It’s a well-known fact that noise can distract people. Noise is responsible for decreases in productivity and focus, and increases in errors. It’s a big problem in most places of business, and can cost companies millions of dollars in lost productivity.

But did you know noise can also hamper creativity? Noise, especially the noise from speech, causes the over-stimulation of the logical portion of the brain. When conversational noise is constantly taking place around you, your brain is using a great deal of its energy processing that speech, even if you’re not consciously aware of it.

When the brain is focusing so much of its processing power on those conversations, it takes away from the focus on other things, and part of that is creativity. Writers understand this especially well.

When they are trying to be creative, it can be very difficult to do so when a lot of conversational noise is happening around them. Conversations contain words, and when writers are trying to process words of their own, extra speech can be a big distraction.

Novelists are known to rent or buy cabins in the woods, far away from other people, just so they can work without distractions. Many famous writers have locked themselves into their rooms, or traveled to remote locations while writing some of their greatest works.

But other creative people understand this, too. Musicians often ask for complete silence during their performances, because extra speech noise can cause them to lose their rhythm, forget parts of their performance, or lose their place.

Artists are notorious for working in privacy. Many artists become reclusive, often staying in their rooms or lofts alone for days at a time. While painting or sculpting, artists have known to be vicious to those who make noise around them, especially conversations.

Many of the world’s greatest artists are reported to have felt the need to work alone for great lengths of time. In fact, if you ask most creative professionals who have experienced great success what they feel is the most important key to that success, a pretty good number of them will tell you privacy is one of the biggest factors.

Most creative people do feel the need to be alone during their most creative periods. If your employees need to use any type of creative skills at all, it’s important for you to take steps to reduce distractions caused by conversational noise.

Sure, your graphics designers might not be trying to create the next Mona Lisa, but they do need to use a lot of creative brainpower to design effective product packaging, or make your website especially user-friendly.

Your company’s writers might not be writing the next Gone with the Wind, but they do use a lot of creative thinking coming up with your company’s newsletters, sales copy, and brochures. Even lower-level employees like mail room workers need to use some creative thinking.

Problem-solving needs quite a bit of creative thinking. And employees need to be capable of solving problems on their own, without having to burden management with questions. A good sound masking system is remarkably effective at masking conversational noise, and can help boost the creativity of your workers by turning distracting conversational noise into sounds that can be tuned out just as easily as the sound of a fan or air conditioner.

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