Don't fear your peers! Encouraging creativity in the workplace

There's too much fear in the workplace. Fear of failure. Fear of reprisal. Fear of looking the fool or saying something stupid. This is unfortunate because fear kills creativity. And if you want your business to succeed, creativity is vital.

Like most fears – fear of hurtling metal and poisonous snakes excluded – this fear of your peers is all in your head. The hesitation you feel that stops you from opening your mouth and contributing your thoughts is your internal dialogue playing tricks with you. For some, the voice in your head telling you not to speak up is deafening. Distracting. A crushing anxiety. Your brains ability to simulate a situation before it happens often amplifies the potential for a negative outcome, suppressing your confidence and crippling your resolve.

Dan Gilbert talks more on the role of the pre-frontal cortex in this process here...

The irony here is that the more you practise contributing your ideas and participating in conversations, the better you get at making them up in the first place. Your ability to develop creative thoughts as well as your ability to articulate your ideas gets better the more you do it. So if you keep on trying, you end up having nothing to be afraid of in the first place. Everything you say will be spun gold.

James Altucher is an ideas machine. And you can be one too...

But the onus isn't all on you. The environment in which you work has to be safe and supportive in order to encourage these little leaps of faith. People need to be given the time and patience to explore ideas. To be creative. To make mistakes and learn from them.

When done right, these two ingredients working together can help to nurture a vibrant, creative and engaged team, ready to tackle any challenge with energy and originality.

~ Thanks for the image dally sunny via Flickr