Armya Inc
Well-known member
Small wins can make your day
A good day at work varies for most of us. It can range from simply not having everything go wrong to landing a new piece of business. But I learned something interesting about “a good day at work” from my colleague, Teresa Amabile, the Director of Research in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research on team creativity and innovation shows that of all the events that make for a really good day at work, the single most important is simply making progress in meaningful work. Even if that progress seems like “a small win.” Below Teresa explains how small wins can give creative workers the emotional boosts they need.
Small wins can give people an enormous boost emotionally, and can really raise their level of intrinsic motivation for what they're doing, and lead to creativity. As we analyzed these data from one of our studies, we found that if people are experiencing progress in their work, they're much more likely to feel emotionally positive about themselves and about what they're doing.
Under those conditions, they're more likely to come up with a creative idea. In our research, we didn't ask workers to tell us about something creative they did today. We simply asked them to report one event that stood out in their mind from the day. If they happened to mention that they solved a problem, in a way that was not routine, or they came up with a new idea, we counted that as evidence that they've been creative and productive that day.
We found that on those days that people were having more positive emotional experiences, they were more likely to come up with a creative idea. What was also interesting is that small wins prime creative insights or breakthroughs not just one day but for the next day, too. There's some kind of a carry-over effect that when people are in this positive state of good inner work life, they're more likely to make new connections between ideas that can carry over even into the next day.
We think that the effect of small wins is so powerful because people need to feel effective in their work. They need to have that sense of self-efficacy that they're competent that they're getting somewhere and that they're doing something meaningful.
Learn more about Teresa Amabile’s research on creativity in the workplace in new management training series Leadership:http://www.morethansound.net/store/morethansound-net/leadership-a-master-class/prod_294.html
A good day at work varies for most of us. It can range from simply not having everything go wrong to landing a new piece of business. But I learned something interesting about “a good day at work” from my colleague, Teresa Amabile, the Director of Research in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research on team creativity and innovation shows that of all the events that make for a really good day at work, the single most important is simply making progress in meaningful work. Even if that progress seems like “a small win.” Below Teresa explains how small wins can give creative workers the emotional boosts they need.
Small wins can give people an enormous boost emotionally, and can really raise their level of intrinsic motivation for what they're doing, and lead to creativity. As we analyzed these data from one of our studies, we found that if people are experiencing progress in their work, they're much more likely to feel emotionally positive about themselves and about what they're doing.
Under those conditions, they're more likely to come up with a creative idea. In our research, we didn't ask workers to tell us about something creative they did today. We simply asked them to report one event that stood out in their mind from the day. If they happened to mention that they solved a problem, in a way that was not routine, or they came up with a new idea, we counted that as evidence that they've been creative and productive that day.
We found that on those days that people were having more positive emotional experiences, they were more likely to come up with a creative idea. What was also interesting is that small wins prime creative insights or breakthroughs not just one day but for the next day, too. There's some kind of a carry-over effect that when people are in this positive state of good inner work life, they're more likely to make new connections between ideas that can carry over even into the next day.
We think that the effect of small wins is so powerful because people need to feel effective in their work. They need to have that sense of self-efficacy that they're competent that they're getting somewhere and that they're doing something meaningful.
Learn more about Teresa Amabile’s research on creativity in the workplace in new management training series Leadership:http://www.morethansound.net/store/morethansound-net/leadership-a-master-class/prod_294.html
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