Born to Create: How Creativity Sparks Connection, Innovation, and Belonging in our New World of Work

by Anne Jacoby

don’t think work should define us. We are not our work, and our worth should not be solely derived by what we do. That said, our ability to lead creative lives can be significantly impacted by the harmony and balance among these four dimensions. For example, feeling free to be creative may improve if or when we feel more financially secure. And when we’re doing work that we enjoy and that others value, we may find greater success in it. All of this leads to an upward spiral of growth. We want to do more of it, which leads to better mastery of it, and therefore yields stronger financial benefit, and so on.

Dr. Roger Beaty’s research shows, to optimize for creativity, we want to engage multiple pathways of our neural networks.

Imagine challenging your team to each write a haiku at the start of your Zoom meeting to sum up what everyone’s working on for the week ahead. Forcing succinct clarity might reveal more than a rambling 10-minute update.

SCENE TWO SHOW NOTES Activate your imagination with detailed memories and descriptions of a future state. Gather different perspectives to discover new insights about a problem. Experiment, improvise, and get out of your comfort zone. Take your creative shot. Find your motivation and ikigai. Make time to be creative.

Create a lifestyle that supports your creative journey.

In Scene Two, we got a closer look at how details from memory and future vision can lead to more creativity in our present moment. This can help us better understand our purpose or ikigai and build the lifesty...

“I’d love to hear how that session landed with you,” I bravely queried. “Specifically, when we did the exercise about linking values to purpose, what did you like about it, and what could I have done differently?” I was specific in my ask. I requested something positive and something constructive.

Feedback may be (ironically) the biggest unspoken challenge facing our professional lives. How to strike the right tone, deliver messages through the right channels, and provide criticism that’s genuinely constructive takes a lot of social and emotional calculus. But by the same token, of all operations, feedback—and communication in general—has arguably the greatest impact on culture. No matter how awesome your team’s work is, or how much customers and clients gush about your company’s services, if those triumphs aren’t communicated to any and all interested parties, they might as well not have happened. Even mentioning feedback can have a high emotional charge for many of us. We might clam up, feel judged, and slip into defensive mode. We suddenly feel less than, even though subjective feedback from one person is likely not a universal truth. Still, it tends to feel that way. At the risk of coming across as a little woo-woo, we must first learn to seek out feedback from ourselves. What’s the feedback in our own body telling us about this experience or work? What feedback might we give someone else in a similar situation? These “Love Notes of Resistance” are a form of self-feedback that I’ve learned to heed.

Love Notes of Resistance Love Notes of Resistance can look like: Something feels off. Am I on the right track with this idea? Is there any business value in what I’m creating? A response to the Love Note might be: Hmm, I wonder why I’m not feeling connected to this work . . . What would it feel like to be on the right track? How can I get a fresh perspective on this idea, or whom can I ask for feedback? How might value from this idea show up in the business (e.g., happier employees or customers, more revenue, reduced cost, a differentiated product or service)?

The best way to overcome or respond to Love Notes of Resistance? Ask more questions. Be objectively curious. Then do the hard stuff first. A task you’re dreading? Tackle it first thing in your day. Eat the frog.

It clears the deck for more creative thinking.

Start with self-feedback. This allows us to recognize and celebrate our growth and reflect on where we’d like to continue to develop. Notice the moments in your work where you’re fully immersed and find your flow.

Seek out peer feedback. This can help raise awareness of our blind spots and identify our superpowers. We can learn how we’re showing up for others— what’s working, and what’s not. Rather than worry how our peers are evaluating our creative ideas, consider how they’re building on them, like the dialogue between Maria and Alice in Scene One. Do you take that feedback and adjust? How easy is it for you to evolve your creative idea to make it even better after getting peer feedback?

Be specific in asking for manager feedback. By taking more control over the areas where you’d value more guidance, you can boost your level of autonomy, owning your development. You may ask for concrete examples where your creative contributions are making an impact on the business. To limit the potential for overwhelm, ask for one area where you’re doing well and one place to grow and improve.

Connect feedback from work to other parts...

Effective feedback is: Delivered directly in real time. (Don’t wait for that year-end performance review!) Clear and accompanied by specific real-world examples. (“Hey, remember when you chimed in during our call yesterday to help with Sara’s project? I really liked how specific you were about ways you’ll contribute, and how you committed to a timeline for the next deliverable.”) Tailored to the recipient. (Know and adapt to your audience.) Shared with empathy, care, and thoughtfulness, in the spirit of making someone better. (Imagine sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with someone, rather than across the table from them.) Delivered in private when constructive. (Unlike the theatre world, it’s best to avoid giving critical notes in a public setting.) More frequently positive than constructive. (Research suggests high-performing teams receive six times more positive feedback than constructive feedback, and praise goes a long way with creative thinkers!) Contextualized within external and internal circumstances.

WHAT THE DATA ARE TELLING US Gathering and analyzing feedback often requires thinking like a scientist. And scientists rely on data.

Glenn’s research on neuroplasticity reveals how our brains are always changing based on what we feed them. For example, you practice gratitude and get more gratitude. You practice pessimism and get more pessimism. The same goes for creativity. If we value the act of being creative and want to lead a more creative life, we need to practice it and feed our minds. When we create that feedback loop with creativity, we get more of it.

Black Employees @ Netflix Animation,

Aaron’s help, she persisted in researching, refining, and developing an irresistible story called the Unlearn Series, an effort meant to highlight what must first be unlearned in order to create an environment of real inclusion and belonging.

DIALOGUE TO SET THE STAGE FOR A FEEDBACK CONVERSATION

LAKSHMI Yes! I really want to hear what you think. I know Section Two was a complete miss— JEREMY Wait. Why do you say that? LAKSHMI I don’t think it was customer-focused enough. And Section Three could be punchier... I just think— JEREMY Okay, hold up. I’m stopping you right there. I haven’t even shared any feedback yet and you’re already second-guessing yourself.

LAKSHMI You’re right, no, I just want it to be as good as it can be. JEREMY Me, too, Lakshmi. And it’ll get there. (pauses) I’m going to share two specific pieces of feedback today. The first is what I think is working really well in the proposal—where I wouldn’t change a thing. And the second is where I think you have room to push the boundaries a bit. How does that sound for the rest of our chat? LAKSHMI That would be great. JEREMY As I share this feedback, do your best to take it all in, and jot down any clarifying questions you might have. At the end, I’d love to hear what lands with you and where you might even push back. Who knows, maybe I got something wrong. Or maybe you can refine things just a smidge, which would shift my perspective. But I’d love to see you take the feedback I share and do a second pass of the proposal. We can then regroup after that. Is that all okay by you? LAKSHMI Absolutely. Let’s get started. (END OF SCENE)

Consider the following phased workflow:

Love Notes of Resistance Does this idea connect with my audience?

Am I getting my point across and is it valid? Is there a clearer or more memorable way to communicate this message?

FOR YOUR TOOL KIT: REFLECTION TREE EXERCISE

Feedback is about perspective and reflection. We can take it in, learn from it, and move on from what doesn’t serve us.

SCENE THREE SHOW NOTES Love Notes of Resistance can indicate where we might want to pause or gather feedback.

Feedback is merely a perspective that can come from many inputs: ourselves, peers, managers, or what the data are telling us. Take the note, incorporate what’s helpful, and then move on—don’t take feedback too personally. Imposter syndrome can keep us from being open to feedback to shine; the antidote is to assume the role and play the part. Beware the Creativity Killers that might be blocking your creative expression. Dropping in to follow our passion is a form of self-feedback.

In Scene Three, we dove into the sensitive process of giving and receiving feedback. We can now recognize that gathering feedback (even from ourselves!) is part of the creative process. By seeking it ou...

recognized that creative leadership enabled—even demanded—employees to bring their best ideas to work. These leaders designed spaces and time for people to play, connect, experiment, and fail together, all

with the goal of discovering new, better ways of building and delivering their products and services. Creative leaders value each person’s unique perspective and humanness. They bring out the best in their people, and in return, their employees just seem more satisfied with their work and lives. Creative leadership is what lit a spark within me; I knew it had the power to change the lives of many more. I just had to figure out how.

We’ll address the great need for psychological safety and providing the optimal environments for more creative thinking at work.

Creative leadership makes space for the intuition that may reveal your team member is ready for the next creative challenge.

“My job is not to have the best idea in the room at any given time, but to identify the best idea.” —Thomas Kail, director, Hamilton and In the Heights

“Running a theatre company and being a freelance director is basically being an entrepreneur,” Tommy said. “I go in and launch start-up companies. If I do my job well, then they can exist without me; if I have to be there for them to succeed, then I’ve failed. But my job is to take a group of people whom I’ve never met, unify them, and see if I can create an environment where they can do their work once I’m gone.”

“One of the things I try to dismantle, show by show, is that great art comes from great pain,” Tommy said. “Or that you need acrimony or this cauldron of intensity colored by some of the darker arts to make something. I think that’s completely mythologized. Safety is the number-one thing I try to provide. An environment that is devoid of acrimony and tension.”

Love Notes of Resistance “I feel like I should have a more sophisticated work process developed by now—I’m going to fail because I’m not further along.” Remind yourself: I don’t need to be on Day 7 or 8. Today, I’ll work on making Day 3 as good as it can be. I’ll reflect on what I learn. I’ll plan ahead but enjoy the creative process of building today.

A maybe might reveal a blind spot—and you, the creative leader, can start to provide more visibility. You can hold up the mirrors.

a good ensemble cast shines onstage in a way that just can’t be faked. There is a trust and openness that radiates right out into the audience.

Dr. Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School professor and author of Fearless Organizations, has helped raise awareness of the importance of this dynamic. She shares that beyond trust, which is more of a person-to-person relationship dynamic, psychological safety is a dynamic found across the entire team. It’s what makes you feel okay about asking a seemingly silly question in front of your peers, being fully yourself with your teammates, and even feeling okay about challenging the team strategy and approaches in a respectful way.2

psychologically safe cultures invite debate.

Psychological safety is more than just trust; it’s a sense of being safe to take risks without the fear of embarrassment.

This has an obvious application in the theatre world—

It all comes down to a shared sense of purpose, and that shared sense of purpose starts with storytelling.

They often see things that others cannot. They are master connectors and reconnectors—of people, of information, of insights. They believe in the possibility of overcoming obstacles when many others don’t. Creating that culture of possibility is up to everyone, but the leader sets the tone.

“Manny Azenberg would say something like this: ‘When you start to get known and win Tonys, you tell the same jokes, folks just laugh harder.’ When you have some success, people start to listen more deeply. They’re a little more attentive,” Tommy shared. “The fact that you have people’s attention asks for a large measure of accountability. I have a responsibility not to take advantage of others if I’m put in a leadership position.” Leaders are often in the unique position to either be the gatekeeper or the gateway to creativity. They can go along with the status quo or champion necessary change—sometimes facing strong headwinds. Big creative ideas require a leader to bravely step up, even when it’s difficult.

Responsibility is caring

Once comprised of three compliance professionals, Jen’s team has quickly expanded, adding 26 individuals in 2022 alone. It was her creative leadership that spawned Activision’s first companywide employee program called the Way2Play Heroes—a peer-nominated group of colleagues across all business units, championing ethics everywhere in the world they do business.

“I knew it had to be a grassroots effort,” she told me, reflecting on the early stages of her Way2Play Heroes program vision.