Ted Dewan is an artist who does roadwitching – reclaiming streets for humans from automobiles. His presentation on this was one of the highlights at EuroGEL and he recently sent me these wonderful thoughts on how we can reclaim our workplaces:

Reclaiming the workspace is something I attempted during my two summers in a cubicle. I made a little ‘fort’ out of my cubicle elements, and alas, this was frowned upon on ‘health and safety’ grounds (the cubicle elements were 1970’s leftovers, all purple brown and orange and round…90 degree arcs. They were seriously cool cubicle elements which were thrown away in 1983 and replaced with square grey ones that were higher and difficult to peer over. What a shame–they’d be very much sought after now as sort of groovy retro office furniture, although they probably went up in flames in a second due to the old foam.

Anyhow, I think going beyond posting Dilbert cartoons is the way forward in cubicle land. Some choice in cubicle arrangement and design was for me the most important way of introducing a bit of happiness into my environment back then.

That costs, though, and part of the pleasure of Roadwitching is just how cheap it is. One of my mottos is ‘with nothing, everything is possible’.

One thing that might be fun is renegade meeting rooms. I once heard of a group that set a meeting table up in a parking spot (they were meeting to plan Roadwitch-like activities) and they found the experience envigorating and it helped their thinking as a result. It might be a bit distracting, but depending on the sort of meeting, it’s worth a try I suppose. I’d test it first before offering it as paid-for advice, of course!

I like it! Just as most streets have lost all their humanity to the demands of the automobile, so many workplaces have lost their human touch to a desire for sameness, efficiency and professionalism. It’s a shame, because it makes people less efficient.

Stay tuned for a post on great examples of great design in the workplace that allows people to work more efficiently AND have more fun.

Harvard has an interview with Teresa M. Amabile on creativity and the power of ordinary practices.

Here’s a gem from the interview:

If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day.

There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.

So happy people really are more creative. I knew it!

Via businesspundit.

Last week I asked what makes you happy or unhappy at work.

I have a related question: How do you make others happy or unhappy at work? What have you done in, say, the last week that has made someone else happy or unhappy at work?

I’d really like to know. Leave a comment :o)

I thought you should all see some great comments that have come in recently with stories and ideas from all over the world.

First, this comment that Inkling left on my post about The Cult of Overwork:

I used to work at a company with a strong “overwork?? culture. After two years obsessing about getting in at 7, leaving at 7 (and then working even more from home), my wife had a baby. I took a week off, then felt justified in limiting my work to 40 hours for the next couple of months (due to my lack of sleep and need to help around the house).

In that two-month period I realized I accomplished exactly as much and was exactly as busy as I was when I worked ~60 hours/week. From then on, I was in at 8, out at 5, aside from the occasional large project, and I completely stopped working at home. I was never happier, more organized or more successful in that job.

With this peace of mind and free time, I was able to invest a few hours in learning the GTD system, learning more about my field and getting more involved in professional and community organizations. (This may have averaged about 3 hours/week at the max.) All that I learned in this time enabled me to get a new job and a significantly higher salary.

Meanwhile, when I talk to employees at the old company, they’re bragging about the 75-hour workweeks and discussing which anti-anxiety meds they take.

Great stuff!! Can we please all agree that it’s the results that count, not the hours?
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