Productivity does not equal creativity

We've convinced ourselves that being busy is the same as being creative. It's not. 

In this episode, Olivier breaks down one of the most misunderstood dynamics in modern work: the difference between true creativity and productivity dressed up to look like it. If your work has started to feel empty, forced, or directionless, this episode explains the reason why.

Reflect on these questions as you listen: 

• When was the last time you did something without an objective?
• What would your work look like if it were driven by originality instead of expectation?

Follow on Linkedin: Olivier Egli 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

I'm your host Olivier and this is the Do Happy Work Podcast where we look at work in a different, more natural, and more peaceful way. Hello and welcome back to the Do Happy Work Podcast. I'm Olivier Egli, your voice of nature in business. Let's talk about creativity, one of my favorite topics, because in my former work life I was being paid for being creative. Yet most of the time I actually didn't feel creative at all. I felt like I traded my time for money, but my true sense of originality and self-innovation never really came to light. And that wasn't until I discovered that there is a deeper issue at play. We are busy. We're always doing something, always moving, always filling our days with things that feel important. And if we're truly honest, most of it is driven by one thing alone. We want results. We want to get somewhere. We want to achieve something. We want to see progress, growth, what have you. And then we look back at what we've done and we we measure it against the outcome and call that creativity. We think that creativity got us there. We call that productivity, we call that growth, we call that all the things that we look for in our work. But what if that's not true or if that's not full picture? If there's a greater thing at play that we miss? Because when you really look at it, what we are doing most of the time is not creativity, it's production, it's effort, it's movement, it's energy that we spend in the direction of a defined outcome. We try to cross a line rather than just being involved in being creative and sourcing from a place of truth. Creativity lives somewhere else. It doesn't live in the things onto which we project creativity. And that's the problem that we have turned creativity into a thing that is cast into an object. But creativity doesn't live in objects, it doesn't live in busyness, it doesn't live in constant motion, and it certainly doesn't live in chasing results. As a matter of fact, I came to realize through my own experiences, but also with all the businesses that I work with, that when you attach creativity to an outcome, you actually go and kill it right away. All you have now is reactivity, which has nothing to do with originality sourcing from within. True creativity is detached from outcome, it is tied to something deeper, something much harder to measure. Originality. But do we ever allow for such originality to exist? Do we ever permit ourselves to exist in a space of originality? Ask yourself that. Because originality is a real-time process. It doesn't know about the future or deadlines, objectives, stepping stones, milestones, temples, what have you. It happens as it happens. You don't chase it, you don't force it, you allow for it. You allow for it to come to you and to speak through you. And we know about this from the realm of art. But art is not only reserved to the creation of art, it applies to everything, especially to our work. And we've not been trained to live or work in the original way. We have been trained out of that because that was our original makeup. But now we do something completely else. We have blurred the lines completely. Today, creativity and productivity are almost interchangeable in the business world. We think we're being creative when we're actually just producing more. We think we're being original when we're really just repackaging what's already proven to work. Maybe we slap a different logo or sticker on it or wrap a bow around it to make it look like it's original and different and personal. But the consequences of this are showing. Burnout, frustration, disconnection. We look for purpose because obviously our creativity or our take on creativity is failing us in the quiet sense that something is missing. Well, that's the piece. Most of the businesses I work with are not lacking skill or talent or resources, they're just focusing on the wrong thing. They're submitting this holiest of holy, this inner temple of originality, of the source to parameters that destroy it, that make it impossible to access. They're lacking what's so fundamental, the creative spark. They're producing, they're constantly, efficiently, but what they produce feels empty for this very cause. And now they're interchangeable, replaceable, they're disconnected, the loyalty fades, and of course we're not as engaged in what we do as much as we could. And creativity has been reduced to a function, a department, a layer. Now it's something that happens at the end of a process to make things look better or sell better. Because we know that in most businesses, the creative part is the one where marketing, communication, advertising happens when we present it to the people. But creativity needs to be at the very beginning, it needs to be at the base layer, it needs to be tied into the why of the business. Creativity is not a finishing touch, it is the source itself. It's the origin of anything that actually matters. And when you disconnect from that source, something important happens. You disconnect from yourself. Your work starts to feel forced, your decisions become reactive, your direction becomes unclear, and you might still be productive, but you're no longer aligned. So, how do we get here? It's surprisingly simple because we just stopped allowing ourselves to roam. We've been conditioned to believe that time without a clear objective is wasted time, that doing something without a defined outcome is inefficient and insignificant, irresponsible even. And so we fill every gap and we think that's purpose. We optimize every hour, we structure every effort, we chase clarity through action, we make every connection count towards goals. But in doing so, we silence something essential, our creative intuitive nature. We replace it with a purely productive identity, one that is driven by logic, output, and measurable results. And that identity is only a fraction of who we actually are. Even our relationship with technology reflects this. We idolize tools that are incredibly productive, but completely uncreative. But we mistake them for being creative, and that's exactly the issue that shows. Those tools, they're not inherently superior as what we make them to be. They're just a mirror of how we have chosen to operate. They reinforce the idea that output is everything and that output measures creativity. But here's the truth: creativity is not optional. It's not a talent reserved for a few people, it's not something you either have or you don't have. It is fundamental. It is the way nature expresses itself, it's the way it organizes itself, it's why it is. And if you look closely, you'll see it everywhere in adaptation, collaboration, evolution, even a mutation. We just call it different things, and we just focus on the doing. But what is it at the core? It's always the same thing. It's a deep connection to the self that is connected to something bigger. So the self that sources from something bigger. That's originality as it shows. We call it the muse or inspiration. But where is your muse? Where's your inspiration in your work? Where is the permission that you give yourself to allow it into your life free of objectives? Because she does not like objectives. She does not like the restrictions you impose on her. So the question is, how do you reconnect with her? And the answer is not more effort. It's not putting more deadlines, more objectives, more goalposts in your way. It's actually removing them. It's creating space. You have to create space again. Not as a luxury, but as a necessity. Space without objective, time without expectation, a place where curiosity can exist without pressure, where you move not towards goalposts and deadlines, but you move in beautiful circles. You just move to move. You can call it a lab, a playground, a private realm, what have you. It doesn't matter what form it takes. What matters is that it exists and that you allow for it. It has to be a place where you can explore, build, break, and create without judgment, where doing for the sake of doing is not seen as wasteful but as essential. This is not just about feeling better or rebalancing your life and your work. This is about restoring your ability to do meaningful work. Because until you reconnect with your originality, your work will remain fragmented and disconnected, pulled in different directions by external demands. But once you do, once you do allow yourself to operate from that place, something shifts and your eyes open and you begin to see more clearly. You start to feel conviction in what you do. Your work gains weight, it gains direction, and you really, really lean into it. And most importantly, it becomes yours. Because now productivity is no longer forced, it is connected to the source, and the source gives it meaning and dimensionality and context. It is informed by who you actually are, by who you've always been, and that's where real happy work begins. Thank you so much for listening.