Don't Confuse Decor with Creative Thinking

I'm back in Sydney for several weeks, and I must say this: God, I love this city. (That'll last until I get behind the wheel of my car and hit traffic, but alas.)

It's less than two hours since I landed, but I've already had a proper coffee (skim flat white, one sugar), a bacon & egg roll, a second flat white, a fresh croissant from my secret bakery in Redfern, and a third flat white from a female barista who sums up everything about winter in Sydney: wool jumper, felt hat, Ugg boots, board shorts.

Lest you think this post has nothing to do with anything creative, I have a point.

I have three outstanding projects to help an agency, a website company and a non-profit make their internal culture more creative. To each of you (whom I know read this blog): a splash of vibrant paint and snazzy furniture are nice ideas, but perhaps the best way to be more creative at work is to leave work behind. In other words, get out of the office.

I'm not sure where the first conference room was located. Ancient Greece? Rural China? Downtown Rome? Even when the concept might have been new, it couldn't have been any more conducive then than now to helping people be open (vs closed) minded. There is always a literal and a figurative wall between the cubicle grind and the imaginative mind. Simply changing one ergodynamic chair for another isn't enough, especially when there's a world of movement, stimulation and possibilities outside the office doors to help facilitate your brain's natural creativity. God knows, Starbucks may not be my favourite place for a cup of coffee, but it beats a featureless, foodless, airless conference table any day for exploring new possibilities.

I have four tips to make it most effective:

FOOD.  I'm all for drugs of the caffeine and sugary kind, especially when you combine them into the world's most creative food: chocolate.

PAPER.  Take a large pad of white paper plus a large handful of coloured pens or pencils. Put the pad in the middle of the table. Everyone writes.

STIMULATION.  If your café is like everyone kind in Sydney, there will be a huge rack of free postcards. Or use the magazines and newspapers lying around as visual stimulation.

RELAX.  Listen, you're away from the stress, even for 15 minutes. If nothing else, treat your brain to a well-earned rest from the stress, and have fun with someone else's problem to solve.

What else can you suggest?  Really, I'm listening (I'm just over here getting another coffee).