Creativity Thrives Under Contraints


How to deal with remote working? Imagination is unleashed by limitations. In psychology, constraints have been studied as a means of being more resourceful and creative and many artists, business people or even athletes are known to set limitations for themselves.

Mondriaan used only certain colours and lines in his works, whereas Steve Jobs demanded the iPhone to have no keyboard. In soccer, the field is defined, the goals are small and the time is limited, which stimulates creativity of the team work. William Shakespeare even wrote “King Lear” under quarantine of a plague.

Now that many are confronted with remote working, how can leaders use this constraint to unlock creative ways of working for their teams, to give a sense of connection, enhance productivity and uplift? Some great practices I have seen already emerging:

• Doing agile stand-up VC calls every morning
• Turning coffee and lunch breaks into one-on-one VC appointments
• Creating a buddy system where buddies call each other daily to check in
• Collectively doing a sports challenge
• Offering online digital training modules
• Etc.

What best practices have you seen/used?

Look beyond the current rules, the norms. Look beyond the obvious.