Is Your Network Boosting or Busting Your Creativity?

Boundary-spanning: Creativity drain vs. gain

Source: DALL-E/OpenAI

We are often told that the key to innovation is collaboration. In the workplace, the advice to "reach out," "network," and "break down silos" is constant.

My colleagues and I were interested in this very idea: What actually happens when employees "span boundaries" by building relationships and gathering knowledge from outside their immediate teams or even their companies? Does it automatically spark creativity?

Our recent research, published in Acta Psychologica, shows a more complex picture. Boundary spanning is a double-edged sword. While it can be a powerful engine for creative thinking, it can just as easily drain the mental fuel needed to innovate.

In a controlled experiment and a field study with hundreds of employees and their supervisors, we found that reaching out to external sources for new ideas, resources, and inspiration consistently predicted employee creativity. But the story of how this happens involves two competing pathways: a "gain" and a "drain."

The Creativity Gain: The Power of Thriving

The upside of spanning boundaries comes from what psychologists call "thriving at work." Thriving is more than just being happy; it is a dynamic state of feeling energized and alive (vitality) while also continuously learning and growing. You absorb fresh perspectives when you connect with people in other departments, consult with outside experts, or explore new technologies.

This process is invigorating. It provides the raw materials, such as new knowledge and unexpected insights, that are the lifeblood of creativity. Our studies showed that when boundary-spanning activities made employees feel like they were thriving, their creativity increased.

The Creativity Drain: The Toll of Ego Depletion

But there's a flip side to this.

The very act of spanning boundaries is mentally taxing. Navigating complex external landscapes, processing large volumes of information, and managing external relationships consume significant cognitive and emotional resources. This leads to what is often called ego depletion, a state of mental fatigue where your capacity for self-control and complex thought is diminished.

How does ego depletion work? Think of your mental energy as a finite resource. Every demanding task chips away at it. When you have spent the day wrestling with unfamiliar concepts or negotiating with external partners, you may have little energy left for the deep, innovative thinking required to connect disparate ideas.

Our research confirmed this "drain" effect. Boundary-spanning activities that led to ego depletion ultimately hampered creativity.

Striking the Right Balance

So, how can organizations and individuals harness the benefits of boundary spanning without succumbing to burnout?

Our findings point to a clear need for balance. For managers, it’s not enough to simply encourage employees to network. You must also foster a supportive culture that emphasizes these activities. This means providing the necessary resources, acknowledging the effort involved, and ensuring employees have the autonomy to pursue promising external connections.

For employees and individuals more broadly, the key is to be proactive but also protective of your mental resources. Recognize the signs of mental fatigue. It’s crucial to build in time for recovery and detachment from work. Activities that allow you to unplug and recharge are not luxuries; they are essential for sustaining the very creativity your organization values.

In the end, fostering innovation isn't about pushing yourself to simply "collaborate more." It's about collaborating smarter. You'll be the most creative you can be, not by spending your time meeting as many people as possible in the hope of "collaborating," but rather by seeking external knowledge while protecting the internal energy needed to forge that knowledge into something new.