Fear kills creativity

There are things in life that gobble up all your energy. You brood and fret, and you get nothing done. You worry. About politics. About your children hitting puberty. About your grumpy boss.

Grumpy boss

Let’s take your GB as an example. Everybody knows him/her. The control freak who seems to have only one goal in life: finding fault with others. And the funny thing is, the GB is not doing that in order to make people’s life miserable. He or she just assumes the company will thrive if nobody does anything wrong.

Fear

But that’s not true. People with a GB get frightened. Because they are not ‘allowed’ to make mistakes, they may actually get afraid to do anything at all. They curl up in a ball. Their sense of security is gone. Their creativity is lost. And that’s extremely bad for the company.

The fact that the GB is grumpy, may be part of the corporate culture, the ‘personality’ of the company. Maybe the GB has his own GB to reckon with. Or maybe nobody notices he is suffocating his employees instead of trusting and supporting them.

There is a great article about this in Psychology Today.

GB turns into GB

The solution? Humour! If a ‘grouchy’ company dares to hold a mirror to itself and have a hearty laugh, its culture may change. From fearful to gutsy. From hemmed to liberated. And that will affect all employees. Even the Grumpy Boss, who may surprisingly turn into a Groovy Boss instead.

Cartoons

I’m always thrilled when a consultant or communication agency asks me to help improve a company’s working atmosphere and culture. I love to use my cartoons to make people laugh at the things/people/situations they are afraid of, using lots of grains of salt. It’s nice for a company to know that it has its funny sides. Because whoever can laugh at themselves has strength.

Humour can heal you and set you free.