How does office design impact innovative thinking?

The future of all companies is highly dependent on their level of competitiveness, the skills and productivity levels of their employees and most importantly, innovative and creative thinking. Although the relevance of these factors in the success of a company is highly dependent on many overt reasons, one of the reasons that is often overlooked is office design. Companies must understand the significance of office design that suits the needs of workers and imbues a sense of innovation and creativity in them.

Innovative thinking demands a creative bent - an imagination and an eye that sees things differently. Yet, it’s widely known that traditional workplaces are often lacking a good design aesthetic that not only curbs imagination, it also has no taste and therefore, fails to induce a sense of creativity in people. In fact, even today many companies, due to budget cuts, overlook office design options that may help boost work efficiency and business innovation.

Some of the changes may include utilisation of bright colours, creation of an inclusive aesthetic in the overall office design and use of highly functional office furnitures among others.

Huddle/Break Rooms: Huddle rooms must be created with an intimate space in mind. These break rooms should be able to minimise noise and any other distractions that people may face. Even though such office settings are more often seen in co-working spaces, companies with stand-alone offices will be at an advantage when creating huddle rooms as they can be as creative as they wish. In such rooms employees can be allowed to have creative dialogues, collaborate inter-departmentally and interact without fuss.

Additionally, such break rooms are able to induce spontaneity, minimise outside noise and allow creative dialogues between employees, besides also encouraging brainstorming sessions and dialogues on innovative ideas.

Further, such spots can also be used by workers to relax and re-energize during lunch time or in the evening after work. The addition of the break room, therefore, helps in increasing productivity and helps induce creative and innovative juices.

Space Planning: How often have you lost your thoughts in crowded places? Too many times, would our best guess. Well, the human mind functions on the same lines as it tries to either think or deliberate over innovative and creative ideas. Since our mind and thoughts can be considered an extension of our environment and how we react to it, it’s essential that our office designs reflect efficient space planning and highly functional office furniture.

It’s been shown through many office designs that the incorporation of space planning and a free flowing staff movement too can help towards inducing innovative ideas. What’s more? The utilisation of multi-purpose office furnitures such as comfortable lounge furnitures can spark creative and innovative thinking.

Of course, concepts like social distancing that have become paramount during the pandemic have come to impose a change in office furniture. In fact, one of the few companies to launch a series of office furniture that allows the concept of social distancing to be practiced is Fursys - a Korean brand. Straight after the lockdown was announced, the company started working on launching a new series (dubbed Square Series) of office furniture that takes into account social distancing while optimising productivity and ease of work among employees.

Natural Light: Poor lighting in offices can strain the eyes, cause headaches, and lead to stress and fatigue among workers. In fact, historically, traditional offices have been known to make use of dull artificial light that makes everyday mundane and boring.

Ample natural light on the other hand helps in psychologically inducing a sense of productivity, leading to innovative and creative ideas.

Using Every Inch of Space: Companies that make use of every inch of their office space efficiently create conducive environments for their employees. In fact, different environments are useful to help induce creative and innovative thinking.

Take the example of the pantry that could be used as an impromptu meeting room. The addition of small work desks and chairs will also add to the overall impact on innovative thinking. This may help workers think of creative and innovative ideas while taking a break from work.

(With inputs from Ashish Aggarwal, CEO of Indo Innovations)