Everyday Creative

Chapter EightLittle Things

… often make the biggest difference.

There’s an overused African proverb, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ When it comes to sustaining everyday creativity in your work, bringing your colleagues on the journey with you isn’t just preferable, it’s powerful!

In this chapter, you’re going to learn five secret weapons to influence the people you work with to lean a little further into their everyday creativity.

Five flavour enhancers for the fabulous

Think of these five elements as an expanded colour palette that you can use to make your work more vivid and vibrant. To draw people into your ideas or empower them to step forward into their own.

They’re like the cucumber in your G&T, the truffle shavings on your scrambled eggs, the dark chocolate in your bolognese sauce.¹ They’ll help you make the promise of becoming a creative company or team way more appealing and way more delicious.

#1: Optimism

When you consider how much the media bombards us with messages of doom and gloom, is it any wonder most people err on the side of pessimism? To think all these narratives aren’t influencing the way we are at work isn’t just naive — it’s deluded.

But here’s the thing: we don’t need another ‘realist’ in the workplace. ‘Realism’ is usually just a mask for fear, laziness or cynicism. We need optimistic realists: people who see the world as it is but choose to work proactively and progressively toward what it could be.

It’s ...