Why “Above the Line” Thinking is Central to Creativity and Connection (And How to Cultivate It)

“Today I’m going to go out into the world and be mediocre!”

Said no one, ever.

Yet, it’s undoubtedly happened to all of us — more than once.

We’ve shown up at work, with our family or friends, or in other parts of our lives, as less than our brilliant best. On occasion, we’ve judged people, refused to back down when we were wrong, gossiped, and reacted when we should have listened. And we’ve felt overwhelmed.

And, then there are those days when we walk into our current organization and wonder why it feels like everyone (or perhaps just certain individuals) woke up and just decided to be — mediocre, to lower their standards, to half-ass their work.

It can often leave you wondering “can no one do their job but me?!”

If this sounds familiar, you take comfort in knowing it’s not just you. We’ve all been there.

And here’s the thing:

We’re only human. All of us. And yet, we often forget this when we get caught up in the day-to-day realities of work and life.

Imagine what might be possible if we changed the question, and instead asked ourselves “do I believe the people around me are doing the best that they can in this moment?”

Shame researcher and author Brené Brown asked this question in the course of her research and found that this is indeed true of all of us. If we take into account oppression, past hurts, critical incident stress, financial issues, mental health concerns, chronic pain, and more, perhaps each of us really is doing the best that we can in this moment. And to be sure, our best may change from one situation to the next and your best is likely different from mine.

Yet when confronted by workplace stresses it’s easy to gloss over that context and judge ourselves, and our colleagues, harshly. Then, the frustration we feel expands exponentially and ripples out to the rest of the team, the organization, even to our families.

So, what’s at the root of this judgment? Why do we expect relentlessly (and unrealistically) high standards? Why are we so quick to judge when a colleague needs a little wiggle room on a deadline? Why are we so quick to find fault with our own performance when we believe we’ve fallen short? Why do we forget that we are all, in fact, only human?

It all comes down to where we fall on the line.

Above the line vs. below the line thinking.

Imagine that every moment of your life is represented by a thin, black line, and at any moment you’re either operating from above the line, or below the line.

When you’re operating from above the line, you’re open, curious, non-judgmental and you believe growing and learning are more important than being right. You listen deeply and question your own beliefs.

Because you’re not concerned with “winning” at all costs, you’re able to view those around you as allies, rather than enemies, and you appreciate having the opportunity to learn from them. You experience life with what’s known as a growth mindset.

Above the line thinking expands our perspectives and leads to upward spirals of positivity and cultivates the ideal brain state for creativity, innovation, collaboration, and connection.

But when you’re operating from below the line — you’re closed off to new ideas and ways of thinking, and judgmental — of yourself and of others. You’re operating with a fixed mindset and are committed to being right above all else — leading you to act defensively and rationalize as you justify your behavior. You find fault with others and may even find yourself gossiping about your colleagues, often viewing other people and other viewpoints as a threat.

This can quickly lead to feeling overwhelmed, to alienating the people around you, and to a downward spiral of negativity.

Yikes … I’m super below the line. What should I do?

If you think you’re operating mostly from below the line, don’t panic. It isn’t a sign that you’re a bad person, that you’re not cut out for a leadership role, or that there’s anything wrong with you.

You see, as human beings our brains are actually hard-wired to operate from below the line — it’s an evolutionary survival mechanism meant to help us detect threats to our safety — one that used to come in very handy when our prehistoric ancestors were doing everything they could to simply survive and live another.

Unfortunately, our brain hasn’t quite caught up with modern life, and isn’t able to differentiate between what it perceives to be threats to our physical safety and threats to our ego or identity. In fact, research shows that the same regions in our brain light up when the brain thinks we’re about to be physically harmed as it does when we get that vague email from our boss asking us to come and see them. But it’s these threats to our identity or ego that lead us to slip into below the line thinking.

The good news is that we have the ability to nudge ourselves back over to the other side of the line and into that creative, collaborative, and connective headspace.

Here are a few strategies that’ll help you cultivate a growth mindset and get back above the line.

1. Cultivate self awareness.

Self-awareness is vital for everyone, but especially for leaders.

It’s not about judging yourself, and it’s not about forcing yourself above the line all the time. Rather, it’s about pausing and asking yourself “where am I in this moment — above the line or below the line?” Awareness is being able to notice when you have slipped below the line and may be operating with a fixed mindset, and then intentionally engaging with that knowledge and making a choice as to whether you want to stay below the line, or move towards being above the line.

It’s about an attitude shift. It’s about agency.

2. Be curious, not judgmental.

Curiosity is one of the most underrated skills we possess as humans, and one of the fastest ways to get above the line.

When a frustrating situation arises, instead of sliding into judgement, making assumptions, and allowing the brain to create stories that fuel our own confirmation bias, choose to foster curiosity — ask yourself why the individual may have done what they did or is behaving as they are.

And that same principle applies to you, too; separate yourself from the outcome, ask yourself questions, and see what emerges. This is a much less threatening approach and can lead to useful nuggets of self-discovery.

3. Practice mindful self-compassion.

We have a lifetime of experiences that create the lens through which we experience the world. So it’s important to remember that the work of shifting our mindset above the line takes some intentional effort — and time. The reality is that when we’re stressed and overwhelmed it’s easy to slip back into old patterns and fall below the line, especially if we’re operating on autopilot. And when that happens it’s really easy to get down on ourselves or give up altogether.

Mindful self-compassion is about bringing a gentle, loving awareness to the current moment, without judgment and without reproach. Self-compassion and mindfulness are intimately related and rely on each other like two wings of a bird — you can’t practice compassion if you haven’t first noticed the need for it.

We all have our “mediocre” days, we all slip below the line from time to time. But when we attempt to approach our work — and our lives outside of work too — with curiosity, openness, compassion and a commitment to growth and learning, it gets easier to show up as whole human beings. Just as significantly, it leaves us far more open to seeing the human in others too. And that is the key to a happy, healthy, and inclusive workplace.