5 Benefits to Everyday Creativity

Researchers say that creativity is your human superpower (well, almost).

Photo by Michelle Cassar on Unsplash

There is solid evidence that your team needs to embrace everyday creativity. Yes, even Karen in Accounting. Creativity is our essential human element. Like Aquaman’s water, Spider-Man’s venom, or Calvin’s Hobbes, Creativity gives you great powers.

So, you can be like a superhero, with amazing strength and courage to face the rapidly changing workplace. Okay, sure, you can wear tights, too.

Here are 5 proven benefits of using your everyday creativity:

1. Happiness
   Make a meal, or any other creative activity today. Tomorrow, you will have a higher Positive Affect (nerdy term for happiness). When you feel good, you do more creative things. It’s a magical loop of flourishing. Like an infinity donut (that sounds really, really delicious).
   Tamlin S. Conner, Colin G. DeYoung & Paul J. Silvia (2018) Everyday creative activity as a path to flourishing, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13:2, 181–189.
2. Employee Engagement
   Creative Teams who perceive themselves as having performed well on a creativity task will develop more team cohesion over time. Translation: Want better alignment at work? Do some creative stuff together, as a team.
   Rodríguez-Sánchez, A. M., Devloo, T., Rico, R., Salanova, M., & Anseel, F. (2016). What Makes Creative Teams Tick? Cohesion, Engagement, and Performance Across Creativity Tasks: A Three-Wave Study. Group & Organization Management, 42(4), 521–547.
3. Resilience
   Creativity boosts problem solving. Problem solving builds resilience and decreases stress. Lower stress makes people happier. There are more citations on this, one is listed below.
   Chee-Seng Tan, Soon-Aun Tan, Intan Hashimah Mohd Hashim, Mah-Ngee Lee, Anna Wen-Huey Ong & Siti nor Binti Yaacob (2019) Problem-Solving Ability and Stress Mediate the Relationship Between Creativity and Happiness, Creativity Research Journal, 31:1,15–25.
4. Productivity
   Happier employees are more productive (duh!). Creative Teams are also Happier. (See #1)
   Oswald, Andrew, Eugenio Proto, and Daniel Sgroi. “Happiness and Productivity.” Journal of Labor Economics 33.4 (2015): 789–822.
5. Tolerance of Ambiguity
   Creativity is linked to tolerance of ambiguity. Employees with a higher tolerance of ambiguity have better job performance, critical thinking skills, well-being, and complex problem solving skills. Companies benefit by having lower turnover and absenteeism, higher engagement and more effective leadership. Creative and ambiguity tolerant team? Yes, please!
   O’Connor, Peter, Becker, Karen, & Fewster, Kerryn (2018) Tolerance of ambiguity at work predicts leadership, job performance, and creativity. In Creating Uncertainty Conference 2018 Main content Creating uncertainty: Benefits for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations, 1–5 July 2018, Ascona, Switzerland.

How? Just do anything! Make a meal, knit, play the guitar, dance, make a sandcastle, decorate a cake. Do it together

(you can even find a creative way to play one guitar together, then send me the video!)

Do you need some help to jumpstart your team’s creativity without a bunch of fluff? Ask me about customized, engaging and interactive keynotes and workshops available for teams, especially ones who put the blah in blaze.
Also keep an eye out for updates on my upcoming book “The Reluctant Creative” with how-to ways to engage your everyday creativity.
You needed it yesterday, but I can help you find it today.
hello@carolinebrookfield.com