The article emphasizes the importance of one's environment in fostering growth, creativity, and innovation. The author reflects on personal experiences of stifling conditions in jobs and locations, using the metaphor of an air plant that blooms under proper care but withers away when conditions are unfavorable. Through their research during a Ph.D. program, the author discovered that innovation is a multi-stage process significantly influenced by the surrounding environment, highlighting that unsupportive workplaces can limit an individual's potential and well-being.
Over Christmas, a family friend gifted me an air plant. They told me it needed no water, just a little sunlight, to bloom. Skeptical, I placed it on my windowsill.
While pursuing my Ph.D., I focused my research on creative personalities and innovation in the workforce. I wanted to understand the dreamers and the doers.
I suspect that environment plays a key role in innovation, and that workplaces that discourage creativity and individuality severely limit the potential of their employees.
The lesson is clear: Like that plant, people can't thrive in the wrong environment. We might survive for a while, but eventually, being in the wrong space drains the life out of us.
Collection
[
|
...
]