How to build a Haven for Creative Thinking
Over the last several years I’ve enjoyed a short book by Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro called UNSTUCK. Filled with photos, diagrams and short entries, it’s the kind of book you can pick up and turn to any page for a quick jolt of inspiration. 
They tell the story of the toymaker, Mattel, and project platypus. They created an off-site haven for radical thinking where they take employees ranging from marketing to finance to work on projects for up to 3 months at a time. Places like these enable us to see the emerging future– to begin prototyping the new creations just over the horizon.
Don’t you want to work in a place like that? So why not begin at home. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. Get a room and claim it. (or even a corner of a room)
2. Buy some sketch pads, post-it notes, a whiteboard, colored pencils, etc.
3. Put some art in the space– a painting that inspires you, a small sculpture, photo albums and a few books of poetry. (more on that to come).
4. Get 2 comfortable chairs and a lamp. (1 will do)
5. Show up here every morning– pre email zone.
Doesn’t it inspire you to even imagine such a place? So what’s stopping you? I’ve actually re-created the place formerly known as “my office” in this fashion. (I call it the Jedi Temple) Something happens to people when they come in. We’ve had some of the most creative meetings I’ve seen in 10 years in this transformed space.
There’s a familiar word for such a place: Studio. The word comes from the Latin word “studium” which at its root means “to study.” But let’s be honest, how much “study” really takes place in a Study? Study’s are dead. Studios burst with life. A studio is a place that lifts study into the realm of art; a haven inspiring creativity, an incubator for ideas.
It will seem impractical to you until you actually start practicing it. You’ll discover it’s the most practical thing you’ll ever do.
For those of you who have done this, send me a photo.
