Workplace Creativity Articles

When we say someone is “making it up as he goes,” we are usually criticizing them. But without making it up, nothing new would be created. We would only do what is proven. It would prevent growth. When your next step isn’t following someone who has gone before you,...

In a Forbes interview, author Robert Kegan said, “Let’s be blunt: In the ordinary organization nearly everyone is doing a second job no one is paying them for — namely, hiding their weaknesses, looking good, covering their rear ends, managing other people’s favorable...

As a beginner, it is a fine idea to copy from someone else.Try a Bob Ross tutorial.Follow a recipe.Play a cover song. Eventually, as you grow and learn, you can reinterpret. Modify the landscape.Try new ingredients.Add your own riff. Eventually, you’re creating...

Creativity doesn’t thrive in chaos. It’s OK to have a messy desk or a menagerie of post-its. But some structure will help you focus on what is important. Your creativity will suffer if you’re distracted wondering if you paid the bills or forgot a deadline. Doing...

In mathematics, an asymptote is a fixed line a curve approaches but never touches. This is how many of us pursue our dreams. We want to write a book or a screenplay. We have a great idea for a business or a product. We want to try a new career. We work on a...

What if our view of potential is all wrong? What if it’s not about arriving at our potential, but it’s about our potential pulling us? Once we reach it, we realize there is more we can do, which creates a new potential. It’s like reaching a mountaintop only to...

Individual habits (like running) are great. This is where change starts. If we want to create a change that spreads, we have to address culture. “Culture” seems like a big, shapeless word sometimes. In reality, culture is a group’s habits.  Group behavior over...

Don’t worry about telling people they’re wrong about you. Prove it instead. Be stubborn in your creativity. Not expecting affirmation to come quickly. Use that determination to fuel a slow burn, until you become too hot to ignore.

One of the lies that hold us back is believing people will see what we’re doing and will criticize us, ridicule us, and/or kick us out of the tribe.  In 2000, researchers at Cornell University ran an experiment where a random student was selected to wear an...