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

by Anne Jacoby

fostering an ethical, speak-up culture is table stakes for Activision Blizzard. Without it, talent suffers. Work product suffers. It risks not only reputational damage, but also the lost trust across the workforce that thriving organizations work so hard to engender.

Creativity in the workplace is nearly impossible without a sense of safety, trust, and openness. But it flourishes when there’s respectful connection among colleagues.

creativity—it enhances it.

One creative leader’s idea may start small, but it has the capacity to inspire meaningful, transformational change.

Jen has helped me realize how creative leadership calls us to show up as unapologetically human. It’s a combination of authenticity and trust, but also grit, ingenuity, and tenacity. To a creative leader, a no may land more like not yet. After all, they can see what others cannot.

TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP CREATIVE LEADERSHIP I am focused on efficiency across the team, making sure everyone is productive. I am focused on psychological safety across the team, making sure everyone belongs. When my team completes an initiative, we quickly move on to the next priority. When my team completes an initiative, we take time to reflect and integrate learning.

I activate my imagination in specific tasks, but it’s not explicitly discussed. I dedicate time for our team to activate our imaginations to continuously improve. My team’s North Star and values are typically discussed about once per year. My team’s North Star and values are integrated into the flow of work, regularly discussed in work projects and feedback conversations. I rely heavily on what’s worked in the past to determine my go-forward strategy. I rely heavily on experimentation to determine my go-forward strategy. Innovative ideas are typically owned by a particular department or person. Innovative ideas are shared and woven into my team’s core operating rhythm. I gather feedback on a quarterly, semiannual, or annual basis. I gather feedback on a continuous basis. I rely on traditional office workspaces to foster creativity. I consider and curate my team’s physical work environment to foster creativity. Creative output (if implemented at the company) is what’s rewarded and celebrated. The creative process, as well as the output, is rewarded and celebrated. When a misstep occurs, my focus is on negative consequences and not repeating mistakes. When a misstep occurs, my focus is on curiosity and learning. When faced with a business problem, I seek out expert guidance. When faced with a business problem, I seek multiple perspectives at all levels. I typically follow a specific defined process to get things done at my organization. I typically consider the best path to ...

means going outside of the defined process. After I build a vision, I hold others accountable to execute the plan. After I co-create a vision with my team, I empower the team to play t...

Consider the leadership style you currently adopt in each row. Next, consider what changes you could make to shift your leadership style to foster more creative thinking and behaviors, and whether that creative leadership style could better serve you, your team, or your organization. Remember, context is everything! Not all creative leadership techniques may apply or serve you in your situation. Finally, think about using this framework as a conversation starter for an upcoming team meeting or a 1:1 with someone you lead.

SCENE FOUR SHOW NOTES Creative leadership starts with a mindset of believing in your team’s limitless potential to be creative. Building trust and psychological safety is the foundation to a creative team. Belonging at work leads to greater work satisfaction, including the social permission to create, experiment, and be imperfect. Creative leadership requires tone at the top.

Creativity in times of crisis is often born out of necessity.

Creative leadership isn’t about holding tight to what you think it should be. It’s about offering choice,

designing exceptional employee experiences, and letting go. It’s both push and pull. A creative leader knows that spaces can inspire the freedom to create, but they can also hamper it. We now live in a new era of work. My beliefs about the team culture benefits of working together in a shared office have shifted by living through the personal trade-offs that it often requires. With the right creative leadership, remote teams can still achieve thriving, innovative cultures. It might just look a little different.

We’ve embraced tools like Jam Board, Miro, and Google Docs as digital collaboration spaces. And (if we’re lucky), we now recognize that team belonging is not one-size-fits-all. It’s not as simple as putting a ping-pong table in the room and beer on tap. People want different experiences from work, likely at different phases of their careers and lives. We’re still

motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose, but those elements may be obtained differently today. Perhaps most important is recognizing we can’t go back to what was. Now is the time to look forward, rethink, and rebuild the experience of what work can be.

Creative leadership calls us to listen to the

stories of your team members, get curious about what environments help them to co-create and collaborate, and continuously ask, “How can we do even better?” so that all can thrive.

Finally, since we know belonging at work leads to higher levels of work satisfaction and engagement, you might be examining how to practice more inclusive behaviors. What signals (even if unconscious) might be contributing to your team’s unbelonging?

reinforcing the collective vision of your team

The creative leader doesn’t miss this opportunity to curate a unique shared experience.

LILY What did you enjoy most about our offsite this week? BEN Finally connecting in person has been amazing. Since we all work together on Zoom, it’s like we wake up and

start a video game together—you miss the casual in-person moments of talking through your day and sharing the hard stuff that happens. SHEILA I’m with you, Ben. These moments to just learn more about each other have been incredible. The funny thing is, I feel closer to my team now than I did at my prior company where we all worked in the same space. Here, whenever we connect—even virtually—it’s intentional. But I do love this time when we can be together. KATE Maybe when we all go back to our virtual spaces, we can do more of that informal connecting.

“I sat down with Biz Stone,” Kim told me, “and he gave me a big speech about why it’s useful to hire theatre people into tech. ‘They’re resilient and creative and think outside the box. At the end of the day, it’s about delivering the show. You need to collaborate and rely on other people in the community. Theatre people know how to navigate different personalities and work under pressure.’ That blew my mind.”

BEWARE THE CREATIVITY GATEKEEPER

Creativity belongs to all of us, and as a creative leader, your job is to enable it for everyone, with the right guardrails. CREATIVITY KILLERS: “We’ll leave the creative ideas to x team.” “Let’s save all of our creative thinking for our team building event.” “Let’s go with what’s been done before since we know it works.”

Recognize and celebrate the creative process, not just the creative product.

FOR YOUR TOOL KIT: TEAM SURVEY— WHAT DO YOU VALUE?

templates and exercises I provide here, you can tailor the tone, specific language, and survey details to your team environment. Greetings, team! We’re conducting a short survey to better understand your work environment preferences and how you rank specific benefits at work. Although we likely won’t be able to accommodate all requests that are made, your input will help us continue to create and refine our team’s working experience together.

SCENE FIVE SHOW NOTES Create an office like a set designer. Creative environments require awareness of the physical space and commitment to psychological safety. Offer choice. With creative leadership, you can listen to what your employees value and build a strong culture across multiple team structures. Embrace the nonlinear workday. Find processes that support both synchronous and asynchronous work experiences. Spot creativity gatekeepers and consider how to mitigate the risk of Creativity Killers. Let go of the image of perfection; instead, embrace a growth mindset and commit to learning to foster more creativity.

In your work, you may be leading a team comprised of people with different strengths, backgrounds, and work styles. As you struggle to find the perfect blend of voices to execute your organizational vision and mission, thorny work obstacles crop up that you never expected. Perhaps your team goal has been sabotaged by circumstances beyond

your control (hello, pandemic or recession). Even facing these unforeseen obstacles, your job is to tap into the potential of each individual while elevating creativity across the team.

being a conductor helps strengthen your organization’s creativity culture. You may find yourself leading a team full of individual superstars, but if they struggle to play off and support each other to blend their individual voices, those lofty objectives are doomed to fail. The creative leader can spot the unique needs across the team and coalesce them around a shared purpose. Your collaborative teamwork becomes the music, the soundtrack to your company’s journey.

Then you can jam.

turn off the rumination about other aspects of life has been liberating.