When Creativity is Scary
Confessions from a creative
I have a confession to make.
Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed. And not just a little. Genuinely, honestly overwhelmed. Between the unpredictability of those in power, a choppy economy, and the state of higher education, our world feels topsy-turvy, even on a good day.
During periods of high change, the pull toward the familiar is real. We reach for what feels stable. Thinking creatively starts to feel risky (even dangerous!) because the stakes feel so high. I’m not immune to that pull. What I am hyper-aware of is the downside risk it carries.
The elephant in the room: AI.
It’s lumbering through every water cooler conversation, social feed, and news outlet right now. And while I generally love learning new things — tinkering with tech, chasing productivity hacks, reimagining what’s possible — the buzz around AI triggers something in me I didn’t expect: real FOMO.
There’s a quiet anxiety that whispers, if you don’t master this, you’ll be left behind. Maybe you’ve heard that whisper, too. The trouble is, it’s all changing so fast that it’s hard to feel the ground beneath your feet.
Turns out, I’m not alone.
Research shows that many leaders are experiencing what’s been called a “psychological withdrawal,” a prolonged sense of disempowerment driven not just by AI, but by the broader swirl of global uncertainty. The antidote, according to Merete Wedell-Wedellsborg’s work in HBR, isn’t to give up or grip tighter. It’s to consciously adapt: identify what’s changing and what’s stable, co-pilot through the transformation, and create low-stakes spaces to play and experiment. Agency, it turns out, is something you can rebuild, deliberately.
What I’m seeing in the work.
As I’ve deepened my own practice in AI culture change through partnerships and coaching leaders navigating these transitions, one thing has become clear: the leaders getting real traction aren’t the most technically sophisticated. They’re the ones who understand that AI adoption is, at its core, a culture change challenge.
That’s bearing out in the results I see with my clients. The teams making the most progress are doing the change management work: winning hearts and minds, not just deploying tools. They hold peer-to-peer learning sessions. They share early wins and normalize failure. They craft a “what’s in it for me” narrative and tie it directly to business impact. And critically, they name the fears out loud, and then invite experimentation anyway.
Storytelling doesn’t get a day off. Neither does empathy.
If AI transformation is part of your 2026 goals, here are five questions worth integrating into your plan:
Where is your team feeling most overwhelmed by process? That friction is often your best starting point for an AI pilot.
What’s the bottleneck that no one talks about? The workarounds your team has quietly built are a map to where automation could have the most impact.
How are you tracking, measuring, and celebrating AI adoption? Recognition shapes behavior. If experimentation isn’t rewarded, it won’t happen. And it certainly won’t lead to meaningful, sustainable change.
How are you addressing pockets of resistance? Resistance is usually fear wearing a different hat. Name it, don’t manage around it.
How do you define success in years one through three, and how are you communicating that story in a way that motivates rather than threatens? The narrative you build now will either carry your team through or leave them behind.
Don’t forget the humans.
Change fatigue is real. Apathy exists. Active disengagement — quiet quitting before it had a name — is chipping away at your culture right now. The anchors people once counted on are shifting seismically, and everyone knows there’s no going back to how things were.
In the rush to squeeze more efficiency from the system, let’s not lose the thing that makes work worth doing: the joy of solving hard problems together, creating something that matters, and connecting with the people alongside us. That human element isn’t fluff, it’s strategic. And in a world increasingly mediated by machines, it may be our greatest differentiator.
That’s what I’m holding onto, anyway. I hope you’ll hold onto it with me.
Anne Jacoby is Founder and CEO of Spring Street Solutions, a boutique culture consultancy helping enterprise leaders navigate the human side of AI transformation. If your team is wrestling with innovative mindsets and AI adoption, she’d love to talk.
April is Arts, Culture & Creativity Month!
Between holidays, Spring Breaks, and moments of pause from the routine, let’s recognize how creativity shapes our lives: economically, socially, and in our everyday well-being.
Two years ago, I released my first book, Born to Create — a love letter to the creative people who've shaped my journey, from my early days as a performer, to the entrepreneurs I've built businesses beside, to the bold creative leaders I coach today.
To celebrate Global Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21, Porchlight Books is running a special promotion on Born to Create bundles — a great way to spark creative thinking and doing across your teams. 🔥
Dorothy Parker called creativity a wild mind and a disciplined eye. Here’s to yours.
