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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Jobs was an avid believer of face-to- face meetings, probably because he was well aware of the potential dangers of the digital world and how isolating it could be. “There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat,” (todays iMessage) said Jobs. “That’s crazy, creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.”
When designing the Pixar building, Jobs built it with the intention of encouraging unplanned encounters and collaborations. Jobs believed that if a building didn’t encourage that, a lot of innovation and magic sparked by serendipity is lost. “So we designed the building to make people get out of their offices and mingle in the central atrium with people they might not otherwise see.”
But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a
problem.
- Steve Jobs
The only type of meetings Jobs enjoyed were the ones where he gathered his executive team every week to bounce
around ideas without a formal agenda. He also did the same with his advertising and marketing team every Wednesday. Slide presentations were banned, “I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking,” he remarked. “I want them to engage, hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides, people who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”
When a good
idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know
– just explore
things.
- Steve Jobs
I guess the take home here is, there is a different type of synergy that occurs when you’re able to communicate, brainstorm and hash thoughts out face-to-face. During a time like this, where we have become heavily reliant on digital platforms and face-to face meetings are a big no, no, the overarching factor remains, collaboration is key in bringing great ideas to life.
Contributed by
Oye Jolaoso
*Source: Harvard Business Review
PAGE 3 INSIDE ACCESS | JULY 2020 5TH EDITION