Deconstructing the Genius Loci: How ‘Spirit of Place’ Influences Productivity

On the northwest coast of Turkey, my extended family has an olive farm. I try to travel there at least once a year to take part in the harvest. To most people, the farm probably looks like rows of trees, occasional piles of rocks, and mountains in the background. On a material level, that pretty much sums it up. But to me, it’s so much more — it’s a place that tells my family’s history, about where we’re from and who we are: generations of farmers who lived off of the Turkish land. Being at the farm has a particular effect on me. I wake up while the sun is still rising and take a walk around the land — no checking my email or scrolling Twitter. After working on the harvest, we cook big meals using products from our farm and our neighbors’. We gather around the table for long, slow lunches. And at the end of the day, I turn off the lights and fall asleep, happy and exhausted — no streaming a series on Netflix or firing off late-night emails. You see, the spirit of a place, or “genius loci,” is more than just the stones and dirt, or the bricks and mortar. It’s also the <a href="https://whereisthenorth.com/5-ideas-that-convey-the-genius-loci-of-a-place/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">narrative</a>, the eco-system, the tradition, and the people. It’s both the tangible and intangible qualities. As my farm example implies, the genius loci can affect our behavior when we inhabit a place, including at the office. As CEO of <a href="https://www.jotform.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Jotform</a>, I don’t believe in productivity for productivity’s sake — ticking off as many items as possible on an endless to-do list with no intentionality. But I think often about creating the ideal circumstances for innovation and making progress on meaningful projects, or as I like to call them, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Automate-Your-Busywork-Achieve-Brain/dp/1119901731" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">the “big stuff</a>.” Genius loci is an important consideration. Here, a closer look at how the spirit of your work environment can have an impact on productivity and creativity. <h1>1. An ever-present narrative</h1> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207419301748" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Laurence Durrell</a> once wrote for the New York Times, “As we get to know Europe slowly, tasting the wines, cheeses, and characters of different countries you begin to realize that the important determinant of any culture is after all the spirit of place. Just as one particular vineyard will always give you a special wine with discernible characteristics so a Spain, an Italy, a Greece will always give you the same type of culture — will express itself through the human beings just as it does through its wild flowers.” If you taste an olive from my family’s farm, it expresses a spirit of place — where it was grown, who grew it, and how it was cultivated. In the same way, your office should be infused with a narrative about the people, the place, and your story — in modern-day parlance, we usually call these things the company’s mission statement and culture. <a href="https://medium.com/swlh/deconstructing-the-genius-loci-how-spirit-of-place-influences-productivity-55bc81ea23e7">Learn More</a>