Google is a strange bunch. Not only do they have foosball tables and “nap lounges” at their headquarters, they employ a working technique called the “20 percent rule.”

What is it? From the Official Google Blog:

The 20 percent time is a well-known part of our philosophy here, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren’t necessarily in our job descriptions. You can use the time to develop something new, or if you see something that’s broken, you can use the time to fix it.

Translation: You get to spend 20 percent of your paid time at Google working on something that isn’t your job. That. Is. Awesome. With a perk like this (and many others), one could see why Google is a tremendously popular place to work.

But Google isn’t just being cute here. They’re not trying to make their work place into the adult-version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. They’re actually onto something. Creativity–structured time to explore the imagination with no expectation of a immediate tangible output–actually increases productivity on the job. BrightHouse, an innovation consulting company, builds “thinking time” into their workflow:

BrightHouse’s 18 staff members get five Your Days, in which they are encouraged to visit a spot conducive to reflection and let their neurons rip. No mandate to solve a particular problem. Just blue-sky thinking — often under actual blue skies. Reiman [BrightHouse's CEO] believes this unstructured cogitation is just as important to a project’s success as time spent hunkered down in client meetings. Or as he puts it: “I think; therefore, I am valuable.”

This is an appeal to the imagination in the workplace. Not only that, but it’s an appeal to the “being” part of human being. We need time to “goof off” and spend time contemplating the sky, a passage of Scripture, quantum physics–heck, something other than the sometimes monotonous drone of everyday life. After all, it was Einstein himself who said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Question: Do you buy this? If not, why not? If so, how are you structuring imagination into your day?

Bonus Question: What are the biggest differences you see between Google (“new” company) and older, more established companies?

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Contributor: Justin Wise

A religious deviant who enjoys coffee, collared shirts, spending time with his wife and son, learning about quantum physics and creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ. Culture + Faith + Technology. Contact the author