Creativity and productivity
A thought-provoking article by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and colleagues about creativity in the business world. The empirical study of creativity has been going for nearly 60 years now and has done a lot to demystify a concept that many people still shroud in an aura of "specialness." Anyone can be creative in some fashion, and there are situations (this is what b-school profs are interested in) that can help, or hinder, creativity. From the article:
Previous laboratory studies have demonstrated the causal relationship between emotion and creativity. Amabile's research in a real-world setting bears this out, with positive emotion tied to higher creativity and negative feelings linked to lower motivation and creativity ... The diary findings also showed a positive carry-over effect in creativity and productivity, one day and even two days after a worker reported being in a good mood.So what can managers and entrepreneurs do to promote a healthy, positive inner work life among employees? A pat on the back or a company Ping-Pong table is always welcome, but what Amabile and Kramer discovered was much simpler: People have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.
"Big breakthroughs are great, but we found that even incremental progress evokes a powerfully positive inner work life," Amabile notes.
Think back to our discussion about procrastination, and the various ways commenters spoke about the positive aspects of procrastination. I wonder if that isn't part of it--generally, we don't procrastinate by doing nothing, but by doing something other than that which we "should" do. Maybe the substitute activity sort of warms up our mental muscles and makes us feel that we have a couple of "wins" under our belt, so that when we do finally tackle the big project, we're emotionally bolstered to do so.
Comment
Permalink
E-mail
Who is Miss Conduct?
Robin Abrahams writes the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine. Robin, who has a PhD in psychology from Boston University, has worked as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which are given annually for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
