I’m about to head up the street to check out a coworking space on Fremont. Given that activity, I couldn’t have picked a better time to stumble upon this meditation on open work space from Tim Siedell of Fusebox.
Understand that it’s not for everyone.
Make sure you recruit accordingly. In our experience, the best creative people crave this type of an environment and a spirit of teamwork will prevail. On the other hand, manipulative, project-hoarding, non-collaborative, and dishonest people will not last long. That’s the best part.
Embrace the chaos.
At times, it’s going to be loud, chaotic, and hard to concentrate. Turn on your radar and see if the creative solution you’re looking for is really floating around in the chaos around you. You’ll be surprised how often it is, which is the greatest creative benefit of all. Walk around. See what other people are working on. Tip in an idea on someone else’s project. In our experience, your work will get better as a result.
Tim’s take on chaos is especially interesting to me right now. Moving across country, having the house in disarray, going to conferences, working my job, blogging, Tweeting, reactivating Facebook, seeing live shows and meeting new friends is chaotic. Yet, like Tim, I have faith in the long term benefits of these actions.
