Return to Work Part 4: Provide clarity in all communications
Clear communication is critical when there’s a health crisis, so that part goes without saying. What I’m talking about here is an extension of the first two parts of this series, namely building health and ensuring psychological safety. As we transition back to work and to a better – not normal – daily reality, I want you to reflect on the communication habits and dynamics in your workplace and on your teams.
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
Clear communication is a value in itself – people benefit from openness and can execute better when they understand what’s going on – and is also a means to a valuable end, which is to stimulate innovation and creativity.
First, we’re living in uncertain times. Indirect and unclear communication adds to the stresses of uncertainty that this pandemic has ushered in. Work against that unease by providing simplicity and precision. Clarity, openness and transparency are fundamental currencies for easing stress, building trust, and ensuring psychological safety. So, clear communication is a baseline in the workplace. It should be an expectation at all times, but especially in these times.
Second, clear communication activates the creative thinking pathway. It does this by reducing fear and anxiety, which are kryptonite to creativity and innovation. That fear is mainly of making mistakes. In a workplace that lacks clear communication over intentions, expectations, operations, outcomes and so on, fear of failure grows. It’s hard to know how to hit a target or meet a goal, so people worry.
You want agile and creative thinking. You won’t get it out of muddle, indecision, ambiguity or unintelligibility. You’ll nurture it when you eliminate the fear and anxiousness that grow under those conditions.
How do you activate the creative thinking pathway? By encouraging a theta brain state. That’s when different regions of the brain are connected and activated at the same time. It’s a state of ideation and innovation marked by calm and quiet. It can only occur in a safe, trusting environment when the brain is not alert to threats.
A theta state can be generated in the following ways: a body moving in a slow, rhythmic manner; an open, quiet mind; and a place of solitude for the self, partnership or team.
1. Engage in long, slow, repetitive movement
To activate creativity, get team members away from their desks and encourage moving meditation. A meandering walk is a great example. In your own life, you may want to walk, run, jog, swim, bike, or paddle – whatever feels good. At work, a slow walk works great.
When we do those types of rhythmic, repetitive activities, we drop into theta brain waves. That’s why when we are on a long walk, we start ideating.
This explains why some leaders love walking meetings. By moving slowly together, you activate everyone’s theta waves and maximize creativity. Try it. You will be blown away by the quality of conversation, the quality of ideas, and your ability to think in an agile manner. Walking meetings versus sitting meetings are extraordinarily powerful.
It's one of the reasons why Steve Jobs never did a crucial meeting sitting down. If you've read his biography by Walter Isaacson, all the meetings where they came up with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad happened walking around the Apple campus.
2. Quiet the mind
This is where you get rid of distractions, including devices and screens, and allow the mind to relax and open. More and more companies are offer quiet spaces for meditation and reflection, because that declutters the mind and activates ideating. You can do the same for yourself and your team in your workplace. You don’t necessarily need a special room, but you do need a quiet environment.
Encourage your team to take meditation breaks to bring on a theta brainwave state. It’s a very simple practice. Basically, find a quiet space, sit comfortably, close your eyes, and breathe slowly and deeply. Take a moment to actively relax your body. Then, focus on your breath. Listen to it and feel it enter and exit. As you do, let your mind wander. Slow down your thoughts and feelings.
Do this for about five minutes. Bring your focus back to your breathing if you start to have organized thoughts, like getting groceries on the way home or whether you need to send that email. If you start to engage in structured thinking or problem solving, refocus on your breathing. And again. And again. And again.
This quiet practice opens the mind to ideating.
3. Seek solitude
Hopefully, this one is simple to put in place. Open-plan workspaces have their advantages, but so does solitude. This means finding a quiet, alone space for yourself or other individuals, for pairs, or for the whole team. It’s another step in getting away from a go-go hustle mode – which is practical and operational – and entering into a creative theta state. Give yourself and your team a space to relax and explore ideas.
That’s why bands go to places like Abbey Road Studios to record albums. There's soundproofing, no external windows and no distractions. It’s also why writers often go into the woods and artists tend to have a studio set apart from everyday life.
I believe business people need to do this as well. That's why retreats are powerful, as long as you all commit to genuinely relaxing, setting aside your devices and disconnecting. That’s when you will start to think differently.
I hope the three main ideas in these articles have been helpful. They are each about the link between health and wellness on the one hand and performance and productivity on the other.
As a society, we need to up our game when it comes to personal and employee mental and physical health. We need to provide psychological safety to have the highest functioning teams. And we need to offer clarity of communication to reduce uncertainty and fear and increase mental agility, creativity and innovation.
This is about making the future better than the past. Let’s come out of this pandemic with greater wisdom and compassion, improved health and wellness, and higher performing teams.
