photo credit: Betsssssy

What? Play at work?

It sometimes seems like only the humorless are promoted to positions of power and they expect everyone else to be just as humorless. But play is linked to creativity, and without creativity, we would all be humorless drones.

So tackle your next task with imagination and wonder, and see what fun you can have even with mundane routines.

You might find a new way of doing the same old thing that saves time, produces better results, or saves money. Or all of the above.

(And by the way, if you get those kinds of results and they aren’t appreciated, maybe it’s time to find another job. One where you can work hard and be playful at the same time, get good results, and be appreciated.)

Don’t ever lose your spirit. Happy Monday!

To me it’s amazing what she creates with sand. Sand. Small grains of sand are turned into beautiful artwork right before our eyes.

I don’t know how she got started. Maybe she was on some beach one day and started messing around. Maybe she took a sand art class. Regardless, there’s no doubt that she creates something masterful with something nearly insignificant.

This week at my new job, I was waiting on my dry erase board to be installed. I tend to have spur-of-the-moment bursts of inspiration. As such, I like to have a place to write them down and let the creativity flow. Before it arrived, I felt like I couldn’t do much of anything. “But what if I have a great idea?” I thought. “Where will I write it?”

And then I watched this video. I learned that in the hands of a true artist, the tools are secondary. It merely takes vision and will in order to manipulate the tools in order to create art, beauty, and impact.

Maybe it’s time we stop waiting for the “right” tools. Perhaps we don’t need the latest of any gadget in order to do meaningful work. Maybe what need is a passion, a will, and a commitment to creating something of beauty.

Passion and talent is what turns sand into art.

photo credit: James Jordan

We talk a lot here about work-life balance, but what about other kinds of balance? There are a lot of ways within the workplace that you can skew too far one way and lose sight of something else.

For example, it’s easy to get stuck on one side of either process or improvisation, when both have their merits. Process improvement is important to the maturity of any organization, but being quick to see and try novel solutions to problems is key to learning.

Or how about between creativity and discipline? When I worked as a technical copywriter, there were often stretches of time when I felt I needed to distract myself so I could let my mind wander and approach my work fresh when I returned to it. I used to have a sign above my desk that said “A writer is writing even when staring into space.” But it would have been all too easy to let that approach become a trap by convincing myself the distraction was needed when perhaps the discipline of the “sit butt in chair and write” approach would have at times be more helpful. I’m sure there were times I let myself off the discipline hook a little too easily, and other times when I could have used more of a break for the sake of better creativity.

What balance do you struggle to keep, and what steps do you take to ensure you keep that balance? Tell us in the comments. And have a wonderful, balanced week!

photo credit: torres21

For some of us, creativity just spews from our core, touching everything we do, whether we design a newsletter, write a song or paint a bedroom. For others of us, it may come a bit more slowly as we wait for inspiration to strike or a skill to develop.

Whether you work alone, at a small shop or for a big corporation, you’ll often have the chance to collaborate with other people. And, whether that collaboration takes the form of a strategic partnership, a volunteer committee or a special project team, there is an art to making sure that the group inspires action and change, rather than prohibits it.

Sure, group think and stagnation can set in. Or, the collective wisdom and inspiration of a particular assortment of people can raise the level of everyone’s participation and performance.

For example, I recently participated in Nashville’s 48 Hour Film Project. A group of friends and I had just two full days to write, create, shoot, edit and produce a 7-minute film that used a required character name, prop and line of dialog.

Like many things, inertia was key. Things started slowly, but in no time (once the pizza and beer arrived on Friday night), ideas were shared, improved upon and agreed on. Each team member made the others better and come Sunday afternoon, we had a product that we were proud of – and one that was a lot of fun to make.

There’s a difference between making a movie on the weekend and working on something for the boss. But, we’re wondering this weekend: Do you think teams inspire or kill creativity?

Tell us in the comments, or even weigh in on the following questions:

• How do you keep your team creative?
• Are teams better when participation is voluntary, as opposed to required?
• How do you decide when teams are worth using in the creative process?
• When is it time for a team to call it quits?

photo credit: itchys

You know all about the “rules” of the business world; but I bet you also know how a judicious breaking of those rules can create trajectories of productivity and employee morale.

One rule I’ve frequently observed was “no drinking in the office.” Sure, there is always plenty of leaving work to lift a cold one with a colleague or client, but it was always an understood thing that it was for off-site.

I had a wonderful boss once who found a great way to revise and update this rule with good results. Our office was in a restored old house with a deck opening onto a wide green field of a side yard. Because it was a former residence, the office also had a full kitchen.

At the end of an especially stressful day, or upon completion of a big client project — or heck, when the moon was full on a Tuesday — she would stock the kitchen with wine and call everyone to the porch at 4:59 p.m. Wine flowed, as did conversation.

Perhaps not surprisingly, in our down time and with slightly lowered inhibitions, we would come up with some of our best ideas. One did not have to drink, but everyone was expected to come to the porch and laugh and talk and be creative and relaxed. It was genius.

I miss those days. I’m not sure if they are still doing it or not. It may have been the personalities working there at the time that made it magic, but I like to think a good broken rule like this can work wonders at any time and with any group.

Tell us about your most productive, rule-breaking work experience!

photo credit: Shyald

So often, it’s one little word that defines what we are doing.

For about a year now I’ve been thinking about adding a small structure to my property– such as the ones found here — so I can go from working at home to working from home. The distinction is significant.

My existing house is not very big, and my family uses every square inch for pure living. I want to do two things: 1) Carve out my own work space and really define it as an environment for creativity and productivity; and 2) Preserve my home as the place where we gather and eat and sleep and play as a family. I’ve always cringed at the home offices where someone is still physically in the house, but unavailable to be engaged in the business of family life.

More and more of us need to be able to work from home. Employers are cutting costs by reducing office space and requiring employees to be off-site. In addition, many people no longer have a traditional employer, but work for themselves on a contract basis with multiple clients.

The idea of working from home has a legendary appeal. The key is to recognize that it may turn out to be just a legend unless you honor the important differences between work and home as spaces with unique requirements and functions. Be honest with yourself about what you need to get work done, and be purposeful about creating both that space and time.

Being successful in the new world of work is about more than a wireless connection and bunny slippers. It’s about being able to perform well in alternative settings, and it is a big advantage to acknowledge that those spaces still need to be conducive to work/life balance as well as getting the job done.

We owe the very idea of the learning organization to management strategist Peter Senge. In the 1990s, he provided the ultimate decoder ring for CEOs who wanted to apply collaboration and systems theory in the workplace.

Sandy Bodecker, 56, believes inspiration is everywhere. Last year, his team found what they were looking for in suspension-bridge cables. The result: the revolutionary Flywire technology, and the lightest and strongest high-performance footwear ever.

Making aging less of a drag is Joseph Coughlin’s mission — and with some 80,000 Americans turning 60 each day, it’s a more pressing task than ever. Coughlin, 47, runs the first multidisciplinary research lab devoted to using smart technology to bolster older folks’ quality of life.

Check out the rest of the list and be inspired.