It goes a little something like this:

“We’ve got [or we want to have] a room where people can get away from their desks and cubicles and really get creative. In this room, the rules are different. Everyone sits on bean bags, and there are no computers allowed. Instead of staplers and keyboards, we’ve got toys and children’s books and magazines. The walls are colorful, and one of the walls is painted with blackboard paint so people can write all over the walls and have a really wild brainstorm. It’s a sanctuary and war room and lounge all at once. We do our best thinking in there.”

I’ve heard this story in one form or another at just about every “creative” organization I’ve worked with. I really respect the spirit of it and the desire to create a space where creativity can thrive. But it’s a stupid-ass story, because a “bean bag lounge” isn’t a very good way to make creativity happen.

There are two things wrong with the bean bag lounge. The first problem is that it’s an isolated room. This sends the message that creativity has to be underground in your organization, that creative people are refugees, constantly fighting against the overwhelming tide of cubicle conformity. This is no good for creativity, no good for keeping your creatives on staff, and no good for your organization.

The second problem is that bean bag lounges are crappy environments. Sure, cubicle farms suck, and a brightly colored room is better, but in my experience, creativity does best when people feel at home. And no one feels at home in a bean bag lounge. Seriously, when was the last time you went over to someone’s house and found it set up like a bean bag lounge? The effect is that bean bag lounges are self-conscious spaces (I’d even go so far as to say that they are caricatures of themselves) and so people feel some sort of expectation that they must “be creative” when they are in the room, and that’s just the kind of thing that kills creativity.

All of this might explain why all the bean bag lounges I’ve ever seen are always deserted, which is sad because they are built with the best intention. But they just plain don’t work. It’s time we killed this false idol.