Michaels Business Furniture
Creative Work
A Workplace is a location or environment where you spend the majority of your working hours.
Where might your workplace be - behind a desk (in a Herman Miller chair of course), on a fishing boat, out in a field on a plow, painting art in the outdoors, or creating flower arrangements?
This page is devoted to promote creative thinking, getting out of the box, stepping outside one’s paradigm, being like a child again without fear of falling as we learned to walk. The environment we are in all impacts such thinking. Does having a positive and supportive work environment foster such thinking? We think so.
As children we were filled with curiosity, always asking questions, searching to understand. As we grow and mature we can become conformist to a degree that we loose our individuality and our born sense of adventure and exploration.
Where do creative thinkers get their ideas and solutions to challenging issues? We think it happens quite often when people are out of their normal element and their mind is free to wonder. It’s amazing what the subconscious mind can do given time. Writers can have what’s termed writers block. Others can experience the same experience in their work. Sometimes it just takes getting away or escaping into another setting.
Wherever your workplace is, we hope it is a supportive environment where you have the ability and outlet for creative thinking, and input in what you do.
Is the guy up above lost in his chair or is he experiencing the ability to look at things with a different perspective? Lastly, we hope you can find personal reward and enjoyment in what you do.
Moon Shot - A simple lesson in participatory management.
The Mission: In a group setting each participant is provided with an identical list. The list contains 10 items including such things as water, food, matches, a compass, etc. The setting is that you just landed on the moon some 100 miles from your mother ship, and you need to rank the items in importance to reach the ship.
Participants first rank the items on their own with the most important item assigned a value of 1, least important a value of 10. After everyone completes their assignment, the list is discussed by the group with the group ranking the items from most important to least important. Once the group finishes, which should include discussion and dialogue with input from all group members, the final scoring takes place.
The participants are provided the official ranking by NASA. Yes, oxygen ranked ahead of water and even food! Each participant compares their ranking with NASA. If they rated food as 1 and NASA had it as 3, they would add 2 to their score. The one with the lowest score wins. Any guess on who will likely have the lowest score?
No, not you or your supervisor, but the group!
Please make sure and include others were applicable. It can not only lead to a better decision, but it will likely result in others supporting the decision and doing what is needed to help "The Mission" be successful!
Futurist - Thinking outside the box, expanding your paradigm.
Joel Barker - His video is a must to help get people to think out of the box, and their Paradigm.
Lessons from the sandbox - Lessons from childhood.
This is light reading on playful and creative learning from childhood that can get lost or minimized as we venture into adulthood.
