A PLACE OF WORK
The office is really just a modern day version of a factory - a cacophony of clattering keys & swishing of mice, with rows of workers busily churning out endless digital iterations of work from computers where once in their place stood looms spinning reels of material and furnaces spewing steel.
We haven't come all that far from the industrial revolution in terms of how we work. There's still the clock in/out format of an 8 hour day over 5 days a week. We still have the need to travel to and from a set place of employment and hierarchy of overseers to ensure the virtual cogs keep on turning.
We have mobile technology to work with including many forms of communication, so why are we still following this outdated Victorian work model?
There have been many attempts to 'jazz up' the workplace by adding all kinds of 'fun', colourful, quirky props and gimmicks that are supposed to make the chore of going in to a box and sitting in rows of desks alongside people we barely know, more bearable. Why are we essentially spending increasingly more time with strangers, than with our real friends or loved ones?
The modern office has many flaws. Gone are the days of doors. Personal offices, if they are still used, are exclusively the places for the top exec to reside in. Everyone else is out on the 'shop floor', where they are more visible and readily available for interactions.
This means extroverted sales people can mix with introverted creatives and anyone can approach whoever they please to get what they 'want'. Yet, loud pushy sales people are arguably not going to be a benefit to the quieter creative types and therefore dealing with a barrage of requests can distract us from the task of actually doing the work.
There are clear preferences for Myers Briggs introverted personality types to have solitude and arguably, there have been many good books and cases brought to the attention of office environment architects that highlight the problem of having such open-plan spaces. It's been shown how in-effective these places can be for the many introverted thinkers who require quite solitude to conceive or creative new ideas. I look forward to the day when the work revolution finally comes.
Flexible hours = flexible workers = creative workers = productive workers = happy workers. And that all equates to a successful thriving business. Or maybe not?
A lot of the technology we use today, can be taken out of the office and used on the go or at home. Yet, we are stuck in a kind of paradox. Companies are trying to utilise the modern technology and combine it with what they believe to be a work environment conducive for great creative thinking and high productivity. They add in adult slides, astroturf and play areas, beanbags and fuss-ball tables - and expect the magic to happen. It doesn't. You can't just add all those distractions and pointless toys 'n' gimmicks and think there'll be award-winning creative ideas flying out of the door.
Thing is, creative people need quiet space and time and then even more time, to conceive of great ideas. These thoughts come to us through quality moments when we've shut ourselves off to outside influences allowing the thought synapses to fire off freely and do their thing. They come from a stilled mind - one free from other cluttering thoughts and any prompts for action on lower-ranking actions. They usually come to the front of our conscious minds in the quiet of the morning or during a walk around the park when the distractions are turned down.
That Eureka! moment we experience, is the result of our brain working across both hemispheres to find a solution. The left side of the brain, which deals with logic - will strive for a solution. If there are no immediate logical answers, it's simultaneously passed through the right hemisphere. The right hemisphere (operating the left side of the body), is our creative brain.
The region where our inspiration or insights come from is known as the anterior superior temporal gyrus. Studies carried out into how insight works in the creative regions of the brain, have shown that our 'ah ha' moments stem from the right part of the brain, which helps us to access farther-reaching connections (sometimes also the bigger picture) that we couldn't formulate with logical, formulaic/systematic types of thinking. Between the two spheres, we have greater scope for allowing us to solve more complex problems and formulating ideas, as this informative documentary shows.
The studies have also shown where brain activity clearing Alpha rays are emitted in the short time before synapses fire gamma-rays. This process happens in the brain to create neural pathways - linking up knowledge/inspiration and allowing new ideas to form from this complex brain function. We essentially need silence, or freedom from distractions to first switch on these neurons in order to work their magic. Apparently, they only do this after around 15 minutes of quality thought immersion. And when do we get 15 minutes of undistracted time in an office, especially the modern version of an office - the ones that are open-plan, noisy and full of a whole multitude of distractions? Rarely. We know this, yet, we're thrashing around in this work quagmire - slowly drowning.
Time And Space (and playfulness)
I love these great videos (click for link to vimeo) from John Cleese, of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame (amongst other great shows, sketches, films etc.) - who is arguably, one of the best comedy writers of the 20th century, talking about what it is to be creative.
He firstly tells us something that a lot should already realise, that creativity isn't a talent - it's a way of doing things. He cites confirmation of his understanding with the work of Donald W. MacKinnon. He also understands the importance of being in a creative space - he calls it, 'in the open mode' - with space in your mind, time for being receptive to ideas forming, more time to explore these formations and the importance of being in a place where you can be shut off from outside distractions to allow all this to happen.
Home Working - Not Working
So, we've identified the right way of going about the creative process. The work environment has been been greatly modified for the 21st century. Flexible hours, working from home options and connection with the world in the 24/7 'always-on' technological revolution should all be giving us the freedom to move in greater and more productive spheres.
Unfortunately, we're not getting it right and it's strangling the creative process. Dave Coplin has written a couple of books - one entitled: Business Reimagined: Why work isn't working and what you can do about it- and in it, he talks about the modern day issues that are holding back the creative process. By increasing process and further complicating process with ineffective uses of technology plus seeding a fear that if you're not seen to be busy, you're not busy and so you had better be visible. This is why WFH - 'working from home' policy has been back-tracked in a lot of modern office environments. A very large percentage of the office workforce are disengaged, ineffective and fruitlessly expending their efforts. Employees are being left run ragged, trying to appear productive, working at breakneck speed to clear menial tasks (but important to some people) like emails etc. and consequently NOT allowing time/space/isolation for (as John Cleese puts it) 'the right way of doing things'. The very kind of environment we get at home.
The audiobook can be purchased through Audible on Amazon (US only) or via iTunes.
