Can Workplace Design really enhance Innovation and Creativity?

Workplace Trends, © Oseland 2017

Can workplace design really enhanceInnovation & Creativity?

Nigel Oseland PhD CPsychol@oseland

www.workplaceunlimited.com


Innovation (creative) economy70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Pre-industrial Industrial Post-industrial

Tertiary(Service)

Secondary(Manufacturing)

Quaternary(Innovation)Primary

Empl

oym

ent (

%)

Based on Clark (1940) Conditions of Economic Progress


Creativity papers

Frontal Lobes Mind-wandering Functional Fixedness

Divergent Thinking Executive Brain Insight

Workplace

Business

Neuroscience


Creative workplaces?

Google

Red Bull

Yahoo

GoDaddy


Creative workplaces?The garage is my kind of playground. When you come in you can write on the tables, you can write on the walls and then you can reconfigure the tables to be in any position you want. Everything is on wheels and that allows people to be flexible and be more playful in a way that a typical space and typical conference room just wouldn’t.

Nadya Direkova, Google



garage



“bored” room



Where are you most creative?



“72% of people get their best ideas in the shower“ Kaufman (2014)


Meeting areas for idea generation

937 respondents, Oseland (2012) Personality & Preferences for Interaction

Breakout33%

MeetingRoom26%

InformalMeeting

45%

Office7%

Cafe16%

Brainstorm/War Room

40%Bar6%

Conf3%


Preferred places for creativity


Home53%

Desk26%Meeting

Room

9%

InformalMeeting

30%

Café13%

Garden26%

Office11%


Preferred places for concentration


Home63%

Desk40%

MeetingRoom

13%

InformalMeeting

6%

Café5%

Garden2%


Creative/Openness preferences

CreativeCuri

ous

Artistic

Imag

inat

ive

Broad-mindedEmotional


Innovation cycle

Activity between two or more people

Organised facts and data

Passing on of information

Mental process of generating new ideas

Initial idea for new product or process

Successfully implement idea to change in thinking, product or process

Expertise acquired by experience and familiarity with information

Working together towards a common goal

Oseland et al (2011) Environments for successful interaction


Divergent thinking test

0 10 20 30 40 50 60


Unexpected experiences

Simone Ritter (2013) Horizon: The Creative Brain How Insight Works

Creativity15%


Auto-mode

Jonathan Schooler (2013) Horizon: The Creative Brain How Insight Works

1. Do nothing – rest

2. Non-demanding – sort bricks

3. Demanding – build house


Brain blinking


Daydreaming or thinking?

ChristofF et al (2009) Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 106(21)


Biophilic design

Creativity 15% Cooper (2015) Biophilic Design in the Workplace. Human Spaces.

ATTENTION RESTORATION THEORY“non-taxing involuntary attention”


Nature benefits

Atchly, Strayer & Atchly (2012) Creativity in the wild: Improving creative reasoning through immersion in natural settings

Creativity 50%


Enriched design

Knight (2017) Personal comms, to be published by Knight & Tsivrikos

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

Lean Enriched Design Identity Realised Led Design

Nº

of c

reati

ve id

eas

35.5%

31.4%

48.6%

F(3,177)=14.88, p<0.1, η2=0.21


Remember concentration

Creativity Collaboration Concentration0

20

40

60

80

100

28%

Satis

fied

(%)

9,450 responses

and contemplation


Summary

Creativity

Collaboration

Contemplation

Concentration

INNOVATION


Thank YouNigel Oseland PhD CPsychol

@oseland [email protected]

www.workplaceunlimited.com

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Can Workplace Design really enhance Innovation and Creativity?