Image source: pixabay.com

Till the last decade Artwork was viewed as a luxurious habit of rich people. But all businesses ranging from large to small are able to realize that artwork has a glaring effect on the people working in the company or clients who visit the Office regularly. Yes, typically, it’s a new way of looking at productivity.

Though art covers a vast range of creation, here artwork means paintings, drawings and photographs created or captured by famous or ‘not-so-famous’ people. All you need to do is to find some places in the office where they can be hanged (even in small offices) and where lights are good.

Before going into detail about why you should hang artwork all over the walls in your office, we will give you an account of why you may think that artwork is a complete waste of time. First we will talk about the myths and then bust them.

We can understand that if you’re just starting you, you would try your best to reduce cost, even if it’s just a penny, but what can be more important than the mind-set of those people who produce what you sell?

Let’s talk about why you probably would resist the idea of hanging artwork all over the walls in your office.

Artwork Resistance – Myths

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• Cost:

As a small business owner you may not like the idea of buying something which may not directly affect the production. But thing is if you want to be a sustainable business you need to people who are productive, cheerful and always motivated to do work. And for that you need to pay a little price. No, artwork is not costly. If you’re busy, checkout the e-store you trust. You will find a lot of artwork at minimal price. Yes, they may not be created or captured by famous people but they’re good. To begin, simply buy 2-4 Artworks and see how they affect your employees every day.

• Belief:

You believe strongly that artwork is not able to effect the motivation and productivity of employees. You may think so. But here’s an example. Suppose, you have to live in a room for a day with nothing but concrete walls, no paintings, decorations or creative masterpieces. You need to spend the whole day there without even coming out of the room. How would you feel? Let’s change the scene. Now imagine, on the walls of that room, beautiful paintings are hanged. You can roam around and watch and enjoy. How would you feel? Did you say – “Much better!” That’s the difference between having artwork in your office and not having artwork. Your employees and even you need to spend the entire day within the office premises (mostly, not always maybe). And during those dull hours, only artwork can rejuvenate, make you wonder about the beauty of life and your efficiency will drastically improve.

• Dislikes for artworks:

There are people who don’t like babies, flowers and artworks. No, we don’t need to judge them; but their dislikes are not just hatred. They don’t like these things because they were never curious enough to know why they don’t like or maybe they attach one or more emotional events of their lives with one or more of these things. Even if you say that you don’t like artwork, let us remind you that when you do a meeting, talk to your client, collaborate with your peers and negotiate with the tools and techniques, actually you’re creating art. No matter what you do, your creative potential is getting expressed to the world and effect the world around you. So why do you think that artworks will not work? Try them for a month and see whether there is any boost in the mood or motivation in you or in your employees is seen or not. Without trying you wouldn’t know the magic of artworks, so give it a try.

• Logic:

If you’re one of those who believe that logic is basecamp of excellent business acumen, recent research proves that it’s not. You need to use both your right and left brains simultaneously to create something extraordinary, yes, even in your business. You need to use your left brain for logical reasoning and you need to use your right brain for creativity and to give birth to new ideas. To be able to be a great business man/woman, you need to use the right brain as much as you use your left brain. And when you look at artworks in the breaks or while you walk to your cabin or come out of it, it subconsciously affects your intelligence. Don’t trust me. Just do an experiment. Instead of buying an artwork for your office, buy an artwork for your bedroom and hang it on the wall. Give it seven days. You will feel exactly like the painting on the wall of your room. And on the basis of that, decide whether you need to hang the artworks also on your office walls or not.

Busting myths – Why artwork will help you to be at your creative best?

Your creative potential is unlimited. So are of your employees! Most people demean their own creative potential by believing people who don’t have a sense or idea of what art is. Thus, you should do all you can to let go of all the resistances you have for artworks and try them out to significantly impact the overall productivity of the organization.

In this section, we will bust the myths that may be stopping you to use artworks as means to improve productivity.

• Give birth to new ideas:

Ideas are everything. Yes, you need to execute them to get some value out of them. But without birthing them into being, you can’t implement them. And artworks help you get new ideas. They broaden your horizon of thinking and take you to a place where you are alone with your thoughts and you can create magic. If you’ve never seen this, try a beautiful piece of artwork in your cabin (if you have one) or in your cubicle. Hang it in a way that you can directly look at it all the time. And then see what happens? This artwork will affect your subconscious mind and how you process information. Within few days you will feel good and will come up with stunning ideas to improve anything that you would like to.

Image source: pixabay.com

• Learning a new thing:

Learning a new thing or skill is never easy. But artworks help improve your mind-set to do just that. If you’re struggling with something for a long time, hang artworks that convey possibility. You can also use photographs (also artworks) of a new morning or anything that expands your limitations. Then use good light. You would see that magically your grasping power will increase. You will begin to feel good about learning the thing or skill which you used to condemn. It may seem like magic but by this simple example we can understand the power art has on our lives.

• One thing focus:

The greatest enemy of productivity is not your mind, rather a lot of distractions that trying to catch your attention – your mobile, co-worker’s request, email pop ups, notifications of social networking sites and many other things when you’re trying to concentrate. The best way is to clear away all these things that are robbing off your focus and hang a beautiful artwork on the wall in front of you. On your desk, keep only what you need. If you need a laptop, just keep your laptop. Work for 25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes. During those 5 minutes, relax and look at artwork. Look at all the curves, color, texture, surface and see the possibility of that artwork and then go back to work again. You will be able to focus on your one thing much better and you will be create great results. If you have a small business, ask your employees also to do the same and it will boost the overall productivity of the organization.

Image source: pixabay.com

• Increase bonding:

Imagine two scenes – in one, people destructing other people, buildings and infrastructures and in another, people are getting united to creating something exceptional. If you would like to increase bonding of your employees, you need to use great artwork signifying the same. Hang a beautiful picture of people coming together and giggling in a group. Artwork is actually a symbol. A symbol affects much faster than words. So, according to your mission statement or as per the vision of your company, choose artwork. Talk to artists and create artworks in the similar fashion if you can afford. Otherwise, you can visit art store and purchase artworks that convey the same feeling, emotion and life.

Image source: pixabay.com

• Build culture:

Where do you like to work? Researchers say that the best place to work is a minimalist workspace where you don’t only get physical space; rather you also get visual space. To work well, it’s important to soothe your eyes and to free your mind. Thus, no matter how small or big your office is, clear all the furniture that are not required and hang beautiful artwork on the walls. If your office will consist of beautiful artworks all over the place and if they convey the same mission you and your organization wants to convey to your employees, then it will eventually build culture. If you don’t know how to do it, take the help of an interior designed and ask him/her how you want the artworks to impact the employees. Most employers only pay heed to things that directly boost the productivity of their employees, but ignore the subtle aspects. Don’t ignore the subtle aspects because often these subtle factors affect the productivity of employees most.

• Client perspective:

How would you feel if you visit an office and you see that on the walls there are beautiful paintings and artworks? All you would be able to say – Wow! And you will immediately feel good in that office. So, don’t you want to offer the same experience to your clients? If you pick good artworks to adorn your office, you can create similar experience for your clients. More client will visit your office, more will be your business; more will be your business better will be your profits; better will be your profits, better would be the possibility of your future! And when more clients visit you, they will impact the psyche of your employees and they will also work better and produce better output.

Image source: pixabay.com

A fascinating research on the office environment

In the final analysis, let’s look at a research about how environment affects the overall productivity of the staffs.

It’s being proved by the research that same people if work in a better environment will produce much better than a less than perfect environment. Now the question is how would you create an environment which would be conducive for employee productivity? As we mentioned earlier that distraction is not a good thing to look to if you want to improve productivity. But if it’s a distraction created by artwork then actually it will improve the mental state of your staffs.

Here’s the research:

Knight and team evaluated four types of office environment and how they affect staff productivity.

• Lean: In this office space, they only kept the necessary things to do the work
• Enriched: In this space, the artworks and plants were already arranged beforehand
• Empowered: In this space, staffs can alter the artworks and plants according to their own desires and comfort
• Disempowered: In this space, after the staffs arranged the artworks and plants the experimenter rearranged the artworks and plants as per the enriched office space.

It was found that people who work in enriched space are 15% faster in producing the output than people who work in the lean Office Space. And people who worked in the empowered office space, produced things at 30% faster than the lean office space. People who work in disempowered office space created the same results as in lean office space. And people who work in enriched and empowered office space didn’t even complaint about any health issues which they did in the lean and disempowered office space.

From this fascinating study, you can understand that what artworks can do to the environment of the office and how it can drastically change the productivity of the staffs. If you buy artworks for your office, it would not be a waste of money; rather it would be an investment to improve the productivity of your staff as T&D? Does this ring a bell?

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