FREE…

Humans are most innovative and creative when they are experiencing positive emotions.  They just are.  The reason that America has been so creative, for so many years is due, in large part, to one simple fact.  We are…

FREE.

It’s really hard to feel positive when you lack freedom.

As you face your fears and lead your teams through this seemingly downtrodden economy, do not forget to find the fun.  Do NOT simply remind the team that now it is “do or die” time so they better get busy fixing problems, finding revenue, and innovating new stuff along the way.  Instead, find “the bright spots.”  

Find something small that is working well somewhere, some of the time, in your system of work.  AND, shine a bright light there.  

Find the bright spot.

You have been wired to focus on the negative and obsess about problem solving your way forward.  This may work for LOST survivors, but it doesn’t work for most people, most of the time.  The fact is that very few situations require “do or die” thinking, analysis, and action.  Moving on.

Positive emotions are the key to creativity and they need to see the light to turn up.  Emotions, you see, are contagious.  

Turning the tide at your place of work is NOT about fixing all your companies problems and fixing them more perfectly than your competitors.  Turning the tide is mostly tipped by something small, something bright, something positive, and something surprising.  

Study your system.  Find something that is going well.  Expose it to the light so that everyone sees it with crystal clarity.  Ask the team to try to “clone” the cause.  Recognize another small something that is going well.  Rinse and repeat.

The tide will turn.

Innovation comes from free people, having fun, and stumbling into more of the same.  Stop obsessing and giving all your attention to fixing problems.  Transformational leaders lead us out of our current state, toward our dream state, one productive action at a time.  They do this by getting us to see something positive, feel hopeful, and we respond by helping them find the way.  Very cool.

What is something small, in your work, that is going well?

How can you shine a bright light on it and clone it’s cause?

Done so.