The End of Creative Thought
We choose between fakery and creative thought.
Organizations where everyone “has it all together” are sick. When you maintain the illusion of competence you, propagate fakery, inflame stress, dilute relationships, and end creativity.
One benefit of authenticity is creativity.
Fakers:
Fakers focus brainpower on preserving image. There’s little brainpower left for creativity. I’ve noticed this during live coaching demos.
I often invite an audience member to be coached during presentations I give. I notice indications of thought in people who are confident enough to be themselves. After I ask a question, authentic leaders lean back and look at the ceiling. Some look down. Occasionally they sigh. (All indications of thought.)
One thing fakers never do is pause and look at the ceiling. A faker’s brainpower is spent on protection, not reflection.
Fakery drains creativity.
Conspiracy of silence:
No one really believes the baloney that you have it all together. They don’t confront you because they don’t want to expose themselves.
It’s normal to hide weaknesses and flaunt strengths. During job interviews, for example, you’re taught to say, “I’m a bit of a work-a-holic,” when asked about weaknesses. It’s bull crap.
The deepest danger of fakery is coming to believe your own lies.
Protecting the appearance of having it all together results in falling apart.
Authentic expectation:
Let others know you don’t have it all together. Expect others to acknowledge inadequacy and incompetence. The facade of competence prolongs incompetence.
Authentic leaders say:
- I used to be satisfied with my job.
- I feel like I’m missing something.
- How would you handle this?
- I don’t know?
- What are some options?
- I’m not good at….
- I wonder how best to handle this?
Owning inadequacies is justified by creative thought.
How might leaders create environments where authenticity prevails?
I never thought of how faking it limits creativity. Thank you.
Thanks Kathy. Here’s to deeper levels of creativity.
Maybe, if you fake that you are creative, it will force you to think differently. TOO many people seem to continue to think the same things, thinking that they are thinking but not thinking that they are then not thinking of things creative. Thinking you are thinking you are creative might make you think of something creative. Ya think? (grin)
Simply put, I sure wish the existing status quo in organizations would change in a positive direction. I started blogging about Presenteeism, kind of the opposite of absenteeism but with the person still not attending to the workplace; another way to phrase it is, “Being In, while they are being out.”
Maybe if they could fake that they are being an attentive, creative, collaborative and contributing member of the organization, they might do something differently. Stats say that 50% of the employees are demonstrating Presenteeism. My guess is that it is also the same number within the management teams.
Think Different.
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I think it takes a tremendous measure of humility and courage for a leader to foster this kind of culture on their team. Great post – thanks!
Thanks Jim. I think you’re right. It’s interesting that courage and humility go together.
The toughest times in the classroom for me were when the students were too ready to have me lay out for them ‘everything they needed to know about the current topic to be successful.’ Early on in my career, I must say that my use of the lecture format (as my professors did) certainly reinforced this expectation.
The best of times (fairly routine as I understood the importance of Effective Learning better) were when the students were engaged in their learning / in our classroom efforts. I loved it, as did most of the students (always some holding out for my providing the magic success formula), when we were exploring / learning together.
As an aside, textbooks are loaded with “You can show …”, “With some work, …”, or “This means …” statements. I always attributed them to editors and publishers keeping the page count down – but was never sure. While I’d skip using textbooks if I were still in the classroom, I’d still seek classroom discussions similar to these; I did use them in the classroom and on exams!
Thanks John. You’re hitting an important challenge we all face. We’re looking for the magic formula, secret key, or simple strategy to solve everything. As you indicate, it’s misspent energy.
The secrets include openness, curiosity, creativity, try, adapt, and, most importantly, just do the work. 🙂
Where I work, we promote authenticity and try very hard to create an environment within our discipline (Business Analysis) where we can be authentic. It’s a wonderful thing. Some folks can embrace it more than others, but we all recognized, I believe, that each of us is in a different segment of our journey. To really be authentic is to be incredibly brave. Most work cultures beat that out of you. I’m so lucky to have a workplace and work group where that is fostered and nurtured.
How can we work to foster authenticity in the management tiers above us? I get the feeling that exemplification of authenticity does not mean that the people observing it will necessarily go along with it. If a boss doesn’t “do” authentic, can being authentic with your boss even work?
Thanks Lisa. Cultural factors – encouraging authenticity, for example – are instituted primarily from the top down. Brave mid-managers can foster authentic-safe environments with people on their teams and front-line workers. But, it’s pretty difficult to influence those above in these situations.
We have the most influence with those around and below us. Perhaps, if you get enough people on board, upper leadership will catch on.
Great post, Dan. When we’re busy protecting ourselves and our image, we end up closing ourselves off to the possibility of change or new ideas. Of course, the challenge is creating a culture where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable…to open themselves to not-knowing. Not always easy, but definitely worth pursuing!
Hi Dan,
I really like this post. It makes me think of why a person would be protective, give a fake response, and not allow themselves to be true.
I imagine that person was most likely ridiculed a few times for sharing what was thought to be a creative idea a few times in the past. So gauges their audience before allowing themselves to open up.
To me, its not a weakness, but a fear to protect ones self. The weakness is not allowing others to free their minds which creates the reserved, fake response.
Perhaps, I’m thinking to much about it. Put yourself in the fakers shoes, and ask why.
Darrin