Bird : Design of Physical Space 2

Someone recently commented that we do not need to add 'meaningless' structures or objects in the passage way, just to make people interact more. She questioned how much would it then make the workplace a more creative space, leading to a change in the 'dry' culture. I appreciate her concern. Based on the profiling tool of Emergenetics, I can understand such people whose minds are wired with a strong structured thinking(versus one with high social/conceptual thinking) would consider the photos of my earlier entries as superficial (( = superficial, superfluous, or even Silly). My gut feel, has always been, structures/sytems change behaviours. I remain true to this.




Its subheadings says: What does stimulating the creativity of animators have in common with developing new product ideas or technology breakthroughs? A lot. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Innovation/Innovation_lessons_from_Pixar_An_interview_with_Oscar-winning_director_Brad_Bird_2127

Brad's thoughts on the design of the physical space:

The Quarterly: What does Pixar do to stimulate a creative culture?
Brad Bird: If you walk around downstairs in the animation area, you’ll see that it is unhinged. People are allowed to create whatever front to their office they want. One guy might build a front that’s like a Western town. Someone else might do something that looks like Hawaii. Steve Jobs initially didn’t like this idea, but John Lasseter said, “We’ve got to let it go a little crazy where the animators are.” John believes that if you have a loose, free kind of atmosphere, it helps creativity.

Then there’s our building. Steve Jobs basically designed this building. In the center, he created this big atrium area, which seems initially like a waste of space. The reason he did it was that everybody goes off and works in their individual areas. People who work on software code are here, people who animate are there, and people who do designs are over there. Steve put the mailboxes, the meetings rooms, the cafeteria, and, most insidiously and brilliantly, the bathrooms in the center—which initially drove us crazy—so that you run into everybody during the course of a day. He realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company.

My thoughts: Perhaps we then need to address, how can we help people to learn to USE these spaces, more comfortably perhaps?