Out of the box week

September 7 2007.

Between the hours of 9 and 5 from Monday to Friday, I design and invent things. But last week was special, because last week was out of the box week. Out of the box week might be one of the best inventions ever, and it runs by a few basic rules:

  • No meetings
  • No e-mail
  • Work on something that interests you that isn't related to what you work on every day

That's a full 5 days to work on anything. It can be a solo project or a group collaboration. It can be a real working product or it can be a blue sky proposal for a concept. It can be a piece of hardware or a piece of software. Anything goes during out of the box week, and when it wraps up on the Friday afternoon, everyone has 5 minutes to present what they did during the week.

It's actually a fantastic way to come up with new ideas and processes that wouldn't have normally surfaced in the usual day-to-day grind. Some of the really good ideas even get financial backing and become real life products that will be released one day.

So look forward to when my Erotic Foam Exercise Machine hits the shelves. Sure, the Idea Generator told me to make it, but an idea is only as good as the inventor's ability to deliver on it.




wil says:

I love that idea generator. Stay on the lookout for my Mobile Paper Orchestra.

laura says:

i think that this is a brilliant idea that should be present in more offices.

eco-friendly
holographic
furniture


amazing!

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