_Why we should start thinking of office space as an 'Idearium' to boost creativity

With collaboration, creativity and innovation being increasingly perceived as key objectives and differentiators of business performance, it has become necessary to understand the genesis and mechanisms behind ideation - the formation of ideas or concepts - and to acknowledge the role of workplace in influencing, or even triggering, creative work behaviour.

Experience does show that the idea of seeking a setting, a “zone” if you will, for a specific purpose is intuitively right. This needn’t be a retreat or cocoon, as is often assumed, but can also be a crowded, busy, noisy place, which might explain why so often the most animated work conversations move out of the office shop into the coffee shop. 

Equally, highlight events or special meetings tend to be held in a “venue’, often dressed for the occasion.

The symbiotic association of special activities with codified rituals is as established as civilization itself; the recognition that settings – temples, town halls and courthouses - and their props – altars, maces and gavels – play an important role, not just in embodying but possibly also in stimulating and facilitating the very activities they are associated with.

So too with the very special activity that is the generation of ideas - or ideation. Not to be confused with innovation. Not all ideas are or need to be innovative but all are defined as ideas in that they are, with varying degrees of success, the expression of creative thinking and problem solving.

Let me now dispel two myths.

The first relates the use of the term “creativity” in the context of business. Business has embraced some of the language and, in the face of the failure of traditional management systems, sought to appropriate the language, techniques and structure that are typical of the Arts; is this legitimate and to what purpose?

Perhaps it is therefore more fitting to be discussing ideation in the context of knowledge exchange and creation. 

A major challenge that businesses, aiming to break a mechanical, systemic and stale pattern of behaviour at work, encounter is in transforming their tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). #

This is what we may otherwise call ideation and which requires the kind of spaces and associated culture that encourages a free flow of ideas and acclimatises people to the habits of sharing and learning.

Experience does show that the idea of seeking a setting, a “zone” if you will, for a specific purpose is intuitively right. This needn’t be a retreat or cocoon, as is often assumed, but can also be a crowded, busy, noisy place

The second myth I would like to dispel is that of the single introspective creative act suggesting in its place that ideation, as knowledge exchange, is a collaborative orchestration of inputs.

In that creation is the response to external inputs from any given context, it is, by definition, collaborative as no idea emerges from a void but is the result of interaction. The more diverse and large the creative team, the richer the creative process.

Articulating ideation into distinctly structured stages is not contrary to the creative act. A creative process does indeed possess structure. While it may wander, it is a hugely purposeful and intense mission.

That intensity of thought and reasoning needs to be maintained alive throughout the process. When doing so, it is best to let development of ideas take place in bursts, broken up by periods of pause, reflection and discussion.

The idea of continual refinement is in fact implicit in the notion of ideation. It is achieved through a timely sequence of successive layering, which enriches and confers depth to the ideas being developed. The more often ideas are tabled and discussed, exposed, shared, stripped apart and compared with others, the better the outcome.

These are what we otherwise call meetings and, when they are loaded with the ambition to generate ideas they become brainstorming meetings, the official sanctum of ideation. With productivity, personal fulfilment as well as target setting in mind, the true purpose of meetings is never clearly  stated but often includes ideation, resolution and crisis management.

In fact there is no such thing as ‘just a meeting’; meetings are particular and can be defined by their specific purpose and function. Here are just a few examples: 

• DIALOGUE - free exchange of ideas between two or more participants / Conditions - informal, eye-to-eye, no obstacles, comfort, human, lively

• DEBATE - a form of confrontation between those proposing and opposing an idea in order to find an answer / Conditions - formal, two sides of the table, bi-cameral, high energy, a creative confrontation;

• DECIDE - a meeting to bring a conversation to a close with definitive action / Conditions - formal, efficient, no distraction

• DEVISE - creative meeting to invent new ideas or approaches / Conditions - open ended, playful, and organic, props to facilitate creativity. 

So, increasingly ideation is seen as trigger and spark of business growth. But are we ever really creatively meeting? Ubiquitous communication technology has eliminated the constraints of time and location with regards to ability and opportunity for interaction and knowledge exchange, yet this freedom has also diluted the significance of individual meeting moments and removed a natural sense of hierarchy, place, priority or joy in the enacting of the meeting. 

The workplace could act as an ideation environment when it supports and facilitates a multitude of events, all orchestrated, choreographed and curated to yield a culture of creative thinking and to effectively generate ideas

Moreover, the primary reason for meeting is often forgotten with company procedures, format, timetabling as well as pre-conceptions and expectations about what the nature, duration and objectives of the meeting should be, thus taking over and distracting from their true intent. 

Crucially, the attributes of the environment are rarely acknowledged to be playing any part in shaping and supporting ideation. Knowledge exchange and communication tend to inhabit the spaces provided as part of general office infrastructure rather than being the spaces that might inspire best results.

In an almost knee-jerk response to this as an expression of a crisis of ideas, current workplace trends and misconceptions are to associate creative work with settings that have been creatively shaped and are quirky, funky, fun and such other.

While the result is often architecturally exciting, this is a case of mistaking the quality of the environment with that of the activity.

Google, whose offices have long been associated with the company’s colourful and vibrant branding, currently promotes another take.

Partnering with The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at Berkeley University of California, Google are carrying out ground-breaking research on healthy workplaces that positively impact the health and well-being of their employees by approaching buildings as living systems, designing for daylight, clean air, and removal of harmful toxins and chemicals.

The Idearium recognizes distinct moments of creative thinking as they unfold and offers effective timely props for full effect

Health and wellbeing expressed as environmental quality are often some of the main factors affecting ideation at work. Work environments are still for the most perceived as a matter of furniture and finishes selection.

However, as the CBE research is showing, there are however imperceptible factors, which dramatically improve comfort at work, including air and light quality. The premise of this kind of research is that neutral but healthy backdrops to creative activity can foster a state of wellbeing and alertness that is a necessary predisposition to ideation. 

Perhaps we should stop thinking of the office in accordance with a 19th Century mechanistic model of linear work flow and assembly but as an Idearium. 

The Idearium recognizes distinct moments of creative thinking as they unfold and offers effective timely props for full effect. It constitutes the perfect alignment of workspace and business strategy on an experiential level as articulated under the following four headings: 

1. Understanding of the importance of ideation in business and its links to productivity, through: 

• Acting - enact business as theatre, leading to multiple possible outcomes; Improvising – accepting unexpected results depending on inputs, timing and dynamic of the ideation journey; Jamming - harmonising the different workplace actors
• Sensing - understanding needs, communicating solutions and responding to feedback

2. Defining possible metrics for identifying success criteria of business innovation, through: 

• Collating qualitative data
• Playing-out realities (gaming)
•  Quantifying qualitative measures of success
• Deploying user-responsive and user-centric technology 

3. Highlighting the direct/indirect relationships between physical space and business activity, through

• Sense Sensitive Design - understanding the impact of the environment on physical and emotional wellbeing and motivation
• Nutrition - increasing energy levels, giving pleasure and reducing allergies
• Stimulus - using sensory experience to awaken senses, engender a response
• Familiarity - reassuring features and routines associated with the workplace

4. Appreciating the impact of space on creative behaviour in the workplace, through:

• Psychogeography - an approach to spatial orientation (Debord, 1956) that emphasizes playfulness and drifting within built environments. It's about how we're affected by being in certain places – the architecture, the weather, whom you're with - a general sense of excitement about a place.
• Empathy - collaboration for individual and team success / staying connected to team needs
• Flexibility - adaptability to changing work styles and business needs / iterative and experimental mind sets
• Empowerment - ownership and sense of initiative / suggestive rather then prescriptive / encouraging an environment that promotes curiosity

In conclusion, workplace could act as an ideation environment when it supports and facilitates a multitude of events, all orchestrated, choreographed and curated to yield a culture of creative thinking and to effectively generate ideas.

Giuseppe Boscherini is a Partner in Knight Frank's EMA Strategic Consulting team. Knight Frank's EMEA Strategic Consulting team works with large and small business helping them to align property to business goals and objectives and, in turn, making them more competitive and fast moving.

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