Page 249 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT DELIGHTS ME? (CIVILITY AND HAPPINESS)

reports, “My life was lackluster. I knew it but lacked the will
and resources to change it. I crunched numbers by day, in a
place that felt like a tomb, and I ate cookies at night to calm my
fears of being dead.” Jerry took a course in creativity from Julia
and Mark and was assigned to spend time each week feeding
his creative interests. He couldn’t think of any. He did other
assignments, but he was not experiencing the usual jump in
delight that came as people invest in their creative lives.
Then Jerry remembered a long-forgotten curiosity about
Oriental rugs. He began to explore rug stores on his day off.
He was fascinated. The romance and timelessness of caravans
moving across the deserts sparked his imagination. Being the
good accountant he was, he began to study the rugs, learn the
rules about what made them valuable, and run the numbers
on rugs he liked. One day he found a rug in a secondhand
store that he quickly realized was a steal. He bought it, took
it to work, and put it in his office. He writes, “That first rug
transformed my office and my life. It gave me something to
talk about with clients, and I suddenly understood in a visceral
way what my job really was. I was supposed to help clients
turn their money into beauty, things they dreamed of. I sud-
denly had new respect for my job and new respect from my
clients. I learned to listen to the beauty in the numbers. . . .
I help clients manifest their dreams.” 1
Creative accountants not only help find creative answers
to problems that bore most of us; they bring a sense of mean-
ing and delight to colleagues and customers. Creativity on
the plant floor may mean the difference between turnover
and retention, between business as usual and innovation,
between line-stopping problems and back-saving solutions.
People shouldn’t have to work for Disney to have the chance
to be imaginative, innovative, or inspiring at work.

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