Creative Reaction

The romantic notion of being a creative recluse in a cabin by a lake in the woods is far from the day-to-day reality of a collaborative creative business. Time management as well as the “management” of interpersonal relationships is an integral part of work.

Making Time to Make by Merlin Mann of 43Folders deals with exactly these concerns from the creative person’s perspective. We’re going to repurpose Merlin’s article to take a look at meeting creatives’ needs from a managerial perspective.

One of the keys to productivity is making a conscious choice to determine the most important thing to be working on at any given time. Of course, this choice alone is not enough; structures and conditions must be present to shelter creatives from distractions and the office environment must be conducive to creativity. Ultimately, it is up to managers to ensure these conditions are present.

Merlin’s article is primarily about interactions with people and determining what is appropriate; specifically, interacting with people “enough”, yet not so much that work is inhibited. It asks a series of questions (and I’ve added a few of my own) to optimize both work and creative output.

Environment/Conditions:

• What kind of environment does my talent need to do its best work? The needs may change depending upon personalities, moods, energy, and even the time of day.
• What can I change today to protect that environment for extended blocks of time?
• How much busy work is expected of the creatives? Meetings? Paperwork?
• Does the busy work support the creative work by optimizing blocks of time or inhibit it?
• Can you assist with the busy work or hire an assistant to do this for the creatives?

Time to Create:

• How can we allow our creatives to be “unavailable” for blocks of time?
• How can we keep interruptions away from them?
• Can we shield them from phone calls, e-mail, IMs, and meetings?
• How can we structure work schedules to allow blocks of time to work?

We need the entire company as well as clients and collaborative third-parties to understand the reasoning for this.

Finally, creatives need to be trained to be social and yet stay on task. “Creative breaks” such as foosball or video games are healthy in small doses.

• Which kinds of interaction with clients and co-workers are necessary?
• Can we encourage mealtime interaction?
• Do co-workers make unnecessary demands on your creatives’ attention?
• Can we run interference if need be?

We may need to be the bad guy for them. Enforce a kind of elitism where you help shape interaction to focus on the bigger picture, whether that be the current project, client service, or long-term career decisions. Some requests for attention do not even deserve a response.

Ultimately, this is about keeping perspective. Creatives’ ideas are our company’s products; they’re often the primary source of income. Everything that gets in the way of ideas is a waste of precious talent, so let’s allow creativity to flourish!

“When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost - and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.”
- T.S. Eliot

As tired as I am about “boxes” and “thinking” both in and outside of them, Think Inside a Self-Constructed Box an article on effective brainstorming by the folks at Behance is based on research and deserves mention. They offer the following “tips”, though I think they’re being modest; these are success ingredients:

1. Keep the brainstorming groups small (ideally four people or less).
2. Gather people from different backgrounds, experiences, and interests.
3. Ask questions to build context, a brief, and core values, all to ”frame” the discussion.
4. Have a singular goal. For multiple decisions, hold multiple specific sessions.
5. Leave the meeting with “Next Action” steps.

With the time pressures faced by creative businesses on a daily basis, we would all benefit from more effective brainstorming.

Via 43Folders, I came across this fascinating post on project planning and as it promises, it will change your life.

The article discusses what researchers call “Hofstadter’s Law”, which can be summed up this way: “we know everything always takes longer than expected; we just seem to forget, again and again”.

Our finite minds cannot plan for unforeseen problems because they can’t foresee them.

Which explains why even the “list-makers among us get up each day and make to-do lists that by the same evening will seem laughable”. We are simply setting ourselves up for disappointment.

The two solutions are equally counter-intuitive;

1. Plan in the broadest terms possible, or
2. Simply do things without planning

Quoting the author, “sometimes, the secret to getting things done is just to do them.”

Read the post; bookmark it; print it out; e-mail it to everyone you care about -  it’s that important.

A few days after I posted about creative spaces and This Ain’t No Disco, I came across this Behance Magazine article, where Ian McCallam, the creator of This Ain’t No Disco is interviewed. Ian shares a number of excellent ways to be both productive and creative in a business setting. They include:

• Meetings where members have only 40 seconds to make their point.
• Chair-back signs to indicate frame of mind; “don’t disturb” or “inspire me”.
• Completely clearing desks each month to minimize clutter.

He also talks about actively giving and receiving feedback on ideas, “The more inspiration and ideas you put out there, the more you get back.”

A worthwhile read, though you have to dig a bit to get to the good stuff.

There’s an excellent, self-explanatory post over at Signal vs. Noise - Forbes misses the point of the 4-day work week. Largely due to 37Signals’ influence, I’ve blogged about the same issue here at CR, with the same conclusions; i.e. work is not about presenteeism - it’s about results. (Preventing Workweek Creep is a closely related issue.)

Reducing work hours with the same expectation of results forces us to use the time we have wisely and always think, “what is the most important thing I should be doing right now?” And with the added benefit of having an extra day off, it’s a huge quality of life issue as well. This should not be confused with urgency for the sake of urgency; this is creating within constraints for a higher purpose. (See another 37Signals post here.)

This boston.com article largely covers ground we’ve covered here at CR before, even quoting a few experts we’ve already mentioned; yet we need to remind ourselves and our employees that constant interruptions by e-mail, IM, meetings, conference calls and text messages get in the way of getting actual work done.

According to the article, “workers get an average 156 e-mails a day… they switch tasks every three minutes on average… spending more than a quarter of the workday… dealing with interruptions and their needed recovery time”

Furthermore, “there’s a strong connection between trying to do lots of different things at the same time, and feeling overwhelmed,” says Ellen Galinsky, of the Families and Work Institute. There’s no need to explain that constant interruptions are stressful, and therefore unhealthy.

Are we fostering creativity in our workplaces? We need to allow ourselves and others to disconnect for blocks of time to do what we are paid to do, especially if that means being creative.

This fascinating “infographic” from boston.com contains a wealth of information on power napping.

A number of recent studies have concluded that napping “boosts alertness, creativity, mood, and productivity”.

It also includes a few tidbits on the benefits of napping, which are both short-term and long-term. So aside from literally preventing a wasted afternoon, napping “reduces stress and lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke, diabetes, and excessive weight gain.”

So with the productivity, creativity and health benefits, we need to give serious consideration to how we can accommodate napping in our workplaces.

A follow up on Stephen Shapiro, an author and keynote speaker who while in Asia had his BlackBerry stolen and whom I wrote about on Tuesday. In a post today, he describes his newfound freedom. He checks his e-mail once or twice a day, and leaves the cheap cell phone he bought behind when he goes out. “I’m getting more work done in less time, because I can stay focused on the task at hand, rather than reading and responding to emails every 5 seconds.” Freedom indeed.

Author and keynote speaker Stephen Shapiro had his BlackBerry stolen in Malaysia at the beginning of a three week trip and has been detailing his “withdrawal”. In Stay Connected by Disconnecting he explains the difficulties involved and in CrackBerry Addiction he has had 24 hours to contemplate his dilemma, and decided that periods of “disconnection” are healthy, as they “should improve your productivity, increase your ability to stay focused, enhance your relationships, and reduce your stress”.

Really, you should think before any form of communication, as to whether it’s the best way to convey your message, though Voice Mail has its own particular challenges. Increasingly, many people are avoiding it altogether, especially in corporate settings, as Michael Arrington explains in Think Before You Voicemail. In fact, he declares it DEAD. (Definitely worth reading.)

The biggest issues are Voice Mail’s “linear” nature (unless your have an iPhone) and that it is simply not part of most people’s workflows - it’s easy for Voice Mail messages to fall though the cracks.

A while back, I found some tips on how to leave a perfect Voice Mail message:

1. State your name & company.

2. State your phone number s-l-o-w-l-y.

3. State the date & time (& time zone if different).

4. Make your point across in one sentence.

5. Indicate if the call needs to be returned. If it’s an FYI, say so.

6. Explain when you are available for a callback.

7. Phone number s-l-o-w-l-y again.

8. Consider leaving your e-mail address. If you do, spell it slowly, especially if it does not contain your name.

Considering all the necessary information needed to make Voice Mail work, you’ll have to weigh its efficiency, or lack thereof, for yourself. Most of this information is built into or is simply unnecessary if you instead choose to use e-mail.

In September ‘07 I blogged about which technology is best for various communication needs, which linked to this excellent article. Perhaps today is a good time to review it.

A few days ago in Workweek Creep, I made the statement that “having evenings and weekends to spend time with our friends and loved ones, and to take care of our responsibilities is what’s best for all and what’s best for our businesses” and HR World, substantiates that statement for me. “Studies have shown that too much work can lead to a variety of stress-related illnesses that sap workers’ vitality, making them more prone to errors on the job, absenteeism, burnout and turnover.” 16 Ways to Encourage Work/Life Balance in Employees offers advice to help us keep our employees happy, healthy and productive.

While all of the tips are worthwhile, I’m sure they listed this one first for a reason: “Management support for work/life balance is critical, and it must come from the top. Too often, the perception that hard work is the only way to rise in a company keeps employees at the grindstone, working themselves into illness. Top executives can set examples of good work/life balances”.

Read the rest for yourselves, and see if there’s something you could implement to better the lives of your employees.

USA Today had an article Monday on Utah’s efforts to transition its state employees to a four-day work week. Utah has numerous reasons for doing this, largely centered on the state saving money. While the governor says it will also improve customer service, he admits state residents will have to adjust to the Monday through Thursday schedule, albeit with longer hours, and while the employees will soon have Fridays off, little is said about the impact this will have on working parents, who likely will see even less of their children on workdays. I’m not sure the trade-off is a good one as a longer work day may be less productive.

Contrast this to 37Signals’ four-day work week, which I blogged about here, which endeavors to not only allow employees to have Fridays off, but also be more productive within the shortened work week. Now that’s ideal. Of course, we’ll have to decide for ourselves what’s best for our departments and businesses.

A recent NYT Shifting Careers blog post (Subscription required) is guest-written by Maggie Jackson, the author of a new book ominously titled, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age.

The reason for the implied and impending doom can be found in the publisher’s description of the book; “our near-religious allegiance to a constant state of motion and addiction to multitasking are eroding our capacity for deep, sustained, perceptive attention—the building block of intimacy, wisdom and cultural progress and stunting society’s ability to comprehend what’s relevant and permanent” and clearly, we are surround by examples of this. (CR readers have read about this issue here and here and here.)

Moving away from the gloom and doom, how do we combat distraction in our own lives and encourage our staffs to do likewise?

The issue is largely a cultural one. Jackson says, “What’s needed is a renaissance of attention — a revaluing and cultivating of the art of attention, to help us achieve depth of thought and relations in this complex, high-tech time”. According to the research she’s read, attention is “a trio of skills: focus, awareness and so-called executive attention”, which she explains this way: “You can be aware that you’re in a beautiful garden and then you can focus on an individual flower… executive attention is the ability to plan and make decisions.” For this last state to occur, we must consciously disconnect from the distractions; phone & cell phone ringers off, IM off, E-Mail Off, and if necessary, some sort of “do not disturb” sign.

Jackson continues, “to combat overload, we also need to look to our environments. That’s why a few pioneering companies are creating places or times for uninterrupted, focused creative thought. IBM employees practice “Think Fridays” worldwide, avoiding or cutting back on e-mail, meetings and interruptions. Other firms are setting aside unwired, quiet rooms.”

She ends with a quote that is bound to become another favorite of mine, “‘Wisdom is the art of knowing what to overlook,’ wrote William James, the father of American psychology research. Long ago, he identified the foremost challenge of our time: how to allocate our attention. And now, we’re beginning to discover what he foretold: that living distracted just isn’t smart.”

There’s plenty to contemplate here. Do we have work environments that enable focus and creativity? If not, what can we do differently?

Ars Technica lead me to this The New Atlantis article entitled The Myth of Multitasking. As an amateur “mutitasking” myth-buster (mentioning the myth here and alluding to it here) of course I took notice. I had no idea what a gold mine it would turn out to be! The article is quite simply the most comprehensive I’ve read on the subject. (And Creative Reaction readers may notice several of the article’s references have been mentioned on our pages.)

The article starts with what I think will become one of my all-time favorite quotes, “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”

The article continues with a short history of multitasking, from its appearance on resumes as a “skill” and its subsequent exposure as a fraudulent ideal, quoting numerous studies, and pointing out that our very culture may be at stake. This is an article worthy of printing/reading/tagging/digging/forwarding to colleagues!

“Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers — theirs and others — cope with the digital deluge.”

Kudos to Techdirt for seeing an analogy here between The Simpsons and the above quote from an NYT article (Subscription required, don’t bother; as the article is not very coherent, let me save you some time by regurgitating it.)

We all know the dangers that cell phones, IM, and e-Mail pose to our productivity - primarily that of the constant interruptions. Of course, we already know better than the “typical information worker who sits at a computer all day (and) turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times” (if not, see here and here and here and here) though seeing an actual dollar amount, $650b (billion) in lost productivity, in the United States alone, drives the point home.

So what new technology are we getting? I hope it’s better than this “E-Mail Addict feature” in Gmail, “an experimental feature for the company’s e-mail service that lets people cut themselves off from their in-boxes for 15 minutes”. “Clicking the ‘Take a break’ link turns the screen gray, and a message reads: ‘Take a walk, get some real work done, or have a snack. We’ll be back in 15 minutes!’”. “Those who find they are truly addicted can cheat by hitting the escape key”. Ugh.

Michael Davidson, the engineer who created the feature, admits this is for people who say, “I don’t have self-control”. Is quitting your e-Mail and IM, and shutting your cell phone ringer off for an hour or so at a time really that difficult?!

This leads me to think (perhaps being overly cynical?) that the aforementioned nonprofit study group may not lead to much. All things being equal, the simplest solution is best. This is a problem most easily solved by equipping and training our employees with basic productivity skills and making sure we as managers are leading by example.

Parents can go around their homes, inserting plastic safety caps into every power outlet in sight, or they can simply train their toddlers not to stick their fingers in the outlets. I’d rather train. Besides, it’s simply a matter of a few hours or days when the toddlers figure out how to remove the caps!