innovation playground Idris Mootee

Cubicles Are Anti-Collaboration And Is a Bad Social Design

Not sure you have heard about the concept of “social design”, which generally refers to interactions between the modern knowledge workers can support and stimulate innovation and  productivityl. It is almost universally accepted the linkage between interaction and creativity, research  explains a great deal about why there is a tremendous difference between interacting face to face and all other forms of interaction.  In 1987, Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach identifi ed a phenomenon he labeled “the productivity paradox.”. What he discovered was that although American companies spent trillions of dollars on information technology in the 70s and 80s, the productivity of those workers had not improved much. Productivity improvements are the fundamental reason for these IT investment, this research calls into question the IT strategy of nearly every larger organization. I think many of us has come to a point where technology is making us less productive. Think of how many emails coming in your mailbox and how often your browser distract at work. I think people were kind of feeling guilty 5-7 years back when they are browsing at work, today people just open their browsers and IM windws while trying to focus on work.

In late 90s, a team of HP employees were given the assignment of creating their own high
performance work space. Lots of freedom were given to them. All of HP’s engineers, programmers,  business analysts, and project managers were mixed together in the space that had proven tremendously effective at promoting interaction and high productivity. Given the need to reduce time to market and the complexity of the products, these people needed to work together in a different way. The result was a profound change in the way the team worked. Sharing of ideas and information increased dramatically, while the time it took to bring new project team members up to speed was reduced. Put the right people together so they collaborate creatively and intensively, and they can do wonderful things.

Open office has big proven benefits in our business where innovation and collaboration are our everyday work. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is vital and this can only happen in share space. Cubicles is anti-collaboration and so is private offices. We are a big believer in open workspace and it forges a culture of openess. The reasons for people to go to work has changed. It is not about producing a document which you can do that at home, they go to work to meet, to collaborate, to brainstorm, to share, to debate and not doing work in a traditional sense.  Simply put, cubicles are anti-collaboration.

Long before corporations became interested in creativity and collaboration and started learning how to promote it in the workplace--Mother Nature managed creativity through the process of biological evolution. An understanding of evolution won't help companies boosting creativity and collaboration, it does help them manage the unplanned.  The question is what is the best plan to plan for the unplanned?

Five Simple Ways To Boost Creativity In Your Workplace

Meet Adam Rubin (Rothman MBA), he is an experience architect at Idea Couture. He has a typical creative mind and it is hard sometimes for it to slow down from coming up with good; and sometimes great ideas. His brain is hardwired for that and it is designed to break up normal pattern process by constantly seeing sound and motion. There's always a creative rthym working somewhere and that's how his mind can entertain new information, ideas, and concepts and how he likes to see problem solved. He solves problem by loading a rthythm. I will talk more about different types of creative minds next week.

Last week he sent me a link to some very creative business cards. Some of them are really cool and very innovative. I am showing three of my favorite ones here and see if you figure out what their businesses are. Business card is a good starting point to show how serious a company is on creativity. So I came up with five practical things to improve creativity in your workplace, doesn't matter what your business is. Hope you find them helpful.

1/ You have many creative minds in your organization, but they are not applying those to work.  They share great ideas with each other at lunch, over the water cooler and in the pub. Unless you can create a culture of innovation and encourage people to apply their creativity to their work, those creative energy will just be applied elsewhere. Though some individuals are more naturally creative than others, most people are capable of some degree of creativity (yes some rare exception). It doesn’t matter.  An good manager can bring out their people's most creative side and let them contribute fresh ideas. So when you see people in the parking lot in the morning, ask them what's the big idea for today? it works. Remind the it is part of their job.

2/ Create a safe environment for people to show their creative side.  No matter how creative they are, they will not share ideas with management if they do not trust them. The main reason is they don't know what the responses they will get. Sharing a really innovative idea is risky - it may be viewed as this guy/gal is not focused enough on the assigned task or not executing as according to the company's plan. It is always the trust factor. My team comes me crazy ideas all the time,  I listen carefully to each of those crazy ones as I know somewhere there is a gold mine. You must learn to listen no matter how crazy they are. Let them finish and then think about it. Write it down and stick it on the wall for a few days. It shows you are serious about their creative input.

3/ Create a means for people to collaborate on ideas. A good idea can often lead to another bigger idea. By encouraging people to work together particularly cross discipline people to develop ideas, good ideas can be transformed into great ideas and great products or services.  Encourage constructive criticism, as it will people to learn from the creative process. Any destructive criticism will discourage people to share their wild ideas. Wild ideas sometimes have a lot of hidden value if you dig deeper into it. Provide lots of white boards and discourage power points. Ask them to draw. No force them to draw. It is not the drawing, it is the process, do you get it?

4/ Think about creative ways to reward people who give good ideas that are being implemented. It doesn't have to cash. They can be additional off time, unique gifts, and a certificate from the company recognizing the idea such as public acknowledgement from the CEO or senior executive.  Be creative. Please don’t give them those ugly motivational posters with the word ‘creativity’ or ‘winning’. Just be creative. Go to MOMA or other art shops and get some cool stuff. It shows you appreciate ideas. If you give out those posters, it shows you the one who's not bringing creativity to work. 5 / Provide people with lots of tools for creative problem solving, if it means drawing parallels, ideas card and finding connections between processes and events that aren't obviously connected either logically or intuitively, and linking categories that aren't normally associated. Put them on ‘intersections’ of different things. Think "intersections".

Your New Year Resolution-Unlock Your Creative Mind.

This is a warm day and it feels like spring here in Washington DC, unfortunately I’ve spent most of the day in a hotel (I’d love this Park Hyatt that I am staying because they have has a amazing selection of teas ).

I was pondering over a cup of darjeeling our plan for new hires in the next 12 months and how creativity is such an important hiring criteria. There are a lot of common myths and questions about the creative minds? Wonder what makes one a person creative ? Are there certain personality traits? Are there different types of creative people? Can creative people be analytical at the same time? Can creative be separated from art? Can creative people be detailed oriented? I am not giving you answers to all of these questions, at least not today.

Becoming creative is not necessarily about becoming another DaVincci or Steve Jobs. Ordinary people can find their creative side. If you lock into your own creative juices, you can become a better leader. Creativity can be as simple as new ways for old situations. So start the New Year by re-building your creative mind. Let me try to highlight some of most obvious qualities of a creative mind:

They perceive the world differently - Creative people thrive on multi-dimensional of perceiving: sensing, seeing, hearing, touching things. These different perspectives open up their minds to unlimited possibilities. Many people who don’t think that they are creative are those who are fearful of change and prefer to work within limits with limited possibilities (within a box). Creative people enjoy to see many, even infinite possibilities in most situations or challenges. This could be a problem, 80% of creative people have this weakness.

There are sensitive to even tiny little things - Being sensitive helps creativeness in many ways. It helps with awareness of problems in the first place, known & unknown, articulated or unarticulated. Sensitivity usually comes with observant. Creative people constantly are using their senses: consciously, sub-consciously and unconsciously, even non-consciously. Now this one you cannot learn, either you have it or not. Sorry.

They can handle plenty of ambiguity - Creative people needs ambiguity, not simply tolerant of ambiguity. It allows them to flourish, just like a creative person was given with boxes and boxes amount of Lego bricks in all shapes of colors and even material so they can be even molded into other non brick shapes. And there are no instructions booklet so you don’t know what you are building. They actually love to be ambiguous to challenge other people and ideas.

They can synthesize different data intuitively - They have the ability to see the whole picture, seeing emerging patterns, grasp solutions with only just a few pieces. You can be a creative spreasheet reader and that's the quality of a good invesment  banking analyst. Creative knows and good at trusting their intuition, even if theyare right 51% of the time.

They never put money as no. 1 motivator - Money is never the first consideration. As important as money is in today’s world of luxuries and status, it is never a driving force for a creative person. Some say the most creative people generally have an intuitive sense of the amount of money they basically need and once that need is fulfilled then money stops affecting or driving them. This is true most of the time. 95% of creative people are like that. There are the 5% exceptions ( I have one in our company).

Managing The Creative Class Or The Modern Day Working Class "Da Vincis"

People often complain that creative types are difficult to manage if they can be managed at all and many of them are high maintenance in nature. There is some truth here but I don’t necessarily think that is case. My favorite types of creative people are what I called the “Da Vincis”. They are people who can use both sides of the brain. May be this is what Roger Marin refers to as “Integrative Thinker”. I picked up his book The Opposite Mind (while I was stucked in Denver airport for a connecting flight back from Palm Spring where we had a planning session) and I was reading it during this holiday. I buy 10 books a month and I read only one of them. Here is a good one.

“In integrative thinking is such a good idea, why don’t people use their opposite minds all the time? Craig Wynett, head of corporate new ventures at P&G, answers with a great metaphor; he blames our ‘factory setting.’ Like you car’s ignition timing, your computer’s screen brightness, or your washing machine’s spin cycle, your mind emerges from the factory for a specific mode and speed of operations. Few factory settings ever get adjusted, and many of us wouldn’t know how to change them if we wanted to…….your mind setting can be adjusted, if you know how.”

I’ve worked with many super talented and creative people (I don’t mean craft but mental mode) and they can sometimes be idiosyncratic and be careful, as they can become dysfunctional if you don’t provide the right working environment for them. I truly buy into the fact that we are heading into a “creative” economy and these are the people who can provide organizations a competitive edge. If you can inspire, manage and empower these creative classes, it is definitely a sustainable competitive advantage for any organization. Here I provide a few tips to work with the super creative people - level three creative according to my definition, the top in the creative class which people can also apply analytical thinking and reasoning although it is not their operating system. I call them the “Da Vincis”. I have managed and mentor many “Da Vincis” in my long consulting career and it is also something I truly enjoy. Here are four tips and I (you) may come up with a few more:

Let people see and touch creativity:

Creativity is not part of any corporate culture for most organization. Logic overrules creativity 99% of the time. It is important to explicitly inform people that creativity is truly valued and that needs to be reflected in the physical environment. Certain things need to become part of the rituals. Cultivate an environment that induces creativity. Give people the “white space” for them to jam their ideas. Also provide private space for people to work alone (not all creative types are team players). Some people work well when left alone while others find working in a team far more stimulating. Make it a point to identify when people do their best work and treat them accordingly. Do not impose any single formula for all. Spend money on good furniture. Buy Herman Miller (Speaking of which I just ordered a batch of Mirra and Capers chairs for our office today; I am not an Aeron fan)

Creativity and structure can co-exist:

Creative people can be somewhat undisciplined and be reluctant to follow rigid rules. I hate rules too. In real world we have deadlines and milestones, we must make sure that there is “just enough” structure to ensure that they remain on track and follow time lines but not so much as to stifle creativity. Keep reminding them there are more exciting things to do after this otherwise they will drag on and on because they enjoy the journey so much. Just show them more goodies ahead.

Institutionalize “Strategic Time Wasting”:

Any atmosphere of crisis and tension kills creativity. Creative people need downtime to recharge so always give them time to dream. There is nothing called optimized creativity. Exploration requires time and we need to accept the fact they may have “strategic time wasting” mission as part of their job description. . A situation of constant stress does not let new ideas to flourish. We should encourage them to apply their imagination in the workplace and make sure they are appreciated for those efforts.

Have faith in the people that you picked:

Have faith in the process and the people and do not try to micromanage their work. While routine tasks are important, you have to give people the freedom to explore “white spaces” and work out what may seem foolish ideas. Sometimes their ideas need to be shielded from the sharp knives of business constrain, especially when ideas are incomplete or untested. This will create more favorable conditions for innovative ideas to flourish.

Life's Too Short For the Wrong Job

"Life's too short for the wrong job" Here's an ad for jobsintown.de. Nice work by Berlin agency Scholz & Friends. Have a Great Long Weekend!

Five things a company can do to unlock creativity

I received an email from a friend and she asked me what iare the top five things that a company must do to unlock their collective creativity and boost their team innovation productivity. This is my response:

(1) Set up dedicated workspaces for idea storming ( it needs to be colorful, spacious, with modular furnitures that are movable and with plenty of drawing space;

(2) Get rid or boring formal titles. They don't mean much these days. Go for creative titles that help people to become more who they want to be. Creativity over authority.  ( Thanks to Doug Green as I left this one out in the orginal post )

(3) Develop several informal creative communities (hot teams that are formed around special interest) that blurr boundaries between business minds and creative minds;

(4) Develop a language (visual and verbal) for innovation (needs to be invented by the creative class);

(5) Train the larger team about the art of story-telling (prototype drama);