Macadamian Blog

Creatividay - making the time to try new things.

One of the great things about being a consulting company is we're surrounded by cool projects. On any given week, we're designing tablet EMR apps or Android-based remote controls for a new consumer video conferencing play.  One of the tough things about being a consulting company is that we're surrounded by other people's cool projects. How do you find time to stretch your own creative muscle and try new things that may not be immediately related to an ongoing project? 

This week we launched an experiment that I personally find really exciting. We're calling it Creatividay (catchy, right?). 

We've all heard of Google's One Day a Week, where anyone can work on their own project one day a week. It's a bit tougher when you're a consulting company, and you rely on billable hours, but we decided to stop making excuses and take the plunge. Each quarter we're setting aside 16 hours per employee to work on anything they want - a prototype, a design concept, a process improvement - whatever floats their boat. We're going to blog about the outcomes, and also about the experiment and how it's working for both our staff and the company. 

At the onset, I feel it's critical. We're busy, and projects can fill every hour of every day (and sometimes, some nights too). We need to make the time to be creative, try new things, and experiment with new platforms and methods. Not only are we going to discover some cool things and develop some interesting new ideas, but I think the energy and new knowledge is going to trickle into ongoing projects.

Stay tuned!