"Creativity is just connecting things." Steve Jobs said this apparently and I love it because it really illustrates my point. A beautiful office space doesn't make people creative, it's more of a byproduct of creativity. Companies are legal entities, they're not creative. They're just pieces of paper. It's these people who want to be creative. People want to be connected. But focusing on connecting leads companies to worry about gadgets, software tools and office furniture. Without things you have nothing to connect. If you want a creative environment, you need to make an environment where you can constantly make people make things, over and over again—it's all about the things. Things could be design, code, copy or more explicitly, a product sketch, new app prototype or poem. Take away time. The one variable you can tweak where it really doesn't matter what industry you're in—it's the most effective variable in my opinion—is time. Take away time. Doing so makes employees re-think meetings, procrastination temptation and inefficient processes. Follow a four-week cycle. This is composed of little one-week bursts of energy—I believe that people can focus for just one week on a project, and that's it. Make "things" by giving your team intense focus. The result: miraculous things start to happen. Consider the cost of leadership time. If you're the leader of the group and you take away their time to help them build things, you have to balance the equation by giving time. Be a bumblebee. I always call myself a little bumblebee. I buzz around from desk to desk and I ask people, 'What are you working on?' Focus on connecting is missing the point. The important word in this one sentence is 'things.' Without things you have nothing to connect. If you want a creative environment, you need to make an environment where you can constantly make people make things, over and over again—it's all about the things."