Creative Collaboration Needs VOLUME

Creative Collaboration

Sound in the office is very varied in source and type and depending on where you happen to be in the office – and what task you’re currently undertaking - your personal perception of these sounds will be different from all your colleagues

So, how do you cater for the noisy creative collaborators in an open office when there are probably also a good number of silent task-focused employees trying to work in the same space?

Forget Teams

Start by thinking about the actual job each person does, rather than simply the team or functional area in which they sit and organise around those facets.

Also under consideration should be what overall objectives are being sought within any one space – no matter how large that space may be and how many teams occupy it.

But then comes ‘flexible architecture’. The use of furniture and other large elements that can define distinct functional areas from the broader administrative or day-to-day areas of the space – but have some degree of mobility as requirements change.

Creativity as Collaboration

As a result of increasing specialism in the workplace, creativity as a solo pursuit is less useful than collaborative creativity: collaboration, where there is a shared outcome as opposed to co-operation, where there may only be an outcome owned by one person.

Creativity as a Process

Once you have decided why you need to cater for creative collaboration, you will need to understand how creativity happens. Psychologists will tell you there are four or five stages of creativity:

1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Evaluation and verification - which could be a single or two separate stages

These stages need very different environments and states of mind to work.

Stage One

Preparation requires thought and focus to formulate an initial idea. But then also brainstorming or ideation sessions to build on that start and to give it some direction. These two parts require two very different spaces.

The first will need a quieter, calmer workmanlike space for research and the gathering of assets and data. A degree of separation, without being isolated from the team may help too. Perhaps the flexibility for ‘meerkat collaboration’ will help – the ability to pop your head up to ask a pertinent question of a colleague. But many creatives need complete solitude.

The second part of the preparation stage though will require a collaborative space, where a group can gather and throw ideas and thoughts around like tennis balls - and make NOISE. Seating may be optional – or is a mix of beanbags or other soft seating, round-table seating and standing tables

To avoid disturbing others a brainstorming space is best located away from main open-plan office areas.

In line with biophilic design principles, this area should be airy, well ventilated, have views of the outdoors if possible – and so have natural light - and feature natural analogues (patterns, natural colours, flowing lines) and some form of planting. With the use of nature in the space alongside these natural features, you can start to create the nature of the space - where characteristics of the natural world ( refuge or mystery, prospect or risk) can?develop, further enhancing free and creative thinking.

Stand-up tables are great for maintaining engagement levels and getting people closer together as they talk and plan. But also, the use of soft seating such as sofas makes an ideal place for breaks, or somewhere to recuperate as others work through particular points.

Lastly, acoustics are vital in this space. As before, not to reduce noise overall, but to manage the sound and allow everyone to be heard and to hear

Stage Two

For incubation you need to let your idea go and let your mind focus on anything but. There is probably not a one-size-fits-all space for this – and maybe it’s not an internal space at all, but somewhere outside you need to be.

Stage Three

Illumination – that lightbulb, eureka, a-ha moment is a function of the incubation stage and is where all of the material you have curated so far comes together. Ideally you will quickly be able to record this important moment somewhere you will not be disturbed and distracted from your task – but within reach of your wider team.

Stage Four

Evaluation and verification will need a combination of team and individual thinking. Depending on the idea, cross-functional collaboration and consideration may be required as well as one-to-one meetings, team meetings and solo focus time.

For one-to-one meetings, semi-enclosed seating pods could be the way to go - again away from the wider team, but not completely isolated. Also, it’s often at this stage that a particular point needs speedy clarification, with input from a range of people. To avoid the curse of the formal meeting room sucking time away, a more informal drop-in group meeting space can be useful such as a soft multi-seat unit or a stand-up space, separated from the rest of the office with acoustic dividers.

In summary, when planning office space:

• Consider how your employees work best and not what their functional area is.
• Build flexibility into your workspace with the use of furniture as flexible architecture
• Use the principles of biophilic design to enhance creativity and collaboration.
• Don't assume collaboration is a one-size fits all activity

For the full article, along with suggestions of the flexible architecture mentioned in this piece, read more on PLN Group’s Ideas section.

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Words by Paul Bondsfield