5 Things You Need to Build a Creative Culture
by. Matt Monge
We all swoon at the creative cultures we see in some organizations. They have these crazy interior designs, their employees dress funny (why is it always skinny jeans?), but no one can argue with the fact that they keep coming up with cool new stuff. Some of us love those sorts of organizations. Some of us hate them. Some of us act like we’re in the former group when really we’re in the latter because we’re jealous. (OK, fine, I really want one of those huge twisty slides in my workplace, although if you saw what we’ve got up our sleeve for the new HQ we’re building for our Mazumans, it’s pretty radtastic.)
The thing is, I don’t believe those environments happen on accident. In fact, I’m certain they don’t. I have an acquaintance who works at Pixar and it’s crazy how intentional they are with creating environments that are conducive to people being creative. That’s actually this person’s job. Not making the films, but creating the spaces within which other creative folks will create other stuff. Fascinating.
Today and tomorrow we’re going to look at this a little closer. Today we’ll look at the individual level. What sorts of things should we be engaging in ourselves, encouraging in others, and ultimately making sure our organizations are facilitating as well?
1. Curiosity
Unless you’re a cat, there’s no need to be afraid of curiosity. I like to think that curiosity is what gives birth to creativity. We’re first curious about something, and it’s that curiosity that drives us to create. I’m trying to think of inventors who created something without first being curious about something, but I’m coming up empty.
continue reading »
