Steve Jobs said, “Theres a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That's crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.”

A stratospheric success at Google might never have reached escape velocity if folks weren’t allowed to indulge pet projects. Here’s the inside scoop.

One of the most fantastic definitions I’ve ever heard comes from an anonymous seventh grader in Ohio: “Creativity is doing more than the first thing that comes to your mind.”

Legendary Stanford professor Bob McKim had a simple, standard response to any student seeking his feedback on a new project. Google X’s Astro Teller does something similar today.

“‘You can't understand Google unless you know that both Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids,’ said Marissa Mayer. Valuing personal freedom to pursue interests explains a lot about Google.

How does a scrappy start-up attract world-class talent? Steven Levy’s “In the Plex” shares how Google managed to attract the brightest computer scientists before it had 10 employees.

A product manager at Google told me about a bold move the organization made to create the space folks needed to learn. It inspired me to take a similar step in my own practice.

The counter-cultural practices of Google X, Amazon, and 3M demonstrate that public celebration reinforces organizational values, especially when those values run contrary to conventional business rules.

It’s been over two since I last worked in regular physical proximity with folks beyond my immediate team at Stanford. Of all the things I miss the most, I must say that eavesdropping is near the top of the list.

One of Google’s stratospheric successes might never have reached escape velocity if folks weren’t allowed to indulge pet projects. Here’s the inside scoop.