What's the timesheet code for "thinking"?
(Pam) I believe there is a huge dilemma facing us in the business world and I don't know how we'll get to grips with it - but surely we will need to start acting soon. It's the expectation that every minute needs to be accounted for or we're not being productive (filling out timesheets for every hour of the day) without allowing us time for inspiration, learning, knowledge gathering, socialising, day dreaming at work. I've been reading tons of books about creativity in the last week (in a separate post I'll list them) - and of course, as we already know, they say we MUST have time off in our brains to be able to be creative.
In the last place I worked they thought being creative is something you do for a client, on paid time, and only if you're in the right department. Being creative wasn't valued for coming up with new solutions to internal issues, future thinking about products, how to make the team feel better, or even for client issues in the end.
What on earth is it going to take for companies to stop force feeding people with emails and procedures to take up every extra hour in the day - how can we find some time to just think? Or talk? Or day dream? I know that we will look back on today's business world and laugh at how we all just chased our tails without being truly useful or having quality thinking- but those of us who know it's true now must start to make a difference....but how?
My commitments in my new job:
keep to the hours in the day - go home on time to give my brain a rest
find time for thinking, daydreaming, discussing - I'm going to give one afternoon a week to inspiration
keep talking to other people - I'm going to keep in touch with a variety of people who don't work in my company - which will benefit my company because of the opportunity for perspective and shared learning
provide the opportunity for people in the business to be inpsired and creative (okay that's my job description - but I can't do that without living it myself, don't you think?)
watch this space for my progress....do you think I'll stick to it? what pitfalls do you forsee? have you ever tried this before? I haven't.
In the last place I worked they thought being creative is something you do for a client, on paid time, and only if you're in the right department. Being creative wasn't valued for coming up with new solutions to internal issues, future thinking about products, how to make the team feel better, or even for client issues in the end.
What on earth is it going to take for companies to stop force feeding people with emails and procedures to take up every extra hour in the day - how can we find some time to just think? Or talk? Or day dream? I know that we will look back on today's business world and laugh at how we all just chased our tails without being truly useful or having quality thinking- but those of us who know it's true now must start to make a difference....but how?
My commitments in my new job:
keep to the hours in the day - go home on time to give my brain a rest
find time for thinking, daydreaming, discussing - I'm going to give one afternoon a week to inspiration
keep talking to other people - I'm going to keep in touch with a variety of people who don't work in my company - which will benefit my company because of the opportunity for perspective and shared learning
provide the opportunity for people in the business to be inpsired and creative (okay that's my job description - but I can't do that without living it myself, don't you think?)
watch this space for my progress....do you think I'll stick to it? what pitfalls do you forsee? have you ever tried this before? I haven't.
posted by ROInnovation at 3:20 AM
2 Comments:
I totally agree, Pam. Thinking and creativity are too often looked at as "extra-curricular" activities.
Of course, 3M and Google are pretty well-known for requiring that employees spend 20% of their time exploring new ideas. It's a part of the culture.
Contrast that with Microsoft Office's latest attempt to inspire new ideas. They have created a new internal "Lab", hiring a couple dozen people to work on new technologies full-time. I embrace the thinking behind the move, but wonder if isolating a few people and charging them with innovation really fosters cultural change? I think innovation is an inclusive process... and I wonder how the Company could develop a program with the message that innovation comes in many shapes and forms, and should be part of everyone's job?
This is an issue that needs more commentary, and some fresh thinking. There's a better way... we just need to (ironically) spend a little thinking time to come up with it.
Hey Scott
You know, the new department I work in sounds a bit like the one you mention at Microsoft.
From the outside we could be described as the department in charge of coming up with the new ideas, but in fact only half our job is to help other teams around the business to come up with new ideas around specific projects or topics (like an internal ideation consultancy team). And the key here is that we find out about technology, trends and creativity in order to help other people come up with the ideas (rather than create them ourselves).
And the other half is a cultural piece is that we have to find ways of making the whole company culture more innovative and creative.
So - they sound similar, although it seems like ITV has the right intentions with the Imagine department (where I work). It's going to be hard though!
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