If after reading this article, you decide to get on an airplane, you might later find yourself in a new cultural environment, and that in less than 1 hour of flight.
OK, it is difficult to do so each morning, yet we wanted to experience this during an ordinary day of work :
- Departure 7:30 am from Geneva Airport, without booked tickets
- Arriving at the airport, we looked for last minute tickets. Without much success.
- So we decide to download the EasyJet app – Bingo !
- 2 hours later : Hi London !
Without going too much into details, it is such a great experience. It has offered an environment so productive.
The most inspiring spaces are the one where you can :
- Meet and discuss with people
- Learn new things
- Drink coffee (or tea)
- While taking a walk, traveling, under the shower, etc.
Anyway, everywhere, but not always at an office.
This improvised visit of London allowed us to discover many innovative projects (for instance, the Google coworking space Google Campus) to have the first ideas of our future Coworking Neuchâtel.
What is the best setting of a working space, to stimulate the development of new ideas
Some time after this trip, we organised a workshop around this topic “innovative space”.
With around 10 participants, we tried to discover all the elements that stimulate the creation of new ideas. Here are the results from this workshop :
Wishes concerning the content of the job (task to be done)
- freedom in the action we take
- time available for collaboration and exchanges
Wishes included in the job (environment of the workplace)
- common spaces to work at
- personnal spaces to work at
- easy and quick internal/external connection
- food and beverage
Our Observation
The setting of an inspiring working space should :
- Help focusing on work, as well as offer freedom of action taking.
it means that if the structure is too stiff, people get bored. On the contrary, if there is too much freedom, people might not achieve their goals and there are risks of accidents. - Suit to the working space culture and its public.
Each company is unique. Its way of thinking and acting varies depending on its field of activity. Those aspects might considerably influence the way a space is organised. This means that to create the right working space, it is not just about copying Google, but rather take into account the culture of the company and the goals they want to attain. - Create the right balance between private and professional life.
New organisations of working take form. New spaces, regarding demographical and economical factors. The concept of coworking space is part of this novelty. Today, we can find thousands of coworkings around the world. Thanks to them, you can reduce the time spent of going to work and have more time to spend with your family.