Posted by Plish on April 30, 2011
A little over a year ago I blogged on optimizing your environment for creative output. I also wrote about the pros and cons of open office plans.
I wanted to share this article from today’s Wall Street Journal that touches on both of the above topics. One amazing tidbit:
…Researchers at Ohio State University and the National Institute of Mental Health tracked 60 white-collar workers at a government facility in the central U.S. Some had been randomly assigned to an old office building, with low ceilings and loud air-conditioners. The rest got to work in a recently renovated space filled with skylights and open cubicles.
For the next 17 months, the scientists tracked various metrics of emotional well-being, such as heart-rate variability and levels of stress hormone. They discovered that people working in the older building were significantly more stressed, even when they weren’t at work. The scientists said the effect was big enough to be a potential risk factor for heart disease.
All this got me thinking about how early philosophers and politicians carried out their discussions in open air forums, surrounded by fresh air and blue sky. They dreamed of ways of improving the world, becoming better people, and their imaginations would soar.
We are indebted to their innovative thinking still, today.
I wonder how much more creative and effective our elected officials would be if their sessions were in an open air environment, without rows of desks and aisles, no left or right…
Their work might actually have the freedom to soar,
and we, likewise…
