Improving Workplace Wellbeing: Creativity, Tolerance of Ambiguity, and Cultivating a Supportive Workplace

Struggling with employee stress and burnout? Improving workplace wellbeing is about more than perks. Foster creativity and tolerance of ambiguity to support employees, reduce stress, and build a productive work environment.

In constant change, punishing ambiguity, and relentless demands for results, workplace wellbeing is an absolute necessity. 

But where do we start? What’s the magic pill? If we want to keep our workforce healthy, happy, and productive, we need to use any help we can get. 

While workplace wellbeing is a complex challenge with no easy solution, there are 2 influential elements that you might not have considered. 

Read on to find out how a creative mindset and a healthy approach to uncertainty can contribute to workplace and personal wellbeing. 

By understanding how creativity, tolerance of ambiguity, and a supportive workplace culture intertwine, we can positively impact wellbeing at work, for more engaged employees who can focus more on their work, and less on threats that pull away their focus and energy. 

Creativity for Improving Workplace Wellbeing: Not Just Arts and Crafts

Ask someone to define creativity? They usually say “arts”. Followed quickly by “I’m not creative.” Dig deeper, and most people admit that they use their creativity every day in other ways, like writing reports, building benefits programs, making a meal from scratch, or colour coding their closet. 

Because everyone is creative. Yes, even Doug in Accounting.

If you’re anything like me and you can’t paint, draw a stick figure, or even sing Happy Birthday, you might think you don’t have a creative bone in your body.

Many researchers have shown that engaging in everyday creative activities increases positive emotions and a sense of flourishing.

Doing something creative makes you happy. The best part? Your output can suck, and you still get the benefits.

Researchers split creativity into a number of types. Broadly, there are two main categories:

Big C Creativity

The iPhone, Sistine Chapel, Mona Lisa, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, or Aristotle’s foundational philosophies.

Little c creativity:

Adding a macro to your spreadsheet, a fun twist to your email signature, or dressing up your break room (or home office) for a holiday.

I was in San Diego last year for a conference, when I took a few minutes to head to the beach with my sketchbook to draw the sunset. I have no idea how to draw but it seemed like an appropriate beach sunset activity. 

My drawing? Well, let’s say it is no masterpiece. In fact, it was so bad that I spontaneously burst into laughter when I gazed upon the completed product because it was so far away from what I had hoped to represent on the page.  

At the conference earlier that day, I shared my 5 habit framework, DANCE, designed to help you build a creative mindset in minutes a day. I guarantee that if you use these habits every day, you’ll start to see things a bit differently and start seeing opportunities in ambiguity to make positive, innovative change. 

Benefits of Creativity for Improving Workplace Wellbeing

Not only that, but individuals who use their creativity often report experiencing greater happiness, increased motivation, and a more positive outlook on life.

Creativity can also buffer the negative effects of stress and improve mental health. During the peak of COVID, many people turned to Sourdough bread and Toilet Paper castles to blow off the stress.

So, when you use your creativity, you feel happier. Then, when you’re happier, you tend to engage your creativity, creating a positive feedback loop that fuels resilience. 

With a happier mindset and a willingness to step into something with an unknown outcome, we build our ability to bounce back from setbacks and face adversity.

It’s not about producing tangible artistic output, but engaging our imagination and expressing ourselves in unique ways. This engagement fosters positive emotional states and greater mental flexibility, allowing us to forge novel connections and generate original ideas. 

The real reason we feel happier after we use our creativity?

Researchers say that it’s because we are solving a problem. Creativity is simply problem-solving. How do you represent that tree on a canvas? What spice should you add to punch up the flavour? What Excel hack should you use to make your spreadsheet sing!?

Practical Strategies for Engaging Everyday Creativity

• Find Your Small “c” Creativity: Find creative ways to approach everyday tasks and problem-solving, or consider practicing a hobby you enjoy but tell yourself you “don’t have time for.” (something you loved tinkered with during the pandemic or loved in high school, perhaps?) 
• Redefine what you are already doing as creative: this interview series explores people in “non-creative” fields who are able to see the work they do as creative, from NASA to Healthcare, HR and beyond. 
• Promote Creative Expression: Add your personality to your presentations or your email signature. Take a risk to stand out and be different. 

• Art Appreciation: Take a tour of a virtual (or physical) museum. Notice what draws you in or repels and wonder why you react that way? Art appreciation is proven in many studies to increase tolerance of ambiguity.  
• Explore Gallup’s 3 Criteria for a Creative Organization: Understand the elements that foster creativity on an organizational level.
• Practice 5 Habits for a Creative Mindset: get one small action a week in your inbox that takes less than 5 minutes in this 6-week course.

Creativity impacts all 9 dimensions of tolerance of ambiguity, helping you face change with greater confidence.

The Role of Tolerance of Ambiguity in Improving Workplace Wellbeing

In order to thrive in increasingly complex situations where outcomes are uncertain, we need to build our Tolerance of Ambiguity (TOA). This skill builds our confidence in unclear situations and gives us the perseverance to dive into complex problems to find real solutions. Not only does it provide strength in uncertainty, but it is also a critical factor in improving wellbeing. 

The 9 Dimensions of Tolerance of Ambiguity:

There are 9 dimensions of tolerance of ambiguity, and you may find yourself strong in one area while struggling in another. 

• Comfort with Difficult Problem: Are you content to bide time while seeking further information, or enjoy the process of finding a solution? 
• Comfort with Social Ambiguity: Are you a fish out of water in social situations, or worry about what others are thinking of you?  
• Comfort with Shades of Grey:  How many perspectives does it take to change a lightbulb? Are you open to seeing things from many points of view? Viewing situations from multiple perspectives and not having “the” answer
• Comfort with Unfamiliarity: Do you readily take on new work tasks? Can you accept making a wrong decision sometimes? 
• Desire for Complexity: Do you thrive in the face of tasks or projects with complex challenges or unfamiliar data or sources? Or do you like a simple solution so that you can move on.  
• Desire for Problem-Solving : Do you approach problems with enthusiasm and persistence? Unless it’s the break room fridge, of course. 
• Desire for Risk-Taking: How willing are you to try something new, even if failure is likely? 
• Managing Lack of Clarity: Do you move forward with the decisiveness of a lion chasing its prey despite uncertainty?
• Openness to Uncertainty: What is your perspective on ambiguity as a threat or an opportunity?

By the way, don’t feel bad if none of these sound like a float down the Thames with a picnic of scones and tea. Nobody likes ambiguity. Sometimes, we just hate it a little less than others. 

Why Embracing Uncertainty Matters

Building tolerance of ambiguity is critical but particularly relevant in high-performance teams and high-pressure environments where burnout and stress are always in the shadows. 

Research has consistently shown a positive link between tolerance of ambiguity and wellbeing. 

Individuals with a higher tolerance of ambiguity tend to experience less stress when faced with unclear situations, they are more adaptable to change, and demonstrate greater resilience in the face of the s@#t hitting the fan. 

Embracing uncertainty is a vital coping mechanism that can be improved with practice to help individuals manage the sphincter-clenching complexities of work and life, ultimately preventing burnout and improving our mental health.

Practical Strategies for Strengthening Your Tolerance of Ambiguity

• Knowledge is Power. What’s your  Tolerance of Ambiguity?: Just like we all think we are better drivers than average, most of us think we are more tolerant to ambiguity than others. Consider an official Indicator of Ambiguity assessment for yourself or your team to find opportunities to build this key skill. 

Here’s a simple but free quiz for teams to get you started or contact me for an official assessment.

• Embrace Mindfulness: Before we can create solutions, it is important to pause your instinctive reactions. Well, unless you’re running from a bear. In most cases, you have a moment to take a deep breath before responding to that email that sent your blood pressure to the moon. Mindfulness practices can help you stay present and manage your reaction to uncertainty. Try a short guided meditation or sit and focus on your breathing for 2 minutes. Hey, don’t feel badly if you suck at meditating! It’s hard for everyone  
• Tap into Your Creativity: Creativity is the only factor that influences all 9 dimensions of tolerance of ambiguity. Try something new without knowing how it’s going to turn out, by picking any new creative outlet. Don’t overthink it, just try something that has always been on your bucket list or sparked curiosity. 
• Cultivate a Supportive Workplace Culture (up next!) 

The answer to uncertainty isn’t actually finding certainty. 

The unpopular answer? The answer to uncertainty is to become more comfortable in the discomfort of feeling uncertain. 

Improving Workplace Wellbeing Begins with Supportive Culture

What is a supportive culture, anyway? 

In a world where employees feel replaceable and quiet quitting is rampant, what concrete strategies can leaders implement to build a culture where hard work is recognized, contributions matter, and people are empowered to solve problems with innovative solutions? 

Hot Tip: It’s not stacking buzzwords like “think outside the box” and “investing in people”  while refusing time off requests and forcing unreasonable deadlines.

While Individuals can use strategies to build a creative mindset and tolerance of ambiguity, a supportive workplace culture serves as a foundation for improving performance across an organization or team. 

A supportive environment is characterized by employees who feel genuinely valued, supported with the resources and training needed, empowered to explore their creative potential and take thoughtful risks without fear of negative repercussions. 

This sense of psychological safety is essential because it allows individuals to voice their opinions and make mistakes as part of the learning process. 

Cross-departmental collaboration is also instrumental to a creative and collaborative culture. Steve Jobs built a single bank of bathrooms in Pixar, equipped with a chalkboard, to allow ideas to cross-pollinate and organically bump up between employees in different teams. 

The Paradox of Ambiguity

Ambiguity is not going away, but it is extremely stressful and contributes to a negative culture. The key to clear and consistent leadership is to remove ambiguity when you can, and lean into it when it’s out of your control. 

With role ambiguity being a leading cause of burnout, it seems simple. Make sure people know what their job is. 

Then, within that job, allow them autonomy and flexibility to deliver those results in their own way.  

Build a positive workplace culture by decreasing stress with clear role definitions and organizational objectives, combined with giving employees the flexibility to use their creativity to take small risks, try new things, and feel empowered by their impact on the organization. 

With this combination, you will build teams who feel connected to their purpose, know that their contribution matters, and that it is serving the goals of the organization. 

Employees who practice their creativity are half as likely to be looking for another job, and creative teams have more cohesion with more innovative contributions. 

Don’t forget to make sure that people have time to rest. Resolving role ambiguity doesn’t help if that role is expected to work long hours without vacation time. 

So, if you want employees who can solve problems on their own, with managers who are putting out fewer fires and instead building confident teams, focus on a supportive culture. It starts with resolving the ambiguity where you can and building skills in teams to face ambiguity when you can’t resolve it. 

Tangible Steps for Embraving a Supportive Work Environment

• Make Meetings Matter: No one likes a meeting that could have been an email. Make sure your meetings are designed to foster creative problem-solving in a low-stakes environment so that you can hear all the voices at the table. Read more here. 
• Provide Training: Offer training and resources to support creative development, resilience, and wellbeing. This can include talks or workshops on creative problem-solving, workplace wellbeing, or improving tolerance of ambiguity. 
• Support Employee Wellbeing: Implement programs and benefits that address the individual mental health and wellbeing needs of your employees (and involve them in the process!) 
• Reduce Role Ambiguity: Clearly define roles and responsibilities to minimize uncertainty and confusion. Provide clear expectations and feedback, with flexibility to solve problems on their own. 
• Organizational Goals: Ensure that everyone knows what you’re trying to achieve, both as teams and as organizations.
• Provide Autonomy: You hired these people for a reason. Tell them what you are trying to achieve, and give them flexibility on how to implement them. (could link to Chewy.com article or info here)
• Embrace Collaboration: Encourage cross-departmental collaboration to air out ideas, and allow diverse thinking to combine for amazing results. 
• Apply a variety of Brainstorming Methods: Ditch the whiteboard shouting sessions. Research design thinking and creative problem-solving strategies to get the best ideas out of everyone, including introverts. Ask for “bad ideas” because the bad ideas can lead to the idea that changes everything. Check out this article or send me a note if you’re curious about how to start this in your organization. 

If you want teams who surf the tides of change instead of getting pounded by the surf, a supportive workplace culture is the surfboard. 

With a creative mindset and increased tolerance of ambiguity, teams will advance your organizational goals while having fun in the process.