A stick, some string and… the creativity flows

Our office kitchens are designed to look better than those in our own homes (or even than our favourite cafés), relaxation rooms complete with table football (wives generally don’t let you have such toys in the living room), a library for quiet work that has more books than our own four walls, and conference rooms fitted-out with the latest cutting edge digital technology. We invest in this way to increase both productivity and creativity. However, I have recently been observing the creativity of children. A few days after I had read all the articles in our latest issue, my six-year-old, dragged screaming away from the enticements of a playground, had to find something to do by himself and with two of his mates. As it turned out, the only ingredients needed to stimulate the most creative behaviour are a stick, some string and not being at all concerned about getting our dirty hands dirty (literally – and in the case of these kids, not only their hands). Someone (I can’t remember who) once told me that some study had been carried out to determine the top ten toys of all time: the first three, apparently, were: sticks, string and water. Coming back to office design: I don’t exactly want to say that this space should be entirely devoid of hi-tech gadgets for them to be truly creative environments, but this was one possibility that occurred to me while musing in my spare time after reading two articles from our latest issue: ‘Garage Style in the Office’ and ‘Plugged In and Ready to Play’. And I’m curious to know what you think after reading them, too. Have a creatively stimulating read!