In an age when success in business means exploring possibilities rather than following a set of rules, how can leaders encourage creativity and collaboration in their teams?

The key is to understand what drives human behaviour. Leading international brain researcher Evian Gordon asserts that the fundamental organising principle of the brain is to minimise threat and maximise reward.

Evian Gordon

When we feel threatened, the limbic (flight or fight) part of our brain takes over and it’s almost impossible to be efficient, productive, creative and insightful. We literally can’t think properly, and instead become stressed, cautious and disengaged.

Successful leaders focus on creating environments where their people are moving toward reward, are working together and are ‘in the flow’. They understand the principles of engagement…

Founder and CEO of Results Coaching Systems David Rock says there are five qualities that enable us to move toward a reward response, or ‘engagement’. He calls this the SCARF model:

David Rock

1. Status — where you feel you are in the pecking order
2. Certainty — how well you can predict the future
3. Autonomy — having choices
4. Relatedness — feeling safe with people
5. Fairness — having fair exchanges with others.

Status is important for the creative process — or being in the flow, as influential humanistic psychologist Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi calls it — because in this state there is a loss of ego (status) and feedback is fluid. Understanding the role of status can help leaders avoid organisational practices that stir counterproductive threat responses among their people.  It can be as simple as asking a team member to give feedback on their own work, rather than giving them your feedback.

Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi

Meanwhile, uncertainty registers in our brains as an error or alarm – something that needs to be corrected before we can feel comfortable again. So encouraging creativity and collaboration is about reducing uncertainty, and therefore minimising threat, such as by setting clear goals with your team. Going with the flow, after all, is not about losing direction or control.

Smart leaders also give their people autonomy – encouraging them to make decisions and be self-sufficient . One of the problems with micromanaging is that it creates a threat response, and this inhibits collaboration and ‘flow’ or creativity.

Quality social connections, or relatedness, also enable our brains to move toward reward. When we experience interconnectedness – striving toward the same goals, being on the same ‘wavelength’ – oxytocins (the pleasure chemical) and dopamine (the reward chemical) are released in our brain. It’s the neurochemistry of safe connectivity.

Fairness is also vital, because the perception of unfair treatment can lead to people sabotaging each other – not communicating vital information, making decisions without involving others, not being cooperative, and certainly not collaborating. And that will stop the creative process dead in its tracks!

Encouraging creativity and collaboration in your team could be as easy as choosing your SCARF…