There’s a room in our home that I’ve called my “home office” since we first moved in. I had no good reason for the name—other than an “office” is what people conventionally call a room where work is supposed to get done.
But in my mind, an “office” is where good ideas go to die. An office conjures up images of cubicles, mind-numbing water-cooler conversations, personal attacks, half-empty cups of awful coffee, and headache-inducing fluorescent lights.
Creativity, in other words, hates offices.
So instead of calling my room an office, I started calling it an idea lab. An idea lab is where innovative ideas are born. An idea lab involves experimentation. An idea lab is for daydreaming. I love my idea lab (and I hated my office).
You might be wondering: What’s in a name? Who cares what a room is called?
Names matter—much more than you might assume. This is called priming. The mere exposure to a word or an image can have a powerful influence on your thinking.
And the importance of naming extends far beyond your office.
“The mere exposure to a word or an image can have a powerful influence on your thinking.”
Don’t call it a “status meeting.” Call it something that inspires the attendees to show up in a way that will move the needle—a visioning lab, a collaboration cave, or an idea incubator.
Don’t call it the Senior Director of Operations. Call it the “Head of Getting Moonshots Ready for the Real World” (which was the real title of my friend Obi Felten when she worked at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory).
Don’t call it a “to-do list.” When I hear “to-do list,” I want to run, as far and fast as possible. Call it a playlist or a design list—a title that will delight you and pull you in.
Don’t call your staff “employees.” The word “employee” reinforces the notion of a top-down bureaucratic system where the employer tells employees—the cogs in the machine—what to do. Instead, follow the lead of Brasilata, a can-manufacturing firm that’s at the forefront of innovation in Brazil. There are no employees at Brasilata. There are only inventors—the title given to all staff. When they join the firm, the inventors sign an “innovation contract.” Brasilata then reinforces these names by actively encouraging its employees—sorry, inventors—to take ownership of their work and submit original ideas.
The idea is simple: If you give it a conventional name, you’ll get conventional results.
But if you want unconventional results, pick an unconventional name that primes you for what you’re trying to achieve.
Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author. Click here to download a free copy of his eBook, The Contrarian Handbook: 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. And download the Next Big Idea App to enjoy a “Book Bite” summary of his latest book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist.
