At the beginning of September, I attended an incredible workshop on improv, play, and imagination.
Sounds fun, right? It was!
But at the same time, it reminded me of a very personal struggle: speaking up in meetings and generally censoring myself at work.
The workshop leveraged decades of brain research and improvisational theater to stimulate flow state, enhance cognitive flexibility, and build emotional resilience.
Skills we often overlook or under-develop throughout our careers.
Early in my career, I often censored myself in meetings because I felt awkward or leaned on senior leaders with better ideas. During meetings, I tried really hard to think up what I thought were the smartest ideas, and I often judged the ones that came to mind that were edgy or out of the ordinary.
It was very often that my best ideas came after the meeting and I couldn’t figure out why they were so poorly timed.
It was frustrating. Come on, brain, couldn’t you just work when I needed you to?!
Turns out, a lot of people know this feeling. But by tapping into our biological creative flow state—at times with the help of AI— we can address these challenges head on.
First, the science behind self-censoring
I love a good scientific foundation. In the workshop, I learned that neuroscientist Dr. Charles Limb has spent over a decade studying what happens in musicians’ brains during improvisation.
His fMRI research reveals something fascinating. When jazz musicians improvise, their brains literally turn off the “dorsolateral prefrontal cortex” (DLPFC), the region in the brain responsible for self-monitoring and conscious control.
Simultaneously, the “medial prefrontal cortex” (think self-expression and personal narrative) lights up like a Christmas tree. This neurological “letting go” is what allows artists to create masterpieces in real-time without second-guessing themselves.
So turning on “dorsolateral” = limits creativity, turning on “medial” = boosts creativity.
Turns out those “perfectly timed” ideas that came after my meetings weren’t poorly timed at all. They emerged when my brain finally relaxed enough to access its creative potential!
Common creative challenges
I still fall victim to my self-conscious brain (let’s be honest), and I still see teams struggle with the same. I see three core creativity killers most often:
Perfectionism paralysis
Teams spend months perfecting ideas before sharing them, missing market opportunities and stifling innovation. The fear of looking foolish or unprepared prevents early-stage creative exploration. And this is exactly the kind of thinking that Limb’s research shows requires turning off our inner critic.
Hierarchy-induced creative blocks
Junior team members self-censor around senior leadership (been there!), while senior leaders unconsciously dominate creative conversations. The best ideas may never surface due to organizational dynamics. When everyone’s brain (DLPFC) is hyperactive with social monitoring, nobody can access their creative flow state.
The “meeting after the meeting” syndrome
The best ideas emerge in hallway conversations after formal brainstorming sessions end, suggesting that formal creative processes actually inhibit creativity. This happens because structured environments often activate our analytical thinking when we need to deactivate self-monitoring.
These creativity killers simply reflect our neurological realities, not any employee’s flaws. Our brains are wired to prioritize social safety and risk assessment over creative risk-taking, especially in professional settings.
Why solving this matters more than ever
Getting this right is business critical for many teams. When they do, they tend to boost:
- Speed to innovation: Companies that can access creative flow states consistently will prototype and iterate faster than competitors stuck in “lets-get-it-perfect” loops.
- Competitive differentiation: In an AI-dominated world, the ability to generate truly novel and creative solutions (not just optimize existing ones) becomes your primary competitive advantage.
- Talent retention: Teams that regularly experience creative flow states are simply happier and more engaged (obvi!). When people feel psychologically safe to share bold ideas, they’re more likely to stay and contribute their best thinking.
I’ve personally experienced a significant drop in all three of these at various points throughout my career (and I’m sure you have, too).
How we’re still falling short
Most companies try to solve creativity challenges with approaches that actually make the problem worse.
I think we’ve all seen the traditional brainstorming rules like “No bad ideas” or “quantity over quality”. Unfortunately, these don’t address the neurological reality that self-monitoring actively inhibits creative flow states. Simply saying “don’t judge” doesn’t turn off the brain regions responsible for self-censorship. It gives you another rule to follow, keeping your analytical brain engaged when it should be resting.
Additionally, some of us have been part of “design thinking” workshops. With their structured processes, sticky notes, and ideation phases are too conscious and analytical. They activate the thinking that prevents the “letting go” that Limb observed in improvising musicians. Your brain gets busy following the process instead of creating freely.
And if you’re lucky to work for a company that prides itself on a “20% Projects” perk, be careful. Google’s is famous for this, but only about 10% of engineers consistently used it, with many reporting it became “120% time” due to pressure to complete regular work first. Freedom alone doesn’t create flow states. It requires specific conditions. Most people just work on safer, familiar problems during their “creative” time because their self-censoring systems remain fully active.
Enter AI-assisted creative flow states
Now, that’s not to say these solutions never work. They have their time and place. But, where they fall short, we can use AI to help us turn off our “self-censorship” to boost creativity that Limb called out in his research.
Anonymous idea evolution
During or around meetings, AI systems can collect, rephrase, and present ideas without revealing who came up with them. This removes the social monitoring that fires up the self-censoring part of our brain. In this approach, teams evaluate ideas purely on merit, not politics or hierarchy. Start with simple anonymous submission forms, then use AI to standardize language and remove identifying markers before group evaluation. Plus, junior team members can get tailored, private feedback to help them improve their ideation skills.
Example: During quarterly planning, team members submit strategic ideas through an AI-powered form that anonymizes and reformats all suggestions before the leadership team reviews them.
Failure-forward automation
Instead of worrying about “what if this doesn’t work?” (which activates self-monitoring), AI does the worrying for you. What if for each idea, an AI tool automatically generated risk assessments and mitigation strategies? Your expertise and judgment would still be required to validate the AI output, but this removes a significant part of failure analysis from our cognitive load. And with those extra cycles, teams can focus on pure creative generation.
Example: When brainstorming new product features, AI (with reasonable context) provides feasibility scores and potential obstacles for each suggestion, so the team can focus on wild possibilities instead of practical concerns. Your judgment is key here.
Improv-based strategic planning
This one’s my favorite. Like Limb’s “trading fours” research showing that musical conversations activate language and grammar centers, teams can use AI-generated scenarios to practice strategic improv. Consider using AI to introduce unexpected constraints or opportunities mid-session, forcing teams to build on each other’s ideas in real-time rather than perfecting individual contributions.
Example: During a strategy session, AI randomly injects scenarios like “your biggest competitor just had a data breach” or “new regulations ban your core product,” and teams must immediately improvise responses together.
The key is using AI to handle the analytical tasks that typically engage our self-censoring systems, freeing you to access your creative flow states.
Final thoughts
When I work with others, I’ve been trying to turn off any self-censor switches. I hope you can, too! If you’re looking to try something new, here’s how you can start small this week using a shared Google Doc with Gemini as your AI assistant.
- Try one anonymous idea submission session for your next project.
- Use AI to automatically generate risk assessments for brainstormed ideas.
- Introduce one unexpected but real-world constraint in your strategy session and see how your team improvises.
Let me know how it goes for you!