Do Charismatic Moderators Lead to More Successful Creativity Workshops? Results from an Experimental Study and an Online Survey

This study investigates the impact of charismatic moderation on idea generation and originality in creativity workshops. Eight workshops with 39 engineering students (4–6 per workshop team) were conducted under either charismatically delivered or neutral, less charismatic pre-recorded video instruction. While the average number of ideas produced did not differ significantly between conditions, the charismatically instructed groups showed more consistent idea generation with significantly fewer low-output endings. A jury of five international innovation experts additionally rated the ideas from the charismatically moderated workshops as significantly more original. Acoustic analyses of audio recordings made during the workshops revealed that participants in the charismatic conditions spoke more, paused less, and maintained higher speaking rates, indicating greater engagement. An accompanying online survey did not find strong overall effects of a charismatic instruction on self-assessed creativity traits, though item-level differences suggested a positive link between the moderator’s vocal charisma and the participants’ impulsivity linked to risk-taking. Moreover, the participants rated themselves at the item level more often as capable, intelligent, well mannered, reflective, sincere, and unconventional after having received a more charismatic instruction. These results suggest that charismatic speech can enhance group creativity by fostering participation, consistency, self-efficacy, and openness to original, higher-risk ideas. The findings have practical implications for managers and technology leaders, highlighting the importance of developing facilitation skills — including vocal delivery — to support innovation. Future research should explore live facilitation effects, interdisciplinary teams, cultural influences on creativity assessment, and the evolving role of moderators in hybrid human–AI ideation contexts.