Effortless Thursdays #26: How to be a creativity catalyst

Getting your team to say what they really think

Pennine Way. Day 9. Towards Middleton-in-Teesdale

"So, does anyone have any thoughts about that?"

You wait for an answer. Nothing.

You scan around the room looking for someone's gaze to cross paths with yours, but everyone has fallen silent.

All you can hear are crickets.

"So, no one has any ideas?"

You try – hopefully – that some light sarcasm will elicit something. The folks in your team are smart, so why are they suddenly in the middle of an ideas desert?

The only thoughts that are emerging are the ones you're thinking about to yourself: 

“Why is no one speaking up?”

Or maybe you’re recalling the voiced-out-aloud-frustration of someone you’ve worked for: 

“Why are we paying these people to do nothing?”

Conversations are an expression of your emotions

When you're having a drink after work on a Friday night talking with your colleagues about your favourite football team's last win, it can make you feel like you're experiencing that winning goal again.

You're sharing your ideas, laughing and revelling in joy.

"That pass was pure genius!"

Imagine if one of your colleagues turned the conversation to the latest "woke" topic that's doing the rounds.

Before you know it, you might be hearing crickets again as your colleagues break off into smaller conversations to avoid the war on woke.

Every conversation is an expression of your emotions, whether it's an easy or a difficult conversation.

The same is true when you're asking your own team for ideas, or you're asking for a pay rise, or you're sharing your ideas with the world.

• "What if I get ridiculed?"

• "What if this is a stupid idea?"

• "What if my colleague, Dan, does what he usually does and uses what I say against me?"

Our nervous systems, sensing danger, convince us that we should fight – and wage the war on woke – or freeze – and let the crickets chirp instead.

Making speaking up easy

If you want to be a creativity catalyst and get your team to create ideas of pure genius or be more forthcoming with their feedback, it’s important to create an environment where it’s easy to speak up. 

Here are three areas you can focus on to be a catalyst for creativity: (1) your listening (2) your presence and (3) your engagement with what your team needs. 

I’ve shared some practical things you can do straight away to listen and be present. Engaging with what your team needs is more challenging – it’s a discipline to cultivate, rather than a quick tip. So I’ve shared some additional resources if you want to dive in more deeply.

1. Listen to understand (as if you DON’T have the answer)

For ideas to flow, you need to pay attention to what is being said. You need to be fully present.

It sounds obvious, but we are easily distracted from really listening to what the person in front of us is saying. 

And if you’re like most other people, you are guilty of already having the answer before the other person has even finished what they wanted to say.

The more of an expert you are, the more you feel the need to tell your conversation partner what you know. That’s the opposite of real listening: you’re listening to respond.

Instead, listen to understand.

The best way you can switch gears so that you listen for understanding is to test yourself. After someone has finished saying something, reflect back to them what they’ve said to you.

You don't need to parrot back everything, every time, or use their exact words. But, once in a while,  saying back the key things you understood, especially what seems to you important for the other person, followed up with a "Have I understood that correctly?" will do the trick.

Even if your reflection isn't 100% accurate, more often than not, the person you're conversing with will share what is accurate. 

Reflective listening is a gentle invitation to check that what someone said is what you have understood.

Listening, and then reflecting back forces you to be curious and to concentrate, to understand someone else’s idea, to help them feel heard.

It’s vulnerable for you because you have to be quiet in that moment, even if you do have the right answer. You might share your ideas later on, but it probably won’t be necessary. Feeling heard is something that your team will always value and need first.

2. Be present

When you’ve got something important you want to share, isn’t it annoying when the person you’re speaking to is looking at their mobile phone? Or they’ve caught something out of the corner of their eye – someone is walking past them?

Here are two suggestions to help you be present, both of which will help you listen for understanding.

First, avoid the temptation to look at your devices by putting them entirely out of sight. Studies show that even seeing your phone in your peripheral vision can interrupt your concentration. This is because your brain is anticipating the dopamine hit from attending to all those missed notifications.

Second, find a quiet space for your conversation. Even better, change the environment you're in. Have your important conversation over a walk outside. Set the meeting location as the nearby park. Or go to a quiet restaurant. 

3. Engage with what your team needs

It’s easy to be glib and trot out “psychological safety” as if it’s as obvious as saying night follows day. But what does that mean in practice? 

First, we need to identify the emotions and feelings at play, and then find ways to satisfy any unmet needs behind those emotions and feelings.

Let’s see what this means in practice!

Identify the need behind the emotion

When you’re inviting someone to share their ideas, their emotional context matters. 

You see there’s a link between our fundamental human needs – like food and water, or recognition and fairness – and our emotions. 

Of course, feelings and emotions are not good or bad; I mention positive and negative below to convey emotional valence and the pleasantness or unpleasantness of an emotional stimulus.

“Positive” feelings and emotions, like joy, happiness and satisfaction point to someone’s needs being met or satisfied. The football fan who is joyful as he’s talking about his team is not worried about sharing his ideas with his friends, because, in that moment, his need for inclusion and belonging is met. 

“Negative” ones, like suspicion, feeling detached or discouraged point to someone’s needs not being met. So your team member may not be speaking up because they don’t have the acceptance of their new colleagues, or trust hasn’t built up enough yet. Maybe they believe their ideas are not valued.

If all you hear in your feedback forum is crickets, it’s likely that each member of your team has needs - like trust or mattering - that are not being satisfied in that moment.

Find ways to satisfy any unmet needs

Once you’ve identified the needs that are not being met, it is much easier to discover and implement a strategy to meet those unmet needs.

If you think trust is missing, what could you do to bridge that trust gap? Perhaps it’s having a private conversation with your team member to understand what could help build trust

If you ask if “anyone has any ideas” and you get crickets, perhaps the need for receptivity is going unmet: your colleagues do not think what they share will be received well by you. I’m sure you can come up with some good strategies for meeting those unmet needs. But asking your colleagues for their ideas to solve the problem might be a win-win, and be a chance to meet their need for receptivity.

To avoid crickets again next time you’re asking for ideas, you might need to show a bit of vulnerability and speak those feelings and needs into the room. So you might say next time to your team: 

“Last time we didn’t have any responses to my question. It was a bit frustrating for me, because I know you have great ideas, but I also sensed a bit of detachment in the room. I think that it might have been because I’m not as receptive to your ideas as I could be. I’d like to understand if that’s right, and to ask if that’s something you’d be willing to help resolve.” 

If you’re not sure that you’re guessing the feelings or needs correctly, ask your team members. It doesn’t matter if your attempts aren’t 100% accurate. Their experience will be that you’ve tried to empathise and understand their situation, and they will offer up what is accurate.

View from Monastero di San Miniato e Palazzo dei Vescovi, Florence

Over to you!

When your team feels comfortable to share their ideas, it’s a sign that their needs are being met.

Identifying feelings and the needs underlying them takes practice, but it’s a key foundation to catalysing creativity in your team.

1. Practise spotting emotions. Do this in a low-stakes way by identifying your own emotions, or identifying the feelings you notice in your friends during a night out. 

2. Guess at the needs underlying those emotions. Remember, “positive” feelings and emotions point to someone’s needs being met or satisfied, and “negative” ones, point to someone’s needs not being met. 

You can help make it easier by referring to these handy lists of needs and feelings. Sometimes we don’t have the precise word to hand, so you can increase your needs and feelings vocabulary by scanning these lists as you are spotting emotions and needs.

The link between our fundamental human needs and our emotions is a framework that Nonviolent Communication offers us. If you want to learn more about how to use needs and emotions to resolve difficult conversations and challenging situations, take a look at the NVC primer and recommended book I’ve shared on my website.

That’s it for this week!

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