Creative People Think they are Creative
A major oil company finally realised that what would give them a comprehensive edge was the creativity of their people rather than the technology they used. Their technology, after all, could be and was being duplicated by their competitors. This company hired a team of psychologists to find out the difference between the creative engineers and the less creative ones. They hoped that once they knew what distinguished the creatives from the non-creatives they could teach all their engineers the “secrets” to being creative. The psychologists spent three months in the company with a battery of questions, observing the engineers at work and asking them questions.The chief difference they found between the two groups surprised everyone. It was very simple: the creative people thought they were creative and the less creative people did not think they were creative.
I have read this anecdote/study in multiple books, the most recent being ... A Whack on the Side of the Head : How You Can Be More Creative by Roger von Oech.