alone. The excitement comes from the sharing of effort and results with others.

• Everyone is clear on what the goal is and enthusiasm remains high, because their target is so well understood and so simple.

• Each individual knows his or her task. No one needs—or wants—a dictating leader. Children do not criticize one another on a good firefly hunt. Everyone is clearly giving his or her best effort.

• The group eagerly seeks out new and better ways to get to realize a successful result.

• In the end, there is joy in what they accomplished together.

This, in essence, is the Firefly Effect. It is first about the individual, how every one of us can rediscover our unique and creative talents and best apply these to enhance the group’s experience.

Second, it is about the leader—how to be an almost invisible role model for inspiring others to do their best work.

Third, it is about the team—using their individual talents collectively to focus on the critical business challenges and opportunities, instead of focusing their attention inward on petty personal differences.

Finally, it is about the organization—having achieved powerful results as one team, then becoming a spark for the change that’s needed in other parts of the company so that you’re all ultimately working with a one-team mind-set. In the next post, we’ll clarify what is meant by creativity, and the scope of what we are undertaking here.

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