My head was spinning. I was sitting on a bus with my face pressed against the glass window. It was the middle of the day. Outside people and cars passed by as they went about their daily business. I didn’t register any of it. My mind was elsewhere. I was going home from my final … Continue reading Why You Should Leave Things Until the Last Minute
It’s a popular topic and and a very old term, but seems difficult to define. So what is Creativity? I don’t want to re-hash too much old stuff, but, really, just keep it simple. My thought is that our instinctive feelings about what creativity is, are usually correct. There is a nice essay by Ray … Continue reading What is Creativity?
In traditional project management, success if often measured by the trinity of cost, time and quality. The rule of thumb is that you can’t increase one without decreasing others. If you need to finish the project faster, it will cost you more, unless you also reduce its quality also. If you need to raise quality it … Continue reading How Do You Measure Success?
A series of articles in a recent Harvard Business Review discusses the balance between transparency and privacy in offices. This issue is of particular importance to offices in creative industries because the work process can be a lot more fragile and sometimes personal. Although not about architecture or architectural offices these articles seemed to hit … Continue reading Privacy and Creativity
Many businesses that offer design products and services have a close relationship with creativity. This could include businesses that engage in graphic design, industrial and furniture design, architecture, web design, interior design and many others. The proliferation of these types of businesses has caused design to be crystalised into a process that can be managed, … Continue reading How to fit Creativity in the Design Process
There was a recent article in the Australian Financial Review where the writer described an informal tour / interview with Tyler Brulé, editor-in-chief of the Monocle publication, of the Monocle offices. The writer described Brulé’s unrelenting attention to detail and almost tyrannical control over the visual landscape of the offices – going so far as … Continue reading Is Beautiful Space Always Creative Space?
For all the management skills and beautiful spaces you can provide for teams, sometimes where you sit them can make a huge difference to the type of work and creativity they produce. In this post, I’ll examine a few of the more common types you might hear discussed these days, along with what characteristics they … Continue reading Office Seating Arrangements and What They Mean
Recently, I accidentally discovered a little exercise that was a bit interesting and good for a little bit of personal growth. I suggest giving it a go. It’s easy. Just search your work and personal email outboxes (sent items) for the phrase “Sorry” or “Apologies” or something similar. You will be presented with a list … Continue reading What Do You Apologize Most For in Emails?
If we look at trends in technology and software, one might presume the next trend in office design and management would naturally be smart-offices – in the same way you probably have a smart-phone. The place where you work might start getting to know you a bit more… I once read an interesting book named … Continue reading Self-Learning Offices
In businesses, the creative process is often under-managed due to fear of stifling free thinking and exploration. So, hypothetically, if we were to take the view of a design business being an assembly line and try to apply typical process improvement steps to it, would it work? Would it affect creativity? To help answer this … Continue reading Sources of Under-management in Design Businesses
producing creativity 