"If you strive to survive in the market of tomorrow, you must rely on the creative potential of your employees. They are the only ones who can sense new customers' needs and generate innovations", highlights the renowned management consultant and bestselling author Reinhard K. Sprenger ("Das Pronzip Selbstverantwortung" - The Principle of Personal Responsiblity"). Yet flashes of genius and good ideas don't come at the push of a button. Creative experts therefore recommend breaking out of your daily routine. This way you may rethink things and develop different perspectives. A conventional workplace is often not suitable for this venture.
Room for New Ideas
Technologies
Trend researchers agree: Creativity is the key competence of the future. For six months now, a new meeting room at the tesa Headquarters has been facilitating creative meetings and fresher ideas.
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Creating space for innovation
tesa is one of the 30% of companies in Germany that have set up a so-called ‘Innovation Room’ for their employees to come up with fresh ideas. Next to inspiring colours and sophisticated lighting concepts, unconventional furniture helps to promote creative thought processes. You can tell already from afar that the creative space at tesa inspires fresh impulses: There are comfy stools which shine in bright green, pink and blue. And there are mobile partition walls, a projector, a small grandstand and plenty of space for movement and thus for free design and creativity.
No conventional meeting room
Instead of the usual conference room equipment, there are, for example, beanbags, stools and side tables
The library
of reference books just lies on the windowsill.
If you wish to work on new concepts, product ideas or simply in a different workshop format, conventional meeting rooms will soon bring you to your creative limits – at least if you want to think ‘outside the box’. Creative processes need spaces that are flexible, where participants can move freely and have enough space to make their ideas visible.
Creating a creative atmosphere
with colourful stools and furniture in a DIY-look. They are literally mobile and can be arranged flexibly in the room.
Working differently
“It doesn’t really matter what we call this room – Creative Room, Room for Ideas, Innovation Space or Creative Area. The decisive factor is that it offers the opportunity to work differently, and that its features and design distinguish it from traditional meeting rooms. Simply try something different and let your ideas and thoughts run free. Often you may experience the greatest surprises and the best results in rooms or areas where interdisciplinary teams can work together flexibly and freely,” explains Nina Schulz, Digital Change Agent and co-initiator of the Creative Room.
Nina Schulz
is Digital Change Agent and co-initiator of the Creative Room at tesa.
The concept works
Feedback is essential; therefore, the room can be rated on an on-site tablet. The team around the Digital Change Agents at tesa welcomes suggestions and critique at all times and takes ideas from colleagues very seriously. After the first six months, the initiators pooled the feedback from their colleagues and felt confirmed in their assumption that a room can influence the attitude towards a meeting and thus the results.
Against the wall or freely in the room
Everything in the new meeting room can be rearranged.
Each team
uses the room as required for the task at hand.
It is particularly important that the new room does not stick to a fixed concept, but simply provides many tips, ideas and methods on how to get to your destination with the help of the available furniture and spaces. However, it should also grow and change. “We definitely don’t want a room that doesn’t move with the flow,” confirms Nina Schulz.
10 facts about the tesa Creative Room
Furniture. It should support the employees in their work. Switching between different ways of working is possible and desirable.
Cell Box. Offline. Out of respect for your colleagues. The persons present should always be given priority in a conversation, thus, at the entrance there is a box for all digital devices.
Prototyping. Think with your hands. Breathe form and shape into different materials with your ideas. A selection of materials that are required for a prototyping process is available.
Areas. Leaning back and relaxing supports creativity as well as active work. The different areas of the room invite to different thought processes.
Light. Small light sources provide the ideal ambiance.
Flexibility. No piece of furniture has to stay in its place.
Thinking. Just work differently. Visual thinking is brought into focus by mobile surfaces.
Surfaces. Walls you can write on, large surfaces, pens and notes offer plenty of space for ideas.
Time. Time Boxing is a kind of mini-deadline that should be used for team activities. A timer is available for this purpose.
Respect. The room should be left exactly as you would like to enter it. Here too, initiative and independence are very important. The room should be alive, but the next team should also be able to work in it.