Steelcase and Microsoft played host, in November 2017, to business leaders, architects and designers from across Australia to introduce Creative Spaces — an ecosystem of technology-enabled spaces designed to boost creative work. An expert panel gathered in Sydney to discuss new insights and solutions created to help people reach their creative potential at work.
Steelcase global research director, Chris Congdon, Microsoft senior director of Surface marketing, Julia Atalla and partner at IDEO, a global design and innovation consulting group, John Ravitch, addressed how crucial it is for organizations to foster creativity in order to be successful today.
“Via technology, change in business is coming more quickly than ever — and from multiple directions — most of which are difficult to anticipate,” said Ravitch. “The best way to address the speed of this change is to create a nimble, more creatively competent workforce.”
To be creatively competent, Ravitch explained, teams need to become more oriented towards exploration and experimentation — the outcome of which is new ideas and faster learning which significantly increases the likelihood of market success.
Despite progressive workstyles in Australia such as activity-based working, where people have different spaces available for different types of work, there remains significant untapped potential. While Australians rate their quality of life at work slightly above average, they also grapple with a workforce no more engaged than the rest of the world. Just 12 percent of Australians are highly engaged and highly satisfied at work (Steelcase Global Report: Engagement and the Global Workplace).
“With employee engagement relatively low, it’s important to introduce physical and visual cues to help people do things differently,” said Atalla. “People are creatures of habit. If you want to unlock human creativity, you need them to break their habits and try something new. Space and technology can be the subtle cues to help people be more creative and help teams perform better.”