Why it matters: Leaders who actively seek novelty create environments where teams naturally discover breakthrough solutions and adapt faster to changing demands.
Earworms are best dealt with through math - activating that part of your brain breaks the musical loop. But what about thought earworms?
You know the type: an idea you suddenly see everywhere. There's a term for this - the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, a cognitive bias where noticing something once makes you keep noticing it.
That is what's happening right now with my exploration of creativity as productivity. I see it in hobbies, side hustles, leadership conversations... it's captured my attention completely.
Novelty is where creativity is born. We need input, awakening, or simple awareness to find something creative or unusual. This applies to how teams solve problems, tackle customer challenges, or birth entire industries (hello AI). Without novelty, we wouldn't evolve our behaviors to match the world's evolving demands.
I'm seeking lots of novelty these days, so I'll let this earworm loop... for now.
Talk soon,
Rachel
Leadership facilitator, coach, and human being
P.S. My watermelon growing attempt produced this adorable but rabbit-sized result. Maybe we'll aim for kiwi-sized next year?
Dig a little deeper: Check out "A More Beautiful Question" by Warren Berger - it explores how curiosity-driven questioning (a form of novelty-seeking) sparks innovation in organizations.
What’s next: I'm experimenting with "novelty audits" - deliberately exposing myself to one unfamiliar perspective, industry, or creative practice each week to fuel fresh thinking. If you try one too, reply back and tell me about it!
Want More?
There's resources on the website for you to download, from free conflict resolution guides, to courses on human-centric leadership, and much more!
Feel free to explore them all.
Thanks for joining me on my search for novelty and one human-centric leaders's journey towards a more balanced life.
