Research on creative projects has long highlighted the key role of micro-interactions for collective creativity. However, it has neither unpacked what goes on in micro-interactions nor connected their emotional dynamics with the generation and integration of new ideas. In this paper, we ask how micro-interactions among participants of a creative project shape the ideas generated and integrated into it. We draw upon a longitudinal qualitative case study of a creative project team tasked with finding innovative applications for a new technology. Our multi-method case study triangulates between participant observation, interview data and video recordings of all team meetings. We focused our data analysis on the video recording of a key meeting when the task was creatively re-framed, and an innovative solution was generated. Combining video-ethnography, conversation analysis and micro-sociology, we trace the second-by-second micro-interactions unfolding in the meeting, systematically coding the types of interaction patterns, the verbal, vocal and physical cues of emotional dynamics, and the generation and selection of new ideas. Our findings highlight a micro-interactional process of creative re-framing that we label ‘emotional scaffolding’ by which team members build a positive emotional mood while connecting existing and new ideas into a new solution. We contribute a comprehensive theoretical understanding -and a new methodology- that shows how emotional and cognitive aspects of social interaction intertwine and shape the generation and integration of new ideas in creative projects.
