Words for the Workplace: A Deep Dive into Emotional Communication at Work - Day 2 - Creativity

Emotions are both the spark that fires the engine of creativity and the fuel that keeps the fire burning when other people try to douse it out. Zorana Pringle. Talking about emotions can bring up a lot of emotions, and broaching the subject in the workplace can add another layer of complexity to the conversation, but it doesn't have to be that way. This mini-series covers five words or word categories that we can start to bring into the workplace and help communicate our emotions in more specific and helpful terms. Hello and welcome. To Connect the Dots, lead the Way. I'm your host, heather Ball-Saric. I'm a white female with short, star-brown hair. I have on tortoise-shelled glasses and a blue shirt that says Be Kind. I'm sitting in front of a teal wall with multiple pieces of art displayed. Welcome back. It's day two of our five-day mini-series, and today's word category is around creativity. The quote I opened the podcast with came from Permission to Feel by Mark Brekitt, and the paragraph continues on to say emotions rule the whole creative process, from motivating creative work to idea generations, to persisting towards the actualization of our own ideas. It's the challenge that keeps us striving. But what does our vocabulary around creativity have to do with the workplace? Why do we need other words, to talk about that. So creative work and thought are not just reserved for artists or designers. Each one of us brings our own version of creativity to our work. And to just say, you know, well, I'm creative, I mean, that's just to me, that's you're just phoning it in at that point, that creative and let me say I phoned that in that was the first two of it. So because when I was thinking about this, I kept going back to interviewing with different companies and they want someone to come in and create innovative solutions for them. But creating isn't the same for everyone. It's. We need to be able to explain how we work towards creating these elusive innovations, or the process by which we can take someone through, you know, through this creative process to get this innovation. So creativity starts with curiosity, which can be fueled by awe and wonder and even a little confusion. These are all emotions that Brené Brown talks about in the section places we go when it's beyond us. That's a section in Alice of the Heart. I really love the way that she describes these emotions. She wrote Researchers have found that awe leads people to cooperate, share resources and sacrifice for others, which causes them to fully appreciate the value of others and see themselves more accurately, evoking humility. Now I'm going to pause right there, because when we think about creativity in the workplace and we just talked about awe, right, all leads people to cooperate, share resources and sacrifice for others Leads people to cooperate. Wow like yes, that needs to happen in the workplace, right Like. So see, we're gonna pull all this together here in just a few minutes, so let's move on to next one, cause I got some more. So Brene shared how researchers Weigher and Wegman explain awe and wonder. They write wonder inspires the wish to understand. Awe inspires the wish to let shine, to acknowledge and to unite. When feeling awe, we tend to simply stand back and observe, to provide a stage for the phenomenon to shine. Wonder fuels our passion for exploration and learning, for curiosity and adventure. I mean just, there's a fantastic illustration in the book of somebody. When you think about awe, right, looking at the stars, right, being in awe, simply standing back to observe, but wonder, the illustration here is someone who sees a butterfly and they get curious and so they start to follow the butterfly. Right, it's curiosity, it's adventure. They wanna explore that and learn more about them. And I mentioned a little confusion, right, being in the mix here as well, and Brene wrote. It turns out that confusion, like many uncomfortable things in life, is vital for learning, and comfortable learning environments rarely lead to deep learning. So not knowing all the answers or having to ask some questions, right, that can help lead to more creativity. When this is where curiosity starts to come into the picture, and Brene's definition of curiosity is recognizing a gap in our knowledge or something that interests us, or becoming emotionally and cognitively invested in closing the gap through exploration and learning. See, those words also appeared in wonder. Are we starting to make some connections here? And because I know I just I did. I just gave you a lot of definitions, so I certainly don't wanna just be like all right, have a great day. Let's kinda go back to that original question why do we need other words to talk about creativity, especially in the workplace, when you're looking to bring innovation into your role? Right, when we're trying to do this? It is not an on-demand streaming service. You don't just, you know, you don't just go find the app and click on it and go, oh yeah, I want, let me scroll, scroll, yeah, that innovation today, that's what I want. It's not a on-demand thing. But if you start with awe and wonder right the awe and wonder of what could be right, what could be developed to solve this problem, you can then use your creativity, or, sorry, you can use your curiosity to help iron out any confusion that you're experiencing and this leads to learning and creating those new innovative solutions. That was a really oversimplified version of how to put these things together, but the point is knowing the emotions and naming them help you lead by example. When you are called upon to quote unquote be creative. I'd love to know what fuels your creativity, what sparks your sense of awe and wonder, what are some of the things that you would use to kind of describe your creative path to innovative solutions? I'd love to hear some of that. Head over to my sub-stack. The link is down in the description. I'd love for you to come into the conversation over there. Please make sure that you check out the links in the description to learn more about Mark Brackett's book Permission to Feel and Brené Brown's book Atlas of the Heart. I'll be back again tomorrow with more words for the workplace and until then, remember that you are loved, you are worthy and there are great things ahead for you in this life if you trust and believe in the Lord. Bye.