Cultivating Creative Passion At Work

Came across this interesting post today by Adrain Furnham.

 In the post, Adrian questions whether creativity workshops really work in the ’stess industry’.

“For management consultants the stress industry is a nice little earner. Everyone in IT likes to believe that they are acutely, chronically, unfairly and uniquely stressed at work. Further they are certain that all stress “comes from the outside”: that it is caused by others, usually control-freak, demanding and unreasonable bosses.

Seminars on stress are hard work. There is a lot of what Americans call “negative affectivity” as well as depression, fatalism and the like. Indeed it becomes stressful for the stress consultants.

There is another more attractive and fun way to earn your daily dollar and that is running creativity workshops. In that evidence-free environment beloved of trainers, people are told that everyone is creative and that they can be taught quite simply to explore and exploit their talents.”

Being a creative, a creative practitioner and a part-time creativity trainer, I agree with Adrian. But the problem, I believe, is not with creativity trainers but with the organisations themselves.

Besides delivering deliverables and meeting deadlines, one of the biggest expectations from employees in the 21st century workplace is to be ‘more creative’.

Now what does that mean? Many would think that employees are expected to write ads, make radio jingles, produce power presentations in flash? Fill out forms in fluorescent inks? Design their own motivational posters?

No. Not at all!

What the management is looking for is for employees to approach common work practises in new ways. Making processes. Figuring out how to streamline operations. Even listening to customers. And maybe thinking of new products and features that meet his expectations. It also means means thinking out of the box, thinking the unconventional, which might sound ridiculous, but could possibly change the way business is done.

But what do organisations do about this, besides demanding creativity from their employees.

Do companies give employees the creative freedom? Do they allow employees to screw up and if they do, give them a pat on their back for crossing over the proverbial ’stepping stone’? Do they give employees a ‘creativity allowance’ to expand their horizons? Do they give employees enough opportunities to think out of the box?

Of course, not!

The most that companies would do, is hire a creativity trainer. So, we’re back to square one.

Is that enough? Not really I would say so, because if you give your employees the ‘theory’ but no practical environment to bloom in, the results could be disastrous.

No doubt that there are tons of employees who say that this is NOT their job and would be shaking their heads wondering how to cope with this ‘creative’ expectation. Mainly because, so many employees have been in such restrictive environments for so long, doing ‘operational’ work, that coming up with alternative (read creative) thoughts can be a little frightening and intimidating.

Great! So, creativity trainers are hired. Workshops are help. The creative juices need to flow. Can that be done overnight?

No way!

Creativity is a process that needs to be honed over days, months, years and lifetimes. So, the best way to start is by giving your employees time, freedom, opportunity and above all, a creative culture.

Here’s some small things that companies should do to help kickstart a creative environment.

1. Encourage employees to leave their workstations:
In fact, encourage them to leave their workplace for a quick stroll in the park, or a provide them with a chance to play a quick game of pool. Or simply have lunch ‘outside’ the office. Sitting at the desk endlessly can suffocate their creativity — because of the same colleagues, same walls, same environment, same coffee cups, same screensaver. Having the feeling of freedom helps them see a bigger world. Much bigger than the workplace. Sometimes, the best of solutions are born when you take your mind off the problems. DO NOT make a note of what time they leave office or come back after lunch.

2. Encourage them to have a hobby:
Provide opportunities to employees to broaden their horizons. Intranets, newsletters, common-interest groups, picnics, movie-outs, play reading groups are good means for this. The idea is to not only think, but live out of the box.

3. Give them rest:
Don’t be a slave driver. Let employees sleep at a reasonable hour every night. Or for a reasonable number of hours. While in office, it’s ok to have them sit back in their chairs and take a short 15 minute nap. Come on, you just cant think creatively when you’re pooped.

4. Give them the freedom to fail:
No idea is a good idea unless it’s not attempted. Same goes for a bad idea. Unless you don’t attempt it, you’ll never know if it’s bad. The point is to try. And if it doesn’t work, well, it doesn’t work. But they would have learnt something in the process. Let their imagination fly.

So, any employer would now say, “if I let them leave their workstations, go to movies, take a nap in office and allow them to fail, how will I even get any work out”.

Agreed. By doing all of the above, there surely seems to be no time for work. But with these practises, what you would creating are passionate people.

People who have the freedom to be themselves.

People who would be thinking of world-changing ideas while strolling in the park.

People who would be thinking out of the box during a game of pool.

People who would be catching up on sleep and be waiting for the night to end so they can get back to doing some great work, the next morning.

People who would know that one doesn’t fail forever… success is round the corner.

People who would be passionate.

When you have the passion, no task is tough, no building tall, no mountain tiring and no ocean big enough. When you have passionate poeple, you wont have to get work out. It’ll come out on its own.

~ Arun Verma

p.s. If you are an employee, and your employer wants you to be creative but brings none of the above into practise, read this article by Josi Lynn Keyser.