Creative Success or Failure—You Choose!
What I found very meaningful about Forbes’ article is how it heightens our
awareness about how our mood and how the moods and emotions of others around us can
impact task and job performance. How decision-making can be severely impacted by
our mood and by those around us. In addition, the professor explains how all
forms of leadership can be negatively impacted by even one person’s mood. The
most significant element in this information in regards to brainstorming is how
we need to be very aware of positive and negative moods, emotions and attitudes because they can
either suck the very life out of any creativity exercise or if correctly shaped moods can
facilitate the creativity process.
Test for yourself and prove it!
I want you to take some time right now to reflect on some of your own
experiences. By doing so you will quickly realize and understand why attitude is
so important for creativity success and how a wrong attitude will always
introduce failure into the process especially in the workplace.
Recall back to mind some of the work meetings you have been involved with. Do
you recall what the attitude and atmosphere was in those meetings where great
outcomes resulted? Do this mental recall by picturing all of the attendees in
your mind. Don’t concern yourself with what was said or who said it, instead
just focus on each of the attendees’ mood and emotion. Follow this mental
picture up with those meetings where the results were disastrous. Compare the
mood and emotion of those attendees. Never mind what was said and why. Just
focus on the attitudes displayed.
If you were completely honest in your analysis, you will find a pattern. The
pattern is an upbeat, positive attitude where good results were the outcome.
Whereas those failed meetings always had at least one attendee with a mood, an
emotion, an ugly attitude. And that one person’s attitude spread like a disease
to the others not only in that meeting but outside that meeting just like
gangrene. If you go back in time and review every single meeting you have been
involved with you will find this is the pattern and a fact. It’s no wonder
Professor Barsade said, “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus.”
If you take the time to recall that even in those meetings where good news is
delivered that it only takes one person to contaminate that good news and kill
the outcome. What does this mean? It means that special attention in the
creativity process is important. Be aware of not only your own mood and emotion
but of those around you as well. Learn to develop the frame of mind that when
you establish a creativity time that you will leave the bad attitude behind. In
a group you need to set this rule out and you must require “buy-in” by all
involved. And for those persons who refuse, either by expression or by their
actions they need to be promptly excused.
But how do you develop the proper attitude? See my article, “Attitude Practices:
Creativity Key Performance Indicators (CKPI)” coming soon!
Therefore a key factor for creative success is to constantly monitoring of yourself and
monitoring the other players. When you brainstorm solo here is how to be effective.
Begin by asking yourself questions and watch for the signals. When you engage in
the creativity process, do you feel insecure, uneasy or pressed for time? If so
then you need to ask yourself the following question. “Am I thinking these are
challenges I cannot overcome?” If this is the case then you accomplish two
things:
- By asking yourself why you believe these are challenges that you cannot
overcome, you are able to identify where the feeling is coming from. In so
doing, you have something tangible to work with, instead of some ambiguous
feeling.
- Here is the best part! If you cannot source the feeling then you are now in a
position to immediately and logically dismiss the feeling. Once you have
dismissed that illogical feeling you are then ready to get on with creativity.
Attitudes, emotions and moods can also turn around a creativity session and
produce desired outcomes. So be aware of yours and others’ moods, emotions and
attitudes as you pursue the creativity path.
"Does Your Company Have An Attitude Problem?"--Attitude Heightens Creativity
Results! Click to Forbes Magazine article...
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