FEAR AND CREATIVITY
Fear is big. It's bigger than we could have imagined.
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FEAR AND CREATIVITY
Creativity is the biggest casualty of workplace fear
Fear squashes creativity and big picture thinking.
Creative thinking suffers when individuals feel fear. Thinking outside of the box becomes harder when you’re too focused on giving perfectly correct solutions. Creative thinking around a problem is often stunted by conjuring up all of the reasons a solution might not work, or fear of judgement from peers.
But creative ceremonies themselves aren’t the scary part.
Workshops and ideation sessions don’t trigger fear in their own right, the fear comes from what sits around them; being judged for ideas or having dominant leadership in the room.
What causes you a sense of dread or discomfort in your professional life?
![Biggest causes of dread: Giving presentations (32%), resolving conflicts (29%), Attending or speaking in meetings (26%), General day to day work (19%), Running workshops (19%)](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f749f87c8eff64705bd1cbe/60002805dbb99db523cfdcdc_creativity%20new%20dv.png)
Creativity is the area that sees the biggest negative impact from fear. Building an environment of psychological safety in which employees feel able to share ideas is critical to removing it as a blocker.
Next, we shine a spotlight on, well, the spotlight itself...