Chaos and creativity: friend or foe?

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I’m skeptical about the idea that open office space breeds collaboration. I haven’t really seen it happen and it runs counter to my basic instincts about human behavior. It also contradicts the opinion of leading neuroscientists. 

But a recent post from Edward Boches at Mullen has me giving the concept a second look. His story of how their agency holiday card, snowify.me, came about is an inspiring one. The end result was fantastic. And it appears that the agency’s open plan helped make it all happen.

So what do you think? Have you experienced moments like this? Have you created ‘collisions’ that would not have happened in a more traditional work environment?

It’s always been my belief that creativity requires a certain amount of space and quiet. The chaos of an open environment can kill ideas before they have a chance to gel. I still believe this. But can this chaos foster a different kind of creativity? Can it create more than it kills?

I’m not sure. But it’s certainly refreshing to read a story like this that shows it can happen in a big way. Because like it or not, the open plan is the direction most of our agencies are heading towards. 

We also seem to be heading towards less traditional ‘team’ arrangements. This is another lesson learned from the snowify.me experience, according to Boches. The takeaway is that traditional copy/art teams are not the best way to generate breakthrough ideas.

Again, I’m skeptical. Having worked with the same partner for over 10 years, I’ve seen how great the 2-man team can be. It just works.

And I’ve been put into less orthodox team arrangements and it just hasn’t worked.

I’ve found that when you add more people into the mix, concepting sessions tend to run off track and fail to coalesce into anything meaningful. Chaos reigns, yet again. It’s the same reason I find ‘brainstorming’ sessions largely useless.

But others swear by it. So again, I’m keeping an open mind. I get the idea, conceptually. But I haven’t seen it work in action. 

What do you think? Are you old school or new school? Does it have to be an either/or? Can we create a hybrid situation that allows order and chaos to coexist?

I hope so. The simple fact is, everyone is different. One person’s creative environment is another’s hell. How can we accommodate everyone in a way that keeps the ideas coming?

I’m gonna go find a quiet room somewhere so I can think on it.