Space matters. In this episode, Architect Donald Rattner shares the research on how to design your space to enhance your creativity. Donald shares several simple changes you can make. Then, he examines Amy's office and provides advice on how she can make her space more conducive to creativity. Then, Amy implements those changes and reveals the new office layout.

• The three A's of designing a creative space
• How our brain's perception of our space impacts our creativity
• What prospect refuge theory is and how to use it to your advantage
• Learn about the new "resimercial" design craze for workplaces

Assess your space. Keep a log of when/where you are doing your best work and when/where are you doing your least successful work. Then, what changes might you make to help you be more creative?

• Donald Rattner's Website
• Donald Rattner's Book: Your Creative Space
• Focus At Will
• Coffitivity

Deliberate creativity encourages gaining clarity about the problem at the beginning of the innovation process. However, that's not how we always work. It's common to create something new while maintaining ambiguity around the purpose of the solution. Dr. Johnathan Cromwell found this in his research while studying a start-up company that was creating a social robot. After observing hundreds of hours of team meetings he noticed a process he calls emergent innovation. In this episode, he explains his research and helps us understand how emergent innovation works.

• The difference between emergent innovation and deliberate innovation
• Elements of emergent innovation
• How to get comfortable with ambiguity

[powerpress]

Johnathan Cromwell is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Strategy at the University of San Francisco. His research focuses on creativity and innovation in organizations, particularly how people collaborate with each other as they tackle vague, open-ended, and ambiguous problems. Through this research, he aims to develop a new theoretical framework called "dynamic problem solving" that explains why, when, and how people change the way they approach problems as they deal with various constraints during the innovation process. This work has been recognized by the Academy of Management with the 2018 OB Division Best Paper Award. He earned an S.B. in Chemical-Biological Engineering from MIT and a Doctorate in Management from Harvard Business School.

John challenges us to try improv cooking as a way to explore emergent innovation. Use the ingredients in your kitchen and come up with a dish. Use those ingredients to shape your dish and see what emerges.

A polymath is a modern-day Renaissance person. They have expertise in a range of fields and their diverse experiences help them be more creative. Dr. Angela Cotellessa was the first person to do a dissertation on modern-day polymaths. In this episode, she shares with us what she learned about polymaths and how it relates to being more creative.

• What is polymathy and why does it matter?
• What are the themes of modern-day polymaths
• What we can learn from polymaths to help us be more creative.

Dr. Angela Cotellessa is dedicated to helping individuals reach towards their fullest potential.

Her doctorate from George Washington University is in Human & Organizational Learning.  The focus of her doctoral research and dissertation was on modern day polymaths: people with broad, varied expertise in both the arts and sciences.

Since 2007, Angela has worked for the American federal government. From 2007 to 2013, she was a non-political, civil servant at the Executive Office of the President.  Since 2013, she has worked at the Center for Leadership Development, helping make the federal government more effective, one leader at a time.

Angela lives near Washington, DC with her husband, Joe, and her daughter, Lily.  For fun, Angela enjoys traveling internationally, music, and learning.

Angela gives us two challenges this week.

1. Try something new. It doesn’t even have to be outside of your comfort zone. Just something new. Reflect on it. What did you learn?
2. Think about an issue or challenge you have. Is there another area of your life that you could apply to solving this problem?