Similar Posts
- Cool waterproof suction notepad for capturing great ideas in the shower
- Have a genius idea for clean technology? The Australian Clean Technologies Ideas Competition says ‘bring it on!’
- Weird and witty business ideas and inventions
- Aussie crowdfunding site Project PowerUp crowdfunds itself
- Tunnel Talk: Start the press!
Do you get your best ideas in the bathroom? If you answered yes, you’re in the majority, according to research conducted by thinking expert and occasional Anthill contributor Ken Wall and three colleagues.
The anecdotal research into where the best ideas come from involved thousands of participants across varying industries in South Africa, Singapore, Canada, the US and Australia.
So where do people have their best ideas? According to the research findings, the top five places are:
- Shower, bath, bathroom (57%)
- Bed (51%)
- Driving or passenger (42%)
- Walking (28%)
- Exercise, running, swimming (25%)
According to Wall, the common theme linking all these places/activities is that they all involve the person doing something other than just thinking about the problem.
“During the course of talking to thousands of people, nobody has ever said that they get their best ideas at work,” says Wall. ”Let’s face it, if you spend your life in a grey cubicle, it’s not exactly going to inspire great insight.”
In light of the research findings, Wall offers organisations some advice for creating an ideas workplace:
- Create the creative space and bring in easy chairs or bean bags
- Go for walking meetings
- Take a packed lunch and go to a park
- Have one team member act as the facilitator, using a tried and tested idea generation and evaluation method.
Photo: brain_blogger (flickr)
Ready to work less… and achieve more?
Want an ad like this?If you’re running your own business, there’s a good chance you may feel stretched. You may love all the things you do for your customers, but find it hard to juggle the admin and other business roles you have to play. That’s where we can help.
Paul Ryan Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Hey Amanda. I’ll send you what I have via email. You might want to contact Ken directly.
[Reply]