GUEST BLOG POST: Does Your Office Kill Or Encourage Creativity? — Tanner Christensen

Employees can be seen inside Facebook's main building, the largest open-office workspace in the world. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's desk is exactly like all the others. Photo by Nick Otto for The Washington Post

By Tanner Christensen

Do offices kill creativity? It depends.

Ok, but do certain types of offices stifle or encourage creative thinking? Are open office floor plans more creatively stimulating than cubicle farms? Do workspaces that have fun things like ping-pong tables or free snacks help encourage workers to be more creative? What about working from a beach resort or high in the mountains, do those types of nomad workers tend to be more creative?

The answer, again, for each of these is: it depends. Let’s look to the science.

We know from decades of anecdotal and lab research that to think creatively requires just a few key things:

1.    Exposure and openness to new experiences or stimulation

2.    Opportunities to play or experiment

3.    Space to ruminate and let ideas incubate

4.    The ability to take action and evolve ideas

5.    Some type of validation to continue and promote creative thinking

If we look at any study around the creative process these things each pop-up in some form or another. And if we take each of these things and try to apply them to office workspaces we’ll see some interesting things.

You may be familiar with some of these concepts as they relate to the offices of companies like Pixar, Apple, and Nike. These are often big, open, and almost playful offices which tout themselves as being creatively empowering for employees.

I don’t work in a typical office space myself. I actually work in the world’s largest open-office at Facebook in Menlo Park, California.

On the face of things, it’s easy to see how Facebook’s office might meet the requirements of promoted creative thinking. We have massive, open areas where we work because the theory is that being able to see what other people are working on, or bumping into a peer randomly on your way to the bathroom, are good ways to promote exposure to experiences and inspiration.

We promote play and experimentation through ping-pong tables, an on-site arcade, colorful posters dotting every wall, and by hosting occasional “hackathons” where anyone can work on anything for two or three days out of the quarter.

Facebook also has spaces specifically designed for rumination: tucked away, private “libraries” are sound-proofed and offer employees a place to work quietly without distraction. If you ever visit the office you’ll also see incredible walking paths around our campus as well as on the massive rooftop park.

I could go on and on about how these things relate, but the important thing to note is that, while these things do help facilitate creative thinking, it’s hard to say whether or not they actively promote it. I’d even argue that they don’t.

This isn't an ordinary park. It's the top of Building 20. Building 20 also features a nine-acre rooftop garden, complete with mature trees and rolling hills of grass. Photo by Nick Otto for The Washington Post

Let’s look at a different real-world example: I have a friend who works in a sea of cubicles. His work space is just one in a row of many, each blocked off by a four-foot high gray wall. It sounds drab to me, and he’d probably agree.

He doesn’t have private libraries, a rooftop park, fully-stocked kitchens, or a full cafe to get free lunch from. He doesn’t even have a ping-pong table. But he does have a small, shared kitchen where he can microwave and eat his home-prepared lunch with his peers.

This friend of mine undoubtedly has space to ruminate as a result, and he may have some exposure to experiences in his weekly team meetings or during lunch hour, but what about the other stuff that creativity thrives on? What about being able to take action on ideas, or getting validation for a good idea, or being willing to play and experiment?

These are all really valid questions (which is why I’m writing them) but let me set the record straight: what matters most in an office setting when it comes to creativity is the close community. No amount of colorful paint, kicked-down walls, or free food, will make employees more or less creative.

Put smart enough and motivated enough people into an office of any size, shape, or style, and you’ll notice something interesting happen: those who are creatively driven turn the space into what they need it to be.

This is because creativity doesn’t happen in the office. It doesn’t even really happen in the world, creativity happens in the mind. And what each of these common office designs try to do are shape the way employees think or feel.

And sometimes this works! Having free food available to employees can definitely help them think more about the problems they’re solving in their work and less about what they need to eat for lunch. But free food isn’t going to encourage anyone to work hard.

Having a rooftop park gives employees a great space to walk and think beneath an open sky, but that park isn’t going to do anyone any good if employees aren’t using it.

Placing a ping-pong or foosball table in your office is a reasonable signal that having fun and playing during work hours are acceptable to your business. But playing a table game isn’t the same thing as experimenting with a project that could cost the business money.

So yes, offices can affect the face value of creativity. But no, real creativity happens in the minds of workers. And to get workers to think creatively requires more than physical or aesthetic structures. To get employees to think creatively requires training and a culture of working that actively promotes exploring, experimentation, rumination, taking action, and validation that even if you fail it’s ok to pursue wacky ideas.

This is because creativity doesn’t happen in the office. It doesn’t even really happen in the world, creativity happens in the mind. And what each of these common office designs try to do are shape the way employees think or feel.

— Tanner Christensen

The most creative teams I know have worked in many different types of offices. What makes them creative isn’t the office spaces, it’s the culture around the work and what the team deems as acceptable versus not.

You can put a bunch of toys on employees’ desks and paint the walls bright colors in an attempt to loosen up the creative bolts, but unless employees can see and act on the real facilitators of creative thinking, it’s all just for show.

Originally published in Creative Something

Tanner Christensen is a creativity expert, author of The Creativity Challenge, a web developer, entrepreneur, designer at Facebook, and part-time artist. Christensen started Creative Something in 2008 with the goal of researching and sharing answers to the question: How can we better understand our creativity in order to do more with it?

GUEST BLOG POST: 10 Tips To Achieve Creativity And Innovation In Education — Rafiq Elmansy

By Rafiq Elmansy 

Our current world is evolving more rapidly than the capacity of any existing education system. The challenge of learning is getting even harder for the next generations. We do not have a prediction of how tomorrow will look like, but we know that flexible process models are able to face the changes comparing with fixed-style models; we know that the ability to adapt helped our ancestors to survive on this planet for about six million years.

This leads us to the question; what is the most important skill to teach our kids in schools? The answer:  How to build creative and innovative minds that can adapt and face future unpredictable challenges. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page provide successful examples of how adopting innovation in education can help in building creativity and better abilities in order to solve problems.

Many governments adopt the policy of free basic education, a large base of students are privileged by this policy to learn. These policies have very wide range of standards, quality and infrastructure. Therefore, a focus strategy on the essential skills should be implemented. These skills include the following:

§  Think creatively in order to compete in the market

§  Find innovative solutions for existing and future problems

§  The ability to evaluate current status and find better alternatives if needed

In order to achieve the above, we need to apply creative and innovative strategies in education with a particular focus on the basic kid’s education. While education systems are varying in their capability to implement creative teaching methods and curricula, a teacher can easily adapt their teaching methods towards more creative thinking through the following tips:

Encourage children to find the answer

It is also called the Pestalozzi method. Unlike the ordinary models of giving the direct answers for questions, this method aims to encourage students to find the answers on their own. It helps the students to learn how to observe, imagine, judge and reasoning. One of the successful examples of applying this method is Albert Einstein.

Lego Serious Play in education (Source: Flickr–based on Some Rights Reserved copyrights)

Children learn, teachers observe

The current educational system depends on teacher-driven lessons, where the teacher leads the class leaving no space for students to self-develop their skills and capabilities to innovate. The Montessori method aims to give a space of students to self-learning while the teachers observe the progress. One of the successful examples of using this method is Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Sit in round tables rather than desks

This method, known as the Harkness style of teaching, aims to turn the class into an open conference style of interaction rather than the one way seating of traditional desks. The students sit around a round table, which encourages them to take responsibility and share his or her opinions instead of following the linear teacher-driven class.

Focus on one project instead of multiple projects

While the existing teaching methods depend on individual lessons and projects, focusing on one project enables students to put the knowledge together in the form of focused questions and assessments for the project or the problem. This method is called Project Based Learning and it focuses on combining the knowledge in one large practical project.

Focus on the concept

Providing knowledge in the form of facts orients student thinking while inhibiting creativity and the ability to imagine. Focusing on the concepts help the students to find solutions through exploring ideas and evaluating the best answers.

Every idea is a patent

Many educators believe that innovation should be unique and submitted as a patent. In the education domain, if the student invented an existing product or solution, this is a success and can be considered as an innovation. It shows his or her ability to create new ideas based on their sense of emerging knowledge and experience. Students tends to invent things or find solutions, this behavior should be reinforced over the course of teaching them strategies of creative thinking and innovation.

Use design thinking tools and methods

Design thinking methods aim to unleash creativity and explore innovative solutions in the context of group discussion and brainstorming. There are many design thinking methods that could be implemented in class such as the following:

o   Disney model (dreamer, realist and critic)

o   Lego Serious Play

o   De Bono Six Thinking Hats

o   Scamper technique for creative thinking

o   Problem-solving using Hurson’s product model

o   Reverse brainstorming

Each method has its own characteristics and learning outcome. Therefore, the educator should select the proper design thinking method based on the student’s age and the targeted outcome of each brainstorming discussion.

Design thinking for kids at ZURB Command Center (Source: ZURB)

Problem-to-Solution vs Solution-to-Problem models

The students have to identify two directions for innovation; Problem-to-Solution and Solution-to-Problem. The first model drives the students to find solutions for existing problems. In essence, the student identifies a problem that occurs everyday and tries to explore how to solve it. The second method is to find a solution for a problem that does not exist yet or to make life much easier.

The two directions aim to help students to think of the problem with different perspectives. While the first model focuses on existing problem, the second direction focuses on innovating better solutions, which relates to human-centered design.

Reflect on previous taught lessons and skills

While most traditional curricula focuses on moving from lesson to another, there should be a rumination process that helps in linking between the new lessons and previously taught knowledge and experience. This linkage builds a continuation in the education process and helps student to think critically and evaluate problems in order to reach innovate solutions.

Acknowledge innovation in rubrics

Every innovative idea and discovery should be rewarded during the assessment process, this should be reflected by the rubric of criteria. Educators are encouraged to add a rubric section that allows them to evaluate creative ideas and innovation independently from the rest of the grading criteria. Innovation should reflect on the final grading and the rewarding policy.

Conclusion

Innovation and creativity are part of the essential skills that enable students to meet with future challenges and market competitions. While current educational systems do not provide the necessary creativity and innovation strategies required to meet with these demands and challenges, educators can implement a number of tips and techniques that can help students to think creatively and find innovative solutions for existing and future problems.

The tips above can be applied either individually or in bulk during the educational process. While educational systems may prevent educators from applying some of the above tips due to administrative and other reasons, educators should select the methods which suits the existing educational system, school level and currently taught curricula.

Rafiq Elmansy is design lecturer at the American University in Cairo, author and design manager. His experience includes more than 15 years in the design industry. His design creative work is exhibited in many locations including Croatia, South Africa, and Spain. He is also a jury member and mentor in acknowledged design competitions and published author for John Wiley, O’Reilly Media and Taylor and Francis.

Originally published in Designorate.org

How To Become A Successful Inventor In Nigeria — Getting Support For Your Inventing Activities

Image of open human head with various objects belongs to IPOwatchdog.com

By Kenneth Nwachinemelu David-Okafor

Welcome to the eighth installment of this serialized post.

THANK YOU FOR STAYING THE COURSE WITH US FOR THIS LONG. I wish to thank all of you for your support in every way. This has definitely transformed into one of the most exciting projects ever undertaken on NAIJAGRAPHITTI BLOG.

This serialized post has really helped me to realize one of my aspirations to put relevant, verified and accessible knowledge/information within reach of aspiring young (and why not old, so long as they are visionary) entrepreneurs, prospective innovators, professionals and hobbyists, to bridge a yawning gap.

What I discovered was an information black hole in the aspect of inventive thinking and related practical activities as far as invention/inventiveness was concerned in Nigeria. Of course there were patches of tit bits strewn all over.

In this installment I now wish to dwell on another crucial area ¾ getting competent technical and professional support for your inventive undertaking. Requisite and timely competent technical and professional support can make all the difference in the world.

I would share the news reports three sets of young inventors, one of Emmanuel Okekunle from Nigeria,  two, a set of 10 successful applicants selected from 369 young Nigerian inventors in ICT who were selected to attend 2016 GITEX in Dubai, UAE and three, Olivia Hallisey from America, to drive my point home with a multi-dimensional mental picture.

The first news report was splashed across the national media by several Nigerian news publications in February 2014:

Emmanuel Okekunle, 22, a Senior Secondary School graduate who designed a helicopter when was in JSS1

The Young Inventor Who Designed A Helicopter In JSS1

Emmanuel Okekunle is a 22-year-old senior secondary school graduate and an aspiring inventor who says Nigerian youths could do more if the Government provided adequate support.

He graduated from Cherubim and Seraphim College, Jos, Plateau State, in 2010. At the age of 5, he became interested in designing and constructing things and constructed a wheelbarrow to help him carry up to five litres of water.

At 7, he started developing electric toy cars using motors, batteries and tomato tins. In JSS1, he designed a toy helicopter.

In SS2, encouraged by a teacher who told his students their inventions could secure them a scholarship, he constructed a rechargeable lamp, fan, emergency alarm, electric waste bin that converts waste to ashes, and an aquarium, among other things. He sees his ability to design things as a natural talent from God.

At first, he says, his parents did not appreciate what he was doing, as he would bring all kinds of ‘useful’ garbage home.

However, when they saw their son’s achievements, they began to encourage and support him. Okekunle says he has been applying to various higher education institutions since graduation from school, but is yet to be lucky.

This year, he will once again write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and hopes to secure admission. After he left school, he went to the state Ministry of Science and Technology to show his innovations, but did not get any support. 

Then, he went to NTA, Jos, which gave publicity to his inventions via national network. The Plateau State Chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers invited him to see his works.

However, they merely advised to try and improve the finishing on his works. He was not discouraged and went to NTA science exhibition. He worked on a methane digester and was able to use it to produce bio-gas.

He represented Plateau State in Abuja at a science and technology exhibition with his apparatus.

Currently, he is working on an electronic device for mitigating the effect of HIV/AIDS and is optimistic about his invention. He says young aspiring inventors like him need support to increase their knowledge and improve capabilities. Young people give up due to lack of encouragement from the Government and other agencies.

Emmanuel Okekunle has worked on other inventions

The News Agency of Nigeria reported the second news story in May 2016:

ICT: 369 Nigerian Inventors Apply To Participate In 2016 GITEX Context In Dubai – NITDA

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says 369 young Nigerian inventors have applied to participate in the 2016 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Mrs Hadiza Umar, the NITDA’s Head of Corporate Affairs, made this known on Wednesday in an interview with journalists in Abuja.

Umar said that out of the 369 applicants from Nigeria, the first 10 shortlisted by the organizers would be sponsored by the agency for the exhibition in October.

“Application for participation in GITEX 2016 closed on May 19 and we received 369 entries from Nigerians at home and the Diaspora, while the first 10 applicants will go and represent the country at the exhibition.

“All participants were asked to send in the software or hardware created by them, and stating the uniqueness and relevance of such innovations.

“The exhibition is to showcase world class Information and Communication Technology (ICT), innovations of talented young graduates around the world.

“The best GITEX innovator is to get US$1 million, while every participant stands the chance of connecting with major stakeholders in ICT around the world,” she said.

Umar added that the list of shortlisted applicants would soon be compiled and made available to the public.

The NITDA official said applications were received from Nigerians at home and the Diaspora, including Ethiopia, Cameroon, Uganda, Chad, Botswana, UK, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

The application for NITDA sponsorship to the exhibition was opened on May 7 and closed May 19, while the exhibition will take place from Oct. 16 to Oct. 20, in Dubai, UAE.

“For the 2016 GITEX, NITDA has arranged a stand for will be all Nigerian innovators at the exhibition, unlike last year when our 12 young innovators showcased their talent alongside others at Nigerian pavilion.

“One of the NITDA sponsored-participants in 2015 GITEX has already been partnering with international organization as a result of his unique innovation.

“The agency works round the year to develop Nigerian ICT sector, through sponsorship and organizing events that help to add value to participants,” she said.

The image maker said that NITDA played critical role in the development of ICT in Nigeria through various programmes such as scholarship for postgraduate degrees in ICT or related courses and Community Access Centre (CAC).

Other interventions of NITDA in ICT development in the country include Knowledge Access Venue (KAV), Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), among others.

“We provide one year Masters’ scholarship or PhD scholarship for two outstanding graduates in ICT or related courses from each state of the country with minimum of 2.1 CGP (for Masters).

“The CAC is the provision of ICT centres by NITDA, for rural communities where access to internet service is a serious challenge.

“We presently have over 400 centres across the six geo-political zones where we provide 15 laptops, internet broadband, inverter, solar power, photocopiers and scanners.

“This is usually done in collaboration with the traditional ruler in the community or local government administrations who provide the space,” she said.

On the KAV, Umar said NITDA had provided over 290 centres at various tertiary institutions in the country, where students could access internet services on the computers provided.

“Our GIS is another deliberate effort of the present administration to bridge the gap of ICT experts in the country and we have started training of 600 graduates in ICT skills yearly.

“NITDA, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance on May 13 in Lagos started the training of 100 graduates from the South-West origin.

“This will be replicated in all the six geo-political zones in the country, which will amount to training of 600 graduates to be self-employed, employers of labour and ICT experts of world class each year.

“The programme includes training at designated centres and internship at relevant organizations where interns can sharpen their skills and become competent.

“They (interns) will also be given stipend during the training and will be issued certificate of competence upon satisfactory completion of the programme,” she said.

However, Umar said that interested applicants can only apply for slots in their state of origin, saying the programme aimed at creating more ICT experts across the geo-political zones.

GITEX is an annual exhibition in Dubai, where ICT inventors, operators and users gather to showcase their inventions and rob minds on latest ICT inventions and products.

ICT presently contributes 11.93 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and is also the fastest growing sector.

Dr Vincent Olatunji, the Acting Director General of the agency had said NITDA would be a prime catalyst in transforming the nation into IT driven economy. (NAN)

The third news report is from an international American news publication in September, 2015:

Google Science Fair Grand winner Olivia Hallisey- she developed a cheap rapid #Ebola test @googlescifair (Image credit: Daniel Kraft, MD ‏@daniel_kraft Sep 21)

16 Year-Old Teen Invents World’s Fastest Ebola Test, Grabs Google Science Prize

A 16-year old teenager from Connecticut, United States has invented an express test to detect the deadly Ebola virus in just 30 minutes at a cost of US$25. Olivia Hallisey’s breakthrough grabbed the top prize at the Google Science Fair.

Hallisey, a sophomore at Greenwich High School, has come up with what she called a “novel, temperature-independent, rapid, simple and inexpensive Ebola detection platform.” 

“Current methods of Ebola detection utilize enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (“ELISA”) detection kits which cost approximately US$1,00 each, require complex instrumentation, trained medical professionals to administer, and up to 12 hours from testing to diagnosis. The kits require the unbroken refrigeration of reagents from point of manufacture to point of use (the “cold chain”), making the ability to diagnose in remote areas, where refrigeration is often nonexistent or unreliable, highly problematic if not impossible,” Hallisey explained on her project’s website.

Unlike current Ebola detection methods, Hallisey’s test takes only half an hour to show the Ebola virus and does not require any refrigeration. While Olivia’s method is 25 times more expensive – US$25 per test – it is also 24 times faster than the tests currently available. When it comes to Ebola, minutes do matter.

“It is estimated with early diagnosis and medical treatment, Ebola fatality rates of up to 90% would decline by approximately 50 percent,” the teenager said.

Olivia used silk fibers, which possess stabilizing properties, and current Ebola ELISA reagents, taking all of the same components of a regular Ebola test – antibodies and chemicals that cause the test to change colors if Ebola proteins are present in a patient’s blood.

Hallisey used the silk-stabilized chemicals to “construct a four-channel, paper-based, fluidic detection card,” where reagents would react with a patient’s Ebola antigens. It requires only a serum sample and water to work.

“In this new device, that is stable and stored at room temperature, 30µl drops of water were used to dissolve silk-embedded reagents, initiating a timed-flow towards a center detection zone, where a positive (colored) result confirmed the presence of 500pg/ml Ebola(+)control antigens,” Hallisey wrote.

In order to confirm that her test is capable of sustaining high temperatures, Hallisey tested the Ebola ELISA “in a 96-wellplate format (A450nm) at 0-7 days from initial mixing and dilutions.”

On Tuesday, Hallisey was awarded with a US$50,000 scholarship for her breakthrough as a prize at Google’s annual Science Fair, an online competition for children between the ages of 13 and 18.

The Connecticut teenager was one of 22 young scientists from around the world who were showing off their scientific projects.

I will not lead you to any conclusions; I need you to reflect on what you have gleaned from these news stories.

Though I desire that you to read in between the lines I will leave you to draw your own inferences from the two news stories. Afterwards answer the following question: Who among the three sets of young inventors have had the more requisite and timely support?

Now let me throw in the shock factor! (This is the only clue I would supply here.)

You do not need prophetic skills to predict that Olivia Hallisey, with the exception of a catastrophic self-destruct or wicked precipitation of an unforeseen circumstance, would be able to complete high quality education, even in an expensive American university, with the gift of US$50,000 scholarship (it was not a pledge, she received the cheque in full public glare) while the gaggle of 10 successful applicants selected from 369 young Nigerian inventors in ICT who applied to participate in the 2016 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates would perhaps be very fortunate to get their flight ticket and visas paid for by the Nigerian government.

As for Okekunle and the 10 successful applicants selected from 369 young Nigerian inventors in ICT, they have certainly disappeared into the anonymity of Nigerian invention lores as their feats are filed away on dusty shelves of forgetful officialdom and marooned in the mire of not belonging to the right network.

In sum, information about all of the Nigerian inventors mentioned here would require tracing through third parties who may or may not have their forwarding address, in case you want to cross-check their stories. However the story of Olivia Hallisey is accessible via the website on her invention.

I dream that one day, in Nigeria, in my lifetime, Emmanuel Okekunle and 10 successful applicants selected from 369 young Nigerian inventors in ICT would thrive in a culture that can routinely present a robust culture in inventing activities as well as opportunities just like Olivia Hallisey got, and even better.

In the meantime the field project we hope to undertake would be to uncover value from the National Information Technology Development Agency funded Community Access Centres.

NAIJAGRAPHITTI BLOG will attempt to determine people and their inventions which have emanated from the Community Access Centres of which NITDA claims that there are over 400 centres across the six geo-political zones of the country where equipment provided comprise 15 laptops, internet broadband, inverter, solar power, photocopiers and scanners.

Yet in order to end on a positive note as always, I must tell you of the support which two young Nigerian innovators, Femi Adeyemo, and Kunle Odebunmi, (and their firm called Anergy) who have recently broken fresh frontiers in the renewable energy sector received along the way.

INFORMATION IS, INDEED, A GAME-CHANGER.

Aha, now exciting things are beginning to happen in Nigeria... sorry to make you wait for the details of Anergy breakthrough in the next installment!

Just for information purposes, faster Ebola tests than that which Olivia Hallisey invented have now been approved by the World Health Organization. See here

TO BE CONCLUDED