IBM examines how Inventor's Invent

IBM examines how Inventor's Invent :

They also called for meeting-free days so they could have fewer distractions, and open office hours, like college professors, so colleagues would bounce ideas off each other.

During Innovation Days, some people suggested days without e-mail. That would encourage more of the direct collaboration of years past, when researchers would walk down the hall and sketch out ideas on a colleague's white board, said Samer Takriti, a senior manager in mathematics.

In Haifa, Israel, IBM researchers suggested that everyone be encouraged to occasionally break lunchtime routines and sit randomly in the cafeteria, so people from different departments would eat together and discuss their projects, said Gal Ashour, technical assistant to IBM's Haifa lab director.