Some conference room tables boast bowls of candy or a gaggle of diminutive bottles of water. Others, painfully benign centerpieces, like a vase filled with colored glass beads. But when the Chronicle Books publishing team visited Lego’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, they were delighted to discover Lego bricks at every gathering point instead.
“The Lego headquarters in Billund are spectacular and purposely designed to foster creativity and play at work—every conference room, table, and workspace has a bowl of Lego elements available to help employees build through their challenges and think with their hands,” says Brittany McInerney, Chronicle Books’ associate editorial director for entertainment. “Everyone we met seemed to center their daily jobs on the core company goals of creativity and play. It was so inspiring, but also left us asking: How do they do that? How do you sustain that level of creativity when it’s your everyday job?”
In late 2018, Chronicle and Lego announced they were joining forces on a series of products for adult fans of the brand. After rolling out such titles as Lego Still Life with Bricks in 2020, McInerney would soon find a way to answer that persistent question from back in Billund.
She and her team had a hunch: that Lego employees could teach people a fair amount about the process of creative work, rather than just providing them the final product of it. So Chronicle blasted four questions out to Lego employees not just in Billund, but also to every corner of the brand’s ecosystem around the world: What motivates you to be creative or innovative? What is your earliest memory of creating something original? What is something a child has taught you about creativity or innovation? And finally, the query that got the ball rolling in the first place: How do you maintain your creative muscles?
McInerney and co. worried that the whole thing might feel like homework to Lego employees. But before too long, they had hundreds of responses on their hands.
“We were surprised by the diversity of answers. One of the big takeaways I found in reading the raw answers we received was that a creative spirit can drive success and happiness in any sector—sales, production, communications. We can all be creative, not just the typical ‘creative’ roles.”
The sum toll of the Lego hivemind’s wisdom can now be found not in a book, but rather a deck of 78 cards—How We Create.
But why not a book?
McInerney points out that the narrative journey of a book encourages readers to habitually (and thus quickly) flip from one page to the next—but the deck format allows them to slow down and approach the advice piecemeal. The deck itself is divided into five sections: Motivation, Inspiration, Memories & Mentors, Challenges & Obstacles, and another focused on the brand’s stated values. McInerney’s team built Lego building prompts into all the creative advice, as well—“this was our nod to the bowls of Lego elements in each conference room,” she notes.
Ultimately, “Each phrase or story is a jumping-off point for self-reflection, goal setting, or habit creation. We hope people will use the cards to think more clearly about their own creative process.”
Here is a peek at 10 cards designed to help you do exactly that.
(4)
