When the work you do includes more than yourself, you can make contributions through productive or relational value. Productive value refers to contributions you make to create a good or a service. You may have insights about how to sell a product to a new market, how to deliver a service more efficiently, or how to perform a dance more graciously. These ideas and actions enhance the productive value of a task. This is all about delivering great goods and services efficiently and accomplishing tasks with the highest quality. Relational value is about fostering a climate of support and growth among your peers and employees. You add relational value when you behave compassionately, when you encourage your peers to learn, and when you create a psychologically safe place. The more relational value you create in the workplace, the higher the likelihood to generate productive value. Fear, the opposite of psychological safety, imposes a tax on productivity and most certainly kills creativity. We must nurture the capacity to add productive and relational value at the same time. We must encourage the acquisition of technical as well as relational skills.

This chapter provides guidance on ways to become aware of the language you use and the stories you tell about your research in order to gain insight about the assumptions you hold about research. Noticing these patterns provides the opportunity to craft new stories that reinforce your use of the creative abilities and your identity as a creative scholar.

This chapter focuses on finding diverse sources of feedback on your work. Researchers tend to work either independently or in project-focused teams. As a result, they may rarely get input on early ideas or interact with people in fields outside their own. This chapter highlights the benefits that diverse input can provide, including providing you with surprising insights you would not have otherwise encountered, helping you develop a deeper understanding of your research process, and enabling you to see your challenges in light of others’ common struggles. We present strategies for understanding your various types of feedback needs and for building a diverse support network that meets those needs.