The Design and Science of Workplaces that Inspire

Never underestimate the power of the physical environment, especially as a strategic tool for unlocking the keystones of innovation: creativity, productivity & collaboration.

We speak to Kursty Groves, a Workplace Innovation Consultant and thought-provoker for creating inspiring physical and cultural work environments.

In her book, I Wish I Worked There!, Kursty went behind the scenes of the world’s most innovative companies, uncovering insights that drive their success. Her latest book, Spaces for Innovation, guides leaders and designers alike through the important elements that make effective environments for exceptional work performance.

Have a listen to the interview below, keep reading for a summary and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Play or SoundCloud.

Why has your environment become so important?

When it comes to things like innovation, you really need to have inspiration. If you can inspire your people, you’ve done half the job. Now more than ever we are requiring to be more creative, to be more innovative and to think, and push, harder. Inspiring environments are the backdrops to making this happen.

What are the key spacial types?

You really need to think about are some very simple building blocks:

• People need to be able to get their head down
• They need to be able to experiment and try out things and ideas, without fear of being judged
• They need to be able to communicate with others quickly
• Sometimes they need to explore completely unrelated topics

So the spaces you have need to be able to facilitate some of these things. And from this premise we can dissect four key pillars:

1. Collaboration: Working with other people.
2. Stimulation: Giving your brain new stimuli.
3. Reflection: Not just about thinking about a problem, but it also can be completely switching off.
4. Play: That can be something as simple as having a space where you can write something on a wall, and you can explore new topics.

Do these cool additions, like playrooms, actually get used on a daily basis?

There’s plenty of research that play can be an extremely powerful tool for helping people for bonds, as well as creativity because when you do things a little bit differently than you normally would, it might spark something new.

Play also has an injection of ‘wit’ about it. I’ve seen fantastic examples where they are encouraging people to take the stairs and all the way up the stairs they tell people how many calories that burnt along the way. Now that is not necessarily saying you have to go to this specific room to act like a child, but it’s just a general sense of playfulness added to your normal working day,

How do you define the right environment for your company?

It’s so important to do this for yourself. The way I go about doing this is linking the environment mission to your overall mission. Using your values and the behaviors you need people to exhibit.

The biggest thing I would say is; do not cut and paste. It will not work if you just say ‘I’ve been round Microsoft and they have some amazing break-out spaces and let’s just do that!” and expect it to work. It won’t. You need to think about why you are doing it, using your own values and internal brand to guide your think is extremely important.

What’s your number one pitfall you see people make?

Other than the cookie cutter approach we’ve just mentioned, I would say it is looking at the physical environment from an efficiency standpoint. What I mean by that is that traditional office has always been managed as an overhead. So your facilities team and your financial director is constantly looking at how we are minimizing this asset. And make sure we are sweating it as much as possible. That, of course, is a very important aspect. But unless you understand how your environment can be used as a strategic tool to unlock their collaboration and creativity, then you could be damaging your business big time. Only looking at your business from a very lean perspective can hinder the engagement of your people.

How do you measure the ROI of having an effective workspace?

The short answer is, is that you really need to have a number of metric points:

• How efficient are people?
• How productive are people?
• How engaged are people?

If you’re trying to increase the effectiveness of a sales team, looking at how space is affecting how they communicate could be beneficial.

As you start to create a more inspiring work environment, they measures become less and less tangible. So I use much more qualitative measurements around satisfaction, engagements, networking and energy levels.

Which companies are doing it right?

It obviously depends how big your company is.

Microsoft: Have taken an absolute monster of a company, and even though they are a tech company, they were struggling with their brand. They have completely changed how they view their physical environment and how they use it to unlock the performance of their people. They way they do it is through involvement and allowing people to hack their spaces, to make sure they are creating the right team environments that work for them.

Innocent drinks: They put all the products they have created that have failed on the wall to tell their people it’s ok to try things out and fail.

What are your top tips for employer brand managers?

1. Make it your business. This is an opportunity to express your brand through the physical environment. Don’t leave it to your facility manager. Get involved.
2. Really focus in on the basis. Make sure people have spaces to collaborate and get on with each other.
3. Involve people. The more you can do this, in terms of creation and the use of the environment, the more they will care about it.

Connect with Kursty on Twitter and check out her website.