When People Fail You At WorkSample

Emotional Tension vs. Creative Tension

Nehemiah experienced both external and internal opposition while rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. He had a secret to navigating this opposition and reducing the disruption to the “flow” of work.  He viewed it as creative tension and not emotional tension.

Emotional tension leaves you working from an inner place of anxiety, discouragement, hopelessness, and worry. Going deeper into Nehemiah 4-5, we can see how the workers Nehemiah was surrounded by regularly experienced emotional tension that affected their productivity and efficiency at work. Anxiety does not support creativity or clear thinking. Instead, it causes people to pour their energy into fighting against the tension.

Creative tension, on the other hand, doesn’t feel any particular way. Rather it is a force that comes into play at the moment we realize and acknowledge that there is a gap between the vision of our company or team and our current reality. Nehemiah saw evidence of the gap between the vision of his people working together to rebuild a wall and the current reality of opposition. The failures he saw surrounding him were simply opportunities for learning. They exposed inaccurate pictures of current reality, strategies that weren’t working as expected. Ultimately these failures helped clarify his vision and mission. His motivation wasn’t rooted in fighting against “what is” but being drawn deeper into what he wanted to create.

If we work from a place of emotional tension, we are driven to resolve the tension. And we generally do so by shrinking our vision and lowering our goals, which ends up disrupting the entire system.

If we work from a place of creative tension, we are driven by a strong inner vision of what should be and one day will be. And the feelings that result support a sense of personal purpose and genuine caring, not fear or anxiety.

What sort of tension drives you? Your team?

Prayer

Jesus, I know you sympathize with the tension I’m feeling. You too struggled with the cup that you had to drink from the night before you were to be crucified. You carried that tension to the cross and created freedom and new life. I know you can do the same with the tension I’m carrying. I surrender my tension to you. Give me emotional rest and stir the same creativity in me. I ask this in your Holy name. Amen.

Further Exploration

Address workplace tension by giving feedback well .