Blackberry and Creativity

[Anastasia Astridge]

I just read following article in the BNet (Harvard Business Newsletter) about blackberry and creativity http://blogs.bnet.com/harvard/?p=659&tag=nl.rSINGLE

Would you consider implementing suggestions from this short article? How would it change your business (or the business of your client) if you were to suggest and to follow it through?
It is so tempting but I personally can't see it happening - I think there would be a different way to deal with informational overflow in such a way that we feel more rather than less creative

BTW - sorry for sending this message to you per eMail - have not realised that that was what I was doing - just wanted to post it here for possible discussion!

[Dr. Tobias Kiefer]

Anastasia,

that would not work in our culture - it is quite easy: if the content (e.g. a training) is more interesting for the individuals, they will probably stop getting interrupted from cellphones, bbs etc.

It is an issue, for sure - however, we know from research that creativeness comes not by saying "for the next 60 minutes I want to be creative" - it typically happens while following a daily ritual.

Cheers,
Tobias

[Anastasia Astridge]

I continued to read related articles and found a very interesting interview with the research who also was quoted in the article above. There she is talking about leadership style and creativity and which particular leader's behavior supports creativity. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5492.html

Tobias,
I would agree - the only point I would like to comment upon is the ritual - if you are in a project environment or a creative workshop (so working in a none-familiar situation with deadlines and deliverables) routine and daily rituals are not really taking place. I think this was the type of a situation the article might've been referring to...

[Jennifer Touma]

Anastasia,

I agree with the author that managers should self – manage their surrounding stimulus, this will not only create an atmosphere for creative ah-ha’s, but also, in an effort to be more productive and efficient. As a learning and development performance consultant and coach, when working with clients I ask that they be in the ‘present moment’ rather than trying to actively eliminate external and internal distractions (self-talk).

Doing so helps managers to improve their skills of focus, concentration, and creativity.

Jennifer Touma

[Robert Zotti]

Whenever I need to sink in some hard though on a project or task at work, I tend to
1-do it after everyone goes home and it's more quiet;
2-go work on it in a conference room or somewhere other than my office
3-talk about it with others over lunch
4-stay in my office, shut the door, ignore my email and phone for an hour or two. Unless it's a fire or emergency, things can usually wait that long.

As for the adverse effects of having a backberry.... I can't say from personal experience yet. I'm getting my first blackberry next week. (Gotta wake up and smell the 21st century, after all!)

I think if I can manage to ignore my phone and email from time to time in order to concentrate more on what I'm doing for a couple of hours, ignoring my blackberry shouldn't be too hard to do.