As we have recently undertaken a rebranding exercise which too many people to mention contributed to. The great moment of realization came when one of our former clients said that we are #NOTFOREVERYONE she was absolutely right. We work best with clients who are happy to embrace change and the future, willing to experiment and try new things. For those who think that offices should look and function as they always have then we are really not for you. If you select your workspace designer based on what they have done for others then we might not be for you as we will never do for you, what we have done for others. Everything we do, even our process is tailored to each individual client or project need. Are we going to see this trend expand into how we evaluate employees and companies’ performance, how as a society we define success? I am looking forward to how this might evolve.
Recently when we worked with AlphaLab Capital Group there objective was to create a workspace where employees would choose to spend time. In response to this we devised an employee led design process. Their workspace was designed by employees for employees. Despite concerns that this would result in design by committee, the management and steering committee were brave enough to trust our expertise and take the risk of handing control of the project over to the employees. The project was delivered on time and on budget but most importantly, taking the risk delivered exactly what they asked for, a workspace where their team loves to spend their time.
Expanding the field of who we engaged with, to inform the design delivered much better results. This has made me realise just how important it is to engage with a diverse group of individuals and companies to achieve outstanding results. We could never have done this alone.
The same applies to our industry, there are so many companies out there that offer a 1 stop shop, they say they can do everything a client might need. It has been a huge trend with so many thinking this is the way to achieve better results. But let me tell you, it will not. In the end such companies can only do one thing, and that is to do nothing well.
Their results will always struggle to be anything other than mediocre because creativity is enhanced by diverse interactions and engagement. By the freedom to think differently and the courage to take risks. Our journey to create a new brand was thrilling and terrifying but the end result of engaging unique experts to contribute has finally captured who we really are. There is an old Irish saying “horses for courses”.
For our clients we are very clear we are experts and thought leaders in the field of workspace design. We can do this very well. Creating a new workspace is complex, we cannot do it alone but we will find the right team of #independent experts for each unique project to solve problems. With cross discipline interaction whether this is within the client organization or beyond it doesn’t matter what is key is hoy broad the spectrum of people involved are and the relevance of their expertise and points of view.
In the past we have even collaborated with our competitors. When Tamagin Blake-Smith formerly from Hassell reached out to us to ask if we wanted to partner we were so excited, as we believed that our collaboration would deliver far better results for the client then competing with each other ever could. Sadly the client and project manager didnt really understand the value of collaboration, they only saw problems.
There are so many things in the world right now that seem a little broken or at least not working as well as they have done in the past, including workspaces. We will not solve problems alone or sitting in silos. Competing suited the world of the past driven by productivity and efficiency. It does not suit the world of the future which will be dominated by the need for creativity. So lets Dare to think differently, solve problems and create new and better processes and place.
