If you work within an organization that values process and structure over innovation, then you may have an energy deficiency.
Just as we strive for balance in our daily lives, we need creative balance at work, too. The kind of creative balance that allows for new and different ways of thinking, internally or with customers.
When we’re empowered, creativity can fuel and engage us at work to strive for more. We not only want to influence our own lives, we strive to become influencers to benefit others. At least this is the case with the Millennial generation who volunteer more on average than GenX and Boomers.
In Charles Duhigg’s book, Smarter, Better, Faster, he cites a study on productivity conducted by the U.S. Marines. They concluded that the more individual influence the Marines had over their own destiny, the higher their engagement level. And engagement is a hot button these days, given the Gallup Poll that cites the need to reengage people at work to attract and retain their talent pool.
Another way of thinking about engagement is energy plus drive.
There can be chaos and messiness with creativity. And companies need to be comfortable with messiness before creating order, which may happen in big or small steps. Take Alphabet – the Google holding company, for example. Not only did they change their structure for a smarter reinvestment strategy (with $74.5B in cash), they did it to create the conditions for more innovative thinking, or “moonshots”, as cited in this Fast Co. article, – to constantly innovate and make magic with ideation. They had to break the old order to make space for the new way…
Of course, not all companies actively create the conditions for “moonshots.” So what can we do when we have something we cherish, a belief, a system, a tried and true idea, and we know it can be better? By keeping our energy high, and respecting others, we can inspire change one small step at a time. And eventually, small change turns into sweeping change, to hopefully better the world.