Now that is a novel thought if I ever heard one.  Joyful at being inefficient?

How is that possible when all our life we have been  admonished to be efficient, hurry up, don’t forget to take your lunch, don’t be late, use your time and money wisely, don’t leave home without it (whatever “it” may be)?



Can creative leadership and inefficient leadership work well side by side in the same group, church or business?  Can you pursue innovation and creativity and, at the same time, be excellently efficient? Maybe not.

Creativity is often not neat, tidy and “efficient.”  Being efficient, in the traditional sense of the word, can kill creativity. It seems like an oxymoron, joyfully inefficient; being a happy slob at work…seriously?

Do you have to choose here…to either be creative and inefficient, or be non-creative and efficient?

Being efficient, it seems, mandates that we not let our creative passions run too wild. Put a lid on it. Be in control. Be predictable.

Maybe we can go down the road of not asking creative types to be overly efficient nor efficient types to be overly creative. On the other hand, can’t we wed the two instead of making them enemies?

How many creative people have walked away from “efficient organizations” because they felt suffocated by all the “bureaucratic rules;” or been fired for not being organized enough? Can we embrace pockets of intentional inefficiency in an otherwise efficient culture, or is that asking for too much?

What do you think about being joyfully inefficient? It would be great to have your comments posted here. Weigh in…whether you are the efficient type or the creative type.