I recently had an interesting conversation with a very insightful friend on the topic of innovation and creativity in the workplace. During our conversation he recounted a visit he had made to Google’s NYC office, highlighting the fact that the brilliant minds at Google allotted a certain portion of the work day to be simply creative time for its employees. This time could be spent doing anything from cooking in Google’s well stocked kitchen to playing video games and watching movies with co-workers.

When you first hear something like this, it’s hard to imagine anything gets done within the organization; with so much time to “goof” off it must be nearly impossible to get anything accomplished. Clearly this is not the case given that Google is one of the most successful companies of all time (both financially and creatively)! So what is Google on-to that the average, more traditional organization is not? The answer can be found in this month’s edition of Fast Company Magazine.

This month’s edition of the magazine is geared toward creativity and design. There is a great article called “Rewiring the Creative Mind” that explores how some of the world’s great visionaries, from Walt Disney to Steve Jobs, perceive the world differently from others and often begin implementing their vision before others recognize the potential. I won’t summarize the entire article for you because I believe it is worth reading in its entirety. But I will point out that the author of the article, Gregory Berns, does show how changing one’s perception can spur new, creative ways of thinking; something invaluable to any organization. With regards to idea generation in a corporate environment, he states, “Most corporate off-sites…are ineffective idea generators, because they’re scheduled rather than organic; the brain has time to predict the future, which means the potential novelty will be diminished…[N]ew insights come from new people and new environments – any circumstance in which the brain has a hard time predicting what will happen next” (56). Berns notes that the change in perception, or to put it more succinctly, the change in the mundane is necessary to spur creativity – without a change in scenery every now and again, the ideas will begin to dry up.

The lesson in all of this is simple: If organizations wish to be successful they must have talented employees who are able to generate new, creative ideas to tackle demanding business needs. In order to entice employees to think creativity they must help them to alter their perceptions. Either that or send them to work for Google for a while