How Physical Space Shapes Creative Thinking at Work |
When people tell me they’re stuck in trying to advance their work or ideas, they often assume it’s a mind problem: that if they can untangle their thoughts and get motivated, they’ll be ready to go.
But sometimes it’s space that keeps people stuck. That is, sometimes the physical space in which we work shapes the inner space in which we imagine.
As winter arrives, many of us spend longer hours indoors, advancing ideas through screens in rooms that were likely not designed to hold sustained attention or imagination.
I want to share ideas and recent research findings on how physical environments influence mood, cognitive flexibility, and ability to move ideas forward. Once you begin paying attention to that relationship, even small adjustments, often surprisingly small ones, can change how your mind meets the work in front of you.
Maybe our capacity to focus, ideate, and daydream day in and day out relies in part on the physical conditions that shape our cognition. That’s the working premise here.
For decades, leaders in environmental psychology have been pointing to the fact that physical environments influence cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and creative problem-solving. Research on indoor work environments shows that physical space actively influences how we think, focus, and solve problems. A large review of workplace environment studies, published in the Journal of Management, concludes that lighting, spatial layout, noise, and visual........