Creativity in Leadership: Protecting Your Own Playground

Jess Kent-Johnson

I've got some visuals. All right, I've got some visuals that we'll share today, but wanted to just say a little bit about who I am and why I founded Workflow Creative Studio. So, as Emily mentioned, I have been working in the tech space for about 15 years. I have a background in music business, and also currently I'm working with a company that does ed tech, educational tech. And as part of that journey, one of the things I realized is that it can be really tempting or we just kind of fall into spending a lot of time thinking about how we build cultures for our teams, how we empower teams. But it can be very tempting to kind of abandon ourselves as leaders. And that often I talk with a lot of people who are leading teams, and there's a lot going on, but they haven't had a chance to really fill their own cup up again. And so Workflow Creative Studio does a few things, but really we're passionate about making sure that people know they can access that creativity and that innovation, regardless of what their job title is, how big their team is, what kind of culture you're in.

Jess Kent-Johnson

You can build a culture that really is fulfilling for you as a leader as well as for your people. So one of the assumptions that I have and Leah and the team at the Perk will be very familiar with this concept is that humans are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. When we start out as children, one of the ways we learn about our environment and what it means to be human and be part of the world is exploring and trying out things. We don't know how things are supposed to work. We just go, what happens? I have a toddler. And one of the things that has been remarkable about watching him grow is that he will do something that I, in my mind, I think, oh, I'm pretty creative. I've got some good ideas. But I will watch him pick something up, flip it upside down, and use it for exactly the opposite purpose that it was designed for. And I go, I would never have thought of that. That's hilarious and awesome. And so a big part of honing in on your creativity is reminding yourself, who's that kind of inner, playful child who's not afraid to get a little messy, who sees things in a different way than what we have been trained to see them in?

Jess Kent-Johnson

And what can that child, if you nurture that inner child, bring to the table? The other thing that I believe strongly is that not only just humans, but all humans can be leaders and are leaders. And so we, as people managers, as culture builders, as contributors to a team leaders, are naturally creative and resourceful and whole. So, quickly, I'd love to hear, when you think about creativity, what do you think? What are other names for creativity? You can shout them out, put them in the chat.

Video

Unique or innovative?

Jess Kent-Johnson

Innovative. Unique. Yeah. Imagination. Thanks. Larson.

Video

Playful.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Playful. Yeah.

Leah Roe

I can't have one word which is a problem of mine in life, but it's like I like to think of it like taking things from different industries or from all over the place and like, pulling it together in a new way.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love that. Yeah. That reminds me of last month, the Innovation Safaris. Ideas. Visionary. Boldness. OOH, I love that. I also think boldness. It takes confidence to get out there and do something differently. Yeah, these are all really good. One of the things that it's helpful to remember as a leader is that that is part of why you are in the position you're in. You have the ability to see a bigger picture. You have the opportunity to align the team around where you're going. As Leah mentioned, we all want to be moving in that same direction, but oftentimes the way to get there is doing something differently. What got you here may not get you there. And so creativity is a major differentiator for how powerful you can be. LinkedIn Learning did a workplace learning report about four years ago, five years ago. Now that said that 57% of senior leaders today are looking at those soft skills. Those soft skills are more important than hard skills in many ways. Unless you're in, I think, AI, that was the one sector where, guess what? The machines are doing the learning. And I mostly joke about that.

Jess Kent-Johnson

But the other thing that was really interesting was creativity was the top skill desired by leaders. And so for you, not only as you're empowering your team, but as you're thinking about your own professional development and growth, this is something that can be really important to tap into. Stefan MoMA, who is the director of narrative Strategy at a company called First Person, which does storytelling, advertising, marketing, said, creativity is problem solving with relevance and novelty. I know a lot of times it's tempting to think about creativity as, oh, this person's creative with a capital C. They work in marketing, they're putting together films, they scored this soundtrack, they're painting. But the reality is you may use those things that may be part of who you are, but also you can use these things in your capacity now as a team leader, regardless of industry. So then the way that creative block can show up, you might have heard of it as writers. Block, that's a pretty common term. But there are many ways that it can show up or reasons that it can be there. These icons are meant to represent some of those ways.

Jess Kent-Johnson

So, perfectionism, this target here, if you are so focused on it, must be perfect that you don't make any moves. If you're afraid of failure and kind of getting messy, that can be one way that we got stuck. The fire, if it's not something that you're passionate about. You're feeling burned out. That's also a sign of creative block. There's a price tag here. Money is an example. So a lot of people go, well, we don't have the funding for this, or I'd love to do this thing, but I don't know if the return on investment will be high enough. And so that can also be a stopper. Emotions, things that we're going through in life, heartbreak, tough things, trauma sometimes that's a reason that people don't feel led to create or can't access that playfulness and time as well. So these are some examples. I won't go through all these icons, but I'd love to see what people typically feel that they are blocked by. So what we're going to do is we're going to annotate the screen. And if you go to your view options, up in the top right hand corner, there's an annotate button, and you have the ability to add an icon or circle or write.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I'd love for you all to see. Yeah. Throw some icons or drawings. Whatever you typically find keeps you from accessing that creativity or that innovation. I like this stamp. I know for myself, time is huge. I'm seeing a lot of time, some perfectionism, stress. Is the little person with the lightning bolts. Yeah, absolutely. Leah said she bagged all of them. Yeah, that's very legitimate. I also have flowed through these at various points in my life. And something I also like to remind people too, is that creativity is not necessarily a constant state of being right. It's kind of like happiness where it's wonderful and you can get into it, but you're not always operating with creativity in kind of the top of the card deck. Sometimes you are surviving if you're manning the house at home while your partner is traveling, that's a time where time is maybe limited. You've got other stuff going on. But the idea is that you can always come back to this, this kind of recursive or circular, that you can build ways to access this into your life. All right, if you want to clear the screen, her team, thank you for your help there.

Jess Kent-Johnson

We'll move on. Okay. And here I am. Annotating. There we go. Okay, before we move on, are there any questions. Thoughts?

Jess Kent-Johnson

Okay, so these four categories. Here are some of the top four ways that we can reclaim that creativity for ourselves as humans and as leaders. For each of these, I've got a little activity that we can do as a way, kind of an appetizer for how you can start to build this into your daily life. Safety. The safety to make mistakes, get a little messy. Celebrating the failure as opposed to punishing failure. Also surrounding yourself with collaborative teams and strong culture. Reclaiming possibility. So this is the idea that there is a lot of abundance, and when you are creative, you go, I know this was designed for this and this. But that's really binary. What else is there? It brings back an openness to options focus. So how do you protect some of that time? What is important about silence and solitude? Also, empowering your teams and making sure that you are prioritizing the right things helps protect some of that time or what I call your playground. And then flexibility as well. Autonomy, reclaiming some empowerment and finding that comfort and discomfort. So first we'll focus and practice on creating a little bit of safety to fail here.

Jess Kent-Johnson

And so if you have it's up to you, whatever your style is, if you have paper, if you have pen, if you've got your phone and you want to text it to yourself, think about when did you or when do you feel most creative. Think about your whole life, not just your career. And as you're writing that down, also think about who is there for you in those moments. Who have been your biggest cheerleaders? I'm going to give a few minutes here. Who has something they want to share? I'd be happy to share.

Video

Hi, Jess. When places where I felt most creative. In the past is two main things. One, when I have space to really think and shut out noise of other priorities or other deadlines and things like that going on. And the second big thing is a personal preference, which is not being creative just by myself, but having a small group of people who can bring different thoughts together so that we can kind of bounce and build off of each other to get to a great idea.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah, that's great. I know I'm also collaborative that way too. Who else?

Video

I'll go my. When I feel most creative, I have like the two polar opposite extremes. One is like when I'm really overly burnt out and I'm using it as a method to move through that burnout or that stress or that grief or I'm really creative. The flip side, I'm 100% at peace and just feeling very happy and I have the brain space to dive into something bigger.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah. What's there about kind of those opposites? Is there anything you find that's similar?

Video

Actually, I don't know what's there at the opposites, other than it obviously is something that works for me in the good and the bad.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love that.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Anybody want to share their biggest cheerleaders?

Leah Roe

I think. Bill, do you have your hand raised? Oh, yeah.

Video

So, for me, I've probably felt most creative in about the last nine months, retired from the Air Force, left a very regimented, structured way of life and gotten into coaching and building my own business. So just, you know, I've never really been that creative as far as building a website, designing logos, marketing, things like that. And my biggest cheerleader has got to be my wife.

Jess Kent-Johnson

That's awesome. That's really great. Yeah. I'd say my own husband Alex is a great cheerleader for me, but also I've had a lot of colleagues and Leah. Leah is also a great cheerleader who I remember throughout my career, those people who were like, oh, this is great, you should try this. That sticks with me a long time. Even if we're not in touch anymore, I can still hear that voice in the back of my head going, you can do this. This is great.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Love it. Yeah.

Jess Kent-Johnson

And thank you for your service, Bill. That's pretty awesome. So one of the things that you can do is very small, but if anyone is familiar with the Artist's Way, julia Cameron is a screenwriter. Well, she's done many things, but she also wrote this book about 25, 30 years ago about how to recover creativity. And so one of the things that you can do to start to reclaim that feeling of safety is even just carving out 1015 minutes before you get ready for the day and focus that time. One of the ways that she recommends is called Morning Pages. And so you can just write stream of consciousness and just kind of start to get out. What are your anxieties? What are you worried about? What's on your mind? What's great? What are you celebrating? No one's going to ever read these things, but it's a chance to just kind of like blurt out onto the page and get it out of your head what has you kind of anxious. And that's something that I've been practicing for about a year and I really love it. It totally transformed kind of how I approach work and life.

Jess Kent-Johnson

It kind of centers me there. It's a little bit like meditation, but for more of a Western mindset. The next item that we can focus on is possibility. So how do we kind of recapture that abundance mindset? One of the things we could do is I'd love for you all, I'm going to play a song here. Go out to the Internet and find an image that represents what you would try if if all things were aligned, if you could not fail, there are no constraints. What would you try? What's something scary? And I'd love for you to add it as your background. If you go to your video icon and choose virtual background, there's a way with a plus sign to add it as your background. So I'm going to play this music and I'm going to actually hold on. Stop sharing for a moment and then reshare as you all are finding.

Demonstration Video

With a million smackers and nervous indigestion rich fellas eating milk and crackers. I ask you one question are you having any fun? What you getting out of living? Who cares for what you've got if you're not having any fun? Are you having any laughs? Are you getting any loving? If other people do, I can't. You have a little fun after the honey's in the comb all the bees go out and play even the old gray mare down home has got to have hey better have a little fun you ain't going to live forever so while you're young and gay still okay have a little fun why should you work and save and save Life is full of ifs and buts even this world save and save and whatever they got not better ever little fun. You ain't gonna live forever so while you're young and gay still okay I'm a little fun son taking on the run sun. Get yourself some unsun. Do it all for one son. Imitate your mom's son and have a little fun.

Jess Kent-Johnson

All right? I know that's not a lot of time. I'm curious to know what what people would do. You see, mine is I'd love to try belly dancing. If I wasn't shy, that's what I would do. Emily, what is yours?

Participant

I would love to learn how to sing. Well, right now, this is me singing into a remote control or a hairbrush. But just, like, the time for lessons and also just taking that step up from just singing by myself in the car to learning how to do it and finding the people around me to help me do that. But I think that'd be very fun.

Jess Kent-Johnson

They'll do it well. Love it. Who else?

Jess Kent-Johnson

Catherine. I love your background. Thank you.

Video

I sew a lot, and I'm trying to expand a little bit into, like, geometric wall hangings. I really want to try it, but it's a beast.

Jess Kent-Johnson

That's amazing.

Participant

I love that.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I see Angela swing dancing. That's very cool. Paige, what's yours? Mine says, be your own boss, but.

Participant

I would like to start a business one day.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yes.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love that. Bill?

Participant

Go into outer space.

Jess Kent-Johnson

OOH, amazing. That's very bold. That's very adventurous. That would be way outside my comfort zone. I've watched too many movies, I think. Anyone else want to share?

Participant

I couldn't find.

Dan Roe

Fast enough, but Lee and I remodeled our home, like, I don't know, five years ago now. And I really did enjoy it. And I'd love to do more, like, in our own home or other things, but I don't know how to make money, and I only know how to do it for myself. But also, it's extremely time consuming, and it's very hard to do, like, a half hour at a time. I didn't have kids, and I dedicated tons of late nights to midnight and early mornings, and it's very difficult when you have a lot of other competitive things going on. But I do enjoy it. I get sucked in, like, pinterest sometimes or rooms. I'm like, that'd be awesome to make. But I'm like, you know, how many hours it takes to do that. Maybe, like, paint one wall.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love that.

Participant

I don't know if mine actually changed. Did mine actually change?

Jess Kent-Johnson

It did, yes.

Participant

I was having technical difficulties. Mine is leaving the city in Madison. It's not a big city, but I'm like living in a year maybe still working. But you're living in Homesteading.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love it. Oh yeah. And I see Rachel's trip to someplace new to explore. Cuba. Cuba, I love that.

Leah Roe

Kelly, were you going to say something?

Participant

Yes. My image that I chose wasn't working.

Leah Roe

To upload but I would say like.Starting a cafe or a restaurant.

Jess Kent-Johnson

What kind of cuisine?

Participant

I'm vegetarian and I do a lot of vegan and vegetarian cooking. So something along those lines for sure.

Jess Kent-Johnson

I love that.

Leah Roe

Amazing.

Jess Kent-Johnson

This is also something that you can I encourage you create a little folder or a pinterest board or some people will do vision boards which can be great about these dreams because there are lots of ways to incorporate these. Also I encourage you see what it would take. Just explore, you never know. But the ability to allow your kind of inner artist, your inner child, your inner creative to dream and not forget about those dreams, especially if those come back to you and have year after year after year pay attention to that because that can also be an indicator of what you value, what you might try. It could be the exact thing for you, for your career, your life, but it also could be something that others have been waiting to see appear. I saw Rachel's question about to do list and this also kind of dovetailed with how do you create focus in your life? I think the first of the little creative blockers to fill up with hearts and stars was time. And that also is something candidly that I personally struggle with the most. One of the things that you can do is truly if you prioritize something, it is what will become important in your life.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Or conversely, what you are prioritizing right now is what you are giving importance. Find ways to block time for creativity every day. And one of the things that I have fallen prey to are that I go well, if I can't get one or two whole hours to sit down and do this thing that it's not worth it. Well, 15 minutes is way better than nothing. And so one of the disciplines or the practices that you can put in is choose the time in your day where it feels the most attainable. I recommend first thing in the morning, even before you brush your teeth, even before you get your baby out of the crib, even before you start to get ready for work, 15 or 30 minutes in the morning just to focus on something that you care about is amazing. And if you do it consistently, try for every single day, if you do it consistently, it will start to transform how you think about the day and you'll start to look forward to it as well. One other thing that I have found incredibly helpful is during my work day, if you go through and color code your calendar to show what creative time you have right now or focus time.

Jess Kent-Johnson

People might call it innovation, collaboration. Go and color code the things that make you feel like you're working in that space and it will highlight for you, wow, how much you have right now and where you might want to go. One of the things that I also did was highlighting the opposite things where it's like, oh, you know what? I could be delegating these things, but instead I'm personally doing them. And so this is also a good leadership move because you can identify opportunities for empowering your team or other people that are stakeholders, that are very capable, whole, resourceful, creative. Give them that opportunity to shine so that you can carve out that time and replace it with focused time for what you need to do. I know too it can be very overwhelming sometimes if you're fighting fires a lot, if things are feeling incredibly busy because you're kind of in an emergency state, even that 15 minutes before you go in and start to pull out the fire extinguisher is good to just refill your cup. And then one of the questions was about the to do list. How do you prevent yourself from just spending that 15 minutes thinking about your to do list?

Jess Kent-Johnson

My answer is it's okay sometimes if it is a to do list. If you're thinking about it as these are all the things that are making me anxious, I'm going to write them down and I'll come back to them later. Or you can also say, okay, what this time is for is I want to write down all the things that I'm celebrating, that I crave, that I love. And that way, your brain will start to focus on the things you're grateful for, and gratitude starts to I mean, there's a lot of behavioral and cognitive science about what gratitude can do for our brain chemistry and that can also be a great way is even if you just say, this is my gratitude moment, and you start to write down things you're like, oh, I'm excited about this. Or this feels really good. I'm looking forward to this. That's one hack that I've used as well. Just looking at the chat. Let's see bragging on teammates. Teams know how important creative space is for Leah. That's a great that's so great. They literally put holds on her calendar for her. Oh my gosh, I want to be like you when they see I'm being over scheduled with meetings, coaching sessions, workshops.

Jess Kent-Johnson

One other thing, too, is if you are feeling this, your co leaders or other management are also feeling this. And so bring it to your team and talk about what's a way that we can protect our leadership time, maybe even it's a leadership meeting. But you all focus on your individual, creative, innovative strategy problem solving times. So you have the utmost power over your calendar. And you can choose to do that. And things will make space there. Excellent.

Jess Kent-Johnson

All right. And then one other little activity. Think about what if your inner artist is this kid? I call them kiddos. Kiddo. What song would they play to feel happy? Anybody have an immediate response? I played mine earlier.

Participant

Now Pharrell's happy song is just stuck in my head.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Amazing. I hope that's a great thing. That is an infectious melody, for sure. Yeah. I walked in and my toddler was watching some Sesame Street screen time, and there's a song that they play that's called. I Wonder What If. Let's try and it's all about, hey, let's just try it out. I wonder what would happen if I did this thing. What if? Let's try it. And I thought that was such a powerful I was like, oh, I like that too.

Participant

Lately in my household, because of Spring, been listening to Rock and Robin, and it's a really good one that I don't usually play on a frequent basis, but lately I'm like, man, it's great. We all just get up and dance. That's a good one.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah. There's a lot to be said for the kind of the mental health benefits of music, the music therapy that people will do, but also physically, even if you're just napping along or kind of getting up and dancing, that kind of mind and body connection can really release some endorphins, help you work out stress. And I know stress is also a factor in feeling burned out. Taking these little sips, almost like you're just sipping from your coffee can make a little oasis in a day. That's really packed.

Jess Kent-Johnson

All right, the last one for this morning is flexibility. So how do we build some autonomy and empowerment into our day? I talked a little bit about this with the calendar. Calendaring can be especially in this leadership level, where you are starting your own business or you're leading teams, the calendar can feel almost, I don't know, like, the authority, like your calendar is doing things to you. I know. I have felt that way and a lot of resentment about someone scheduled another meeting on my calendar, and I felt attacked. And that's a really good indicator that you should be focusing on some flexibility and autonomy. You control that. And so I would challenge everyone to think about what you will do this week to make space for your own creativity. Is it something we've discussed? Is it something completely different? Yeah, my calendar won't let me yes, I've said that to Leo before. Yeah. Or is there something that you're the converse it's not converse, but something else to think about is what are the things that you already do for your own creativity? Can you extend that by ten minutes?

Participant

Jess, I don't know if you want us to jump in, but sure. One of the things that I had written down earlier for when I feel the most creative for me. It's when I'm outside in nature, whether it's just walking around the neighborhood, but just essentially away from connections, screens, that sort of thing. And so to this end right. I think just really embracing I don't always think of that as creative time. I got to get some fresh air. Right. But just shifting my perspective of, oh, that's actually a very important like going even just for a ten minute or making it a 20 minutes walk at the beginning of the day and treating it as a critical component. To the rest of my day so that I have that creative, creativity, creative juices flowing from being outside and thinking of it that way versus, like, I just got to get ten minutes outside. Right.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah. There are also a lot of health benefits, mental and physical health benefits of that too. It's funny, as you start to dig into what things can contribute to creativity, you'll see how interconnected things can be. And so that is something where yeah, just movement of your body and being in nature has measurable benefit for humans. We love our nature. Bill, let's see. You said just trying to be creative with how you use your time. Driving your son to baseball, waiting for him. Yeah. Using that time alone in the car for creativity. That's a great idea. It's a really great idea. Rachel said, trust and delegate the leaders you manage.

Jess Kent-Johnson

That's a good reminder for myself, because I also have fallen into this trap is something that you are doing that feels heavy and annoying and kind of at the bottom of your skill set could be someone's growth. And so the more that you kind of hold on to those things, the less opportunity that you're allowing for your team to do that as well. Yeah, good. Yeah.

Jess Kent-Johnson

This is great ideas. I know we often will spend a little time towards the end of this just kind of chatting and connecting. I'd love to open it up and see what are other areas where people are where you would like to infuse innovation and creativity into your own life, career, leadership, salar, say, utilizing screen breaks that your company encourages. That's great.

Leah Roe

Jess, I'm not going to answer your question directly, but can I share something that's coming up for me?

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah.

Leah Roe

So I love when you were talking about how one of the elements is safety. So we were saying we're in Milwaukee for a workshop, and we're doing a workshop on inclusion and belonging. And so much of what we talk about in that space is when you have a culture where people don't feel included or don't feel like they belong, it totally destroys creativity and innovation and collaboration. So. I just keep thinking about that, how it's so important for us to create a safe space for people to share their ideas, admit mistakes, celebrate those failures like you talked about, because otherwise we really will destroy the creativity. On our teams.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah, I have an example from well, I've worked at a couple of companies like this, but I have some examples where one of the things that companies put in as part of their HR system was the clock in and the clock out. You've got to be here. Even when I was waiting tables in college, you had to be there. If you were seven minutes late, it rounded up to 15 minutes late. And if you were under seven, it would round down. And what that really reinforced was that people would push the limits. They would show up and they would clock in, and then they would do exactly what was asked of them and nothing more. And that was an example of a system that was put in place that was really kind of punitive about getting people to comply. And it completely sucked all of the creativity or the safety to fail or the safety to waste time. And so that's something where it's also the way that we build our systems, build our teams, if we assume that they are the best versions of themselves when they can be autonomous and we're providing feedback there that can really help create that safe culture.

Leah Roe

Yeah, I love that.

Participant

You just hit something on the head for me. I had it. Something happened yesterday that I was really ruminating over where a leader I didn't appreciate the approach to feedback. Like, just very abrupt and curt. And it's always been something that I don't appreciate. And I realized but I was trying to pinpoint, like, okay, you're just being rude, but how can I tie that back to a meaningful thing that I want to bring up as an issue? And it's like when you do that as a leader, if you don't give feedback in a way where it's like you can give critical feedback where it's like you need to be better, but you can do it in a way that makes a person feel safe. And if you don't, you're not creating that safe space. And then as a result of this whole presentation, if you don't create that safe space, you're not going to have creative organization. You're not going to have people that feel like they can perform well, essentially. And it all comes back to safety. And my brain, I'm thinking some people, it's like, that's the way they think. The only way it's going to get done. It's like, no. And in the same situation sorry, not to just hog the floor, but the leader made a comment about me not wanting to ruffle feathers, because I genuinely believe that you actually don't have to ruffle feathers if you're giving critical feedback. You can be like, hey, that didn't work. You can give it in a kind way that also gets results. And it's because safety is so important in the workplace if you want to get stuff done. So thanks for sharing that, Leah. Because just yet that kind of just helped me remind me of that missing piece of why this thing was driving me baddie. And also because it's something that I don't want to just let fly. It's like, that's just not okay. The other thing, though, just to your initial question that I realized we're talking a lot about the professional space. I don't know about folks here. I'm someone where it's like because I've just kind of always been someone puts a task in front of me. I'm laser focused, and so I have a job. I have a full time job. So I use all of my energy sometimes, including my creative energy in the workplace, because I like what I can to be creative. And I'm realizing that a space where I want to be more creative, but then I don't have the energy is with my kids, where they naturally want to be creative, but it's like I end my day, they're home from daycare or whatever, and it's like this desire to I want because they're like you said, they're naturally creative. And it's like, I don't have the energy. So something that I want to kind of figure out is how to have work take less energy so that I have those creative juices to help cultivate that with my children outside of the professional space. And that's just an ongoing challenge with time and all the other things we talked about earlier.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah, that concept of how do you save enough creativity for your loved ones? And for the time where it's like, oh, I can savor this, and this feels really good. That's a huge reason to try to fill your own cup so that you can come to them. I know. I'm the same way. It is a market difference for me. When I have for me, it's 30 minutes in the morning. I set my alarm just 30 minutes earlier. I do my journaling. I get all of my worst versions of myself out onto a journal where no one else will see it, and then I actually feel a lot lighter. And then when I can come home and go, I put in my best effort. That's all I can do. I'm a human being. I am not a machine. And it's a major mind shift for me. Then my son, when he comes to me and is, I don't know, wearing a hamper basket on his head, like, Great. This is a rocket ship, and we're playing, and it can be really fun for both of us. That's a good .1 of the things.

Leah Roe

I want to say with creativity and children. My mom actually gave me good advice about this because I was like she's like, you got to take the pressure off yourself. You don't have to be so literally. She's like, Take a spoon and a few this is like when Betty was younger. She's like, Take a spoon and a box and put some balls in the box and show how you can put the ball in a spoon and put it in another box. And she's like creativity. Loved it. And so now, yeah, it's just like these really simple things, and it's like, okay, I don't have to have all the art supplies and everything perfect. It's like, we could make anything creative.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah, that playtime. Bill, thank you for sharing this workplace survey. I was also reading oh, this is yeah, this is the same one I was reading a few weeks ago, and it is really interesting how our medical leadership are also identifying how important this is for people, especially in the workplace. What other areas are people hoping to recapture their creativity, innovation, play. A hairy problem you're trying to solve. And you're like, I don't know.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Should we all take a break and just Kelly can bake us some delicious vegetarian cuisine. Well, good. Well, thank you so much for the time today. I am really excited to be part of the culture community. Thank you to Leah and the perk, and I'll turn it back over to you all. Amazing. Thanks, Jess.

Emily Smit

This is so awesome. Before we let all of you go back to your days to be creative and just conquer the day, does anybody have any last minute questions?

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yeah.

Leah Roe

Thank you, Jess. That was amazing.

Leah Roe

I feel so creative.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Yes. If you have any other questions, I'll put my email in the chat, too. Feel free to send them my way, even if you're just looking for additional ideas. Awesome.

Emily Smit

That would be great. Yes. And we'll also send out her information with the follow up email tomorrow. So thank you all so much. We hope to see you next month, and I hope you have a great. Rest of your day. Thanks, everyone.Thanks, Jess.

Jess Kent-Johnson

Thanks, everyone. Thank you.