These Big Tech Giants Use Creativity to Generate Massive Returns!

Friday: Everson’s High-P Fridays FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: I know some colleagues who are innately creative. I also know others who struggle when it comes to creativity. Did you know that sitting in front of your work desk has impacts on your creativity? If you want to squeeze your creative juices or start thinking outside the box, it’s ideal that you step away from your office cubicle temporarily. Doing so will give your brain enough breathing space to refresh and replenish ideas so you can begin thinking creatively about a particular task or project! Read on to know why stepping away from your desk and moving to a different place for at least 15 minutes has positive impacts on your creativity. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

These Big Tech Giants Use Creativity to Generate Massive Returns! “Thinking outside the box requires time away from the office cubicle…” This was what my friend and colleague, Professor Joel Litman, said in one of his coaching comments regarding spending a lot of time working with and training his company’s new team, the Eurasia team. According to Professor Litman, one of the Eurasia team's projects is creating better messaging and discussions around the company’s offerings. Creative thinking comes naturally for some people. For others, it can be a struggle. Creativity can seem counterproductive. How can one become creative in a productive capacity? The traditional split-hemisphere idea that some people are "right brained," or creative thinkers, while others are "left brained," or logic-dominated, has largely been debunked at this point by the latest neuroscience research. A person needs to use their entire brain, with all its complex systems, left and right, top and bottom, to focus on and excel at the task at hand. If the task happens to be one of deep creativity, we shouldn't attempt it while hunched over a keyboard. You can't force creative thinking by shoving words onto a computer screen. In general, no organization or society flourishes under a leader or government with a tight command and control structure. You cannot be ordered to be creative. The lack of entrepreneurial success in many societies can be tied to a daily regimen of forced and limited behavior. While we create organizations and protocols for maximizing productivity, we need to recreate environments and times for maximizing creativity. That means creating opportunities for returning us to childlike thinking. Pablo Picasso and John Lennon espoused how all of us were born naturally creative. Their comments on the topic are quite similar. Albert Einstein and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller, among others, recognized how "every child is born a genius." Creativity is innate, and it surfaces when we allow ourselves to be childlike and playful. We don't need to debate right-brain versus left-brain thinking. Imagination can be let loose and enhanced by creating fun conditions. Small bursts of creativity during the traditional workday may be achieved simply by getting away for 15 minutes and going for a walk. We see our people do this by moving themselves to any place different or new that isn't their desk or pantry. It's hard to have truly creative ideas when sitting at the computer. Given how Facebook (FB) and Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google both provide content that is already based on your past interests and activity, browsing the Internet isn't an easy way to discover something truly new. For large creative projects, a leader needs to get the whole team out of the usual space. If possible, it also means getting out of the traditional physical environment. Many tech companies understand the importance of stepping away from the desk when searching for creativity… Alphabet and Facebook excel at getting people hooked on their phones. These Big Tech companies create environments for their employees to be creative with new initiatives. Whether it's coming up with new product ideas or tackling issues over how to fix the programming of a software tool, tech workers often face the most pressure to be creative. This is why in many office spaces you see not only rows of cubicles but all sorts of different work environments ranging from lounges to nap areas. By allowing employees to change their scenery to refresh their creative juices, tech companies help their workforces improve at problem-solving. These companies' business models inherently help their employees perform better at their jobs… With creativity-inducing workplaces, macro tailwinds, and competitive moats, these tech companies have a lot more room to run. Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Friday’s Everson’s High-P Fridays! 'To break the rules, you must first master them...' Learn more about the importance of first mastering the rules before breaking them on next week’s Everson’s High-P Fridays!