“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said.
I don’t think solitude is enough. There also needs to be stillness as well as purpose. But certainly solitude is key.
Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has “a room of one’s own.”
I struggle with this with my team. It’s also one of the reason I often have a producer per project, or sometimes a lead producer for bigger projects. But ownership is important… with collaborators offering their specific contributions.
Anyone who has ever needed noise-canceling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I’m talking about.
Count me as one. It’s about time management and setting priorities.
Conversely, brainstorming sessions are one of the worst possible ways to stimulate creativity…
Brainstorms are best when it’s a set time for collectively bouncing and expanding on ideas…. not in generating them. Call a brainstorm meeting once everyone has had a chance to explore on their own.
