Tapping the Creativity of Downtime†

Web-Design Firm Uses Projects Employees Pursue in Their Spare Time at Work to Help Win New Business

Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2008 — In its early days, Chris Wallace's company didn't always have enough work to keep its staff fully occupied designing interactive Web sites for clients. But it didn't want to lose any talent. So he and his co-founders decided to tell employees they could pursue their own interests in their downtime, doing just about whatever they wanted, on the clock.

An unexpected side benefit emerged. Employees spent some of their spare time writing music and building photography and video skills. When the company needed ideas to pitch to potential clients, it tapped into employees' personal projects. Mr. Wallace says he has had meetings with potential clients where 40% of the work he showed them was done by employees in their downtime.

Let Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain.

New York Times, April 6, 2008 — I’M of two minds. As a matter of fact, so are you. And until recently, corporate America wasn’t doing much to take advantage of one of them. But now that we’re hip-deep in what has been called both the “Creative Economy” and the “Conceptual Age,” no one can afford to ignore the artist within: the right hemisphere of the brain.

Want New Products That Get Noticed? Change the Process†

Bad Call: Results From a New Survey Show Marketers Are Reluctant to Financially Invest in True Innovation

Advertising Age, October 1, 2007 — The media are always looking for new "darlings," and every now and then a sensational new product emerges, whipping them into a frenetic state. Swiffer, the iPod, TiVo, Crest Whitestrips, Red Bull — all are products that had the industry gushing about their features and benefits. Part of what drives these stories is the fact that there are so few wildly successful new products — especially in comparison with the number of products launched.

At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity

How CEO George Buckley is managing the yin and yang of discipline and imagination

BusinessWeek, June 11, 2007 — McNerney was the first outsider to lead the insular St. Paul (Minn.) company in its 100-year history. He had barely stepped off the plane before he announced he would change the DNA of the place