Ever shifted locations, or added a valued addition such as a comfy chair to your workspace, and noticed new solutions popping up as solutions to old problems as a result? Or have new ethical insights added zest to a project after a redesigned workspace? If so, you’ll be interested in research about buildings as mental stimulants for creativity and productivity. Have you seen it?
It makes sense since IQ comes from your gene pool and also from your world. That’s why poverty and inequality often add to lower IQ, according to Dr. Richard Nisbett. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be that way. Nisbitt’s new book Intelligence and How to Get It, offers refreshing ideas for those interested in ratcheting up their IQ a notch or two by improving their setting. Why so? 
Not surprisingly, just as bad environments suppress intelligences, so too enriched setting enhance brainpower, according to Dr. Eric Turkheimer.
With a quick change or two, could your workspace top up your IQ points? Consider seven possibilities.
Light – Natural light, or artificial light that mimics sunlight – can lesson the effects of seasonal affective disorder, often referred to as SAD. Other restorative benefits of natural light include less fatigue, and increased productivity. Wal-Mart for instance, found that sales in day-lit sections more than doubled sales in artificially lit sections of their Kansas store.
Nature – Researcher Faber Taylor suggests that even a good view of one’s natural environment can increase attention and improve a person’s performance. Do you believe it? Check out Robyn McMaster’s suggestions for drawing more naturalistic intelligence into your workplace.
Roundtables – in your workspace invite comfortable fireside chats where people and ideas find feet for winning interactions. Those mind-bending contacts stirred by great facilitators, and energized by people who foster curiosity and collaborate creative ideas.
Art and images that add spatial meaning to the workplace. I’m speaking here of icons that set the stage for wonder, inspire a sense of beauty and showcase significant people, places and events that spark serotonin chemicals for well being.
Music not only jacks up productivity but it can improve moods, inspire creativity, and calm your thinking. Check out Don Campbell’s list here to see how music alters mental states and changes the landscapes at work.
Centers crafted to challenge teaching and learning discoveries by and for employees, and questions engaged by the wider community. Books, monitors for viewing and discussing work-related matters, display boards for advanced organizers that drive curiosity, and technology for individual and group enterprises.
Nooks designated for fun, laughter, relaxation, fitness or other playful activities that power down stress in a busy workday. Just as these cozy corners contain lounges for community exchanges, they should also add individual spaces.
Armed with a target of removing toxins at work or adding personal well-being in your organization, what would you add to my list for a more brain-powered workspace?
Related tool: Add a yearly planner with brain boosters and prompts to reboot your brain daily! Below is an exciting new tool to tap and develop hidden and unused capabilities, regardless of your workplace.
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Interesting observation, Dan. Piaget discovered that the bell curve is usually accurate for a very specific group if a certain approach is used to teach. Yet when the teaching and learning approaches changed – so too did the distribution of learners change proportionately and some who were at the top of the curve moved toward the bottom and visa versa:-) Thoughts?
The upside of the Bell Curve (and there are few upsides) is Nisbett’s new book. Exceptionally helpful. I found his analysis of cultural distinctions especially insightful and intriguing.