Creative Privacy

By Peter Lloyd

How does this idea sit with you: We all have to work together in teams if we want to be more creative? If you like to create in a team, you might agree. If you prefer to create alone, you probably think it’s nonsense.

It’s been demonstrated that groups out-generate individuals when you’re measuring quantity of original ideas. You can’t beat creative groups if you want great numbers of ideas, raw ideas, piles of garbage sprinkled with gems. That’s good to go for, because more raw and diverse ideas mean greater opportunity for breakthrough idea combinations. It’s why brainstorming works, if you do it right.

But what about all those lone inventors? Contest: you list all the great invention committees or creative collaborative teams, and I’ll list all of history’s legendary lone inventors? Let’s see who comes up with the longer list. Ready? I’ll give you one—the Wright Brothers. Okay, the Beatles. Still not willing to take me on? Smart. We all know that the bulk of great invention and innovation or any museum’s inventory of artistic masterpieces comes principally from creativity of solo geniuses. Imagine Picasso and Lady Gaga in a brainstorming session!

Creative individuals out-perform groups in the quality of invention, innovation, and full-fledged creative ideas. For this reason, before you schedule a group to tackle a problem, make sure it’s a problem one of your creatives has failed to solve. Then brainstorm and give the best raw ideas to your best creatives to finish.

Wise workspace designers know that the ideal office or lab layout allows for both easy interaction and creative privacy. In addition to private space, the full creative process demands incubation time, which occurs most often in private. Most people tell me they get their best ideas in the shower, on the way to work, or some other private place when they focus on something other than the creative challenge pressing them.

One More Facet of Creative Privacy

Privacy entails more than just lack of company. In the case of Steve Wozniak, it means escaping from your company (Hewlett-Packard) and holing up in your garage and building the Apple I to impress your friends in the Homebrew Computer Club.

True creative privacy demands high levels of independence. To be alone and away from other people’s direction, agendas, influence, interruption, and conflicting demands.

See also:

The Rise of the New Groupthink by By Susan Cain, New York Times

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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