Why It's Hard To Be Creative At Work
David Ogilvy, the founder of the advertising agency that bears his name, confessed that he never came up with ads when he was at work.
The truth is most office environments (even ad agencies) aren’t conducive to having ideas.
Below are five of the most common reasons why:
1) There are too many distractions.
Meetings, telephone calls and client interruptions to name but a few. Have you ever had a brilliant idea when you’ve been distracted?
2) There isn’t enough time.
Creativity can’t be charged by the hour (although advertising agencies still do this bizarrely) because there’s no guarantee that the breakthrough will come at any point during that set time period. Being under time pressure doesn’t help idea generation.
3) When you are at work you are focused on specific objectives.
You don’t have the opportunity to explore a range of different topics to see where your imagination might take you.
4) You are often in a stressed state.
For some of the reasons listed above as well as others. This is not conducive to imaginative thoughts!
5) It’s a lot easier to manage employees who are predictable and rule-bound.
Giving employees the necessary freedom in the form of unstructured time is not a particularly practical way to run an organisation.
The points above are why many tech companies invest significant sums of money in creating offices that don’t look like offices.
You know the ones with sleep pods, bean bags and table tennis tables?
Ultimately, the challenge still remains that we’re at our most creative when we’re in a relaxed, playful mood.
In other words, not at work.
Creativity is a vital skill for any company. The ability to solve problems and spot new opportunities is what separates those that survive and prosper from those that fail.
If you’re interested in how creativity can transform your business then pre-register for our upcoming course ‘Creativity for Business’ for more info.
