The unconventional workspace furphy

They don’t foster divergent thinking

Much has been written and discussed about workspaces in a post-COVID world, but one pre-COVID discussion still unsettled is the perceived value of unconventional workspaces (think the head offices of Facebook or Google). The belief is these stimulate creativity but there’s little research to confirm this.

A article from INSEAD reports on research about what the impact might be. Noting there are no “typical” unconventional workspaces, the researchers defined them as a workspace perceived by its occupants as being unconventional. The hypotheses: that a non-typical work environment is expected to “stimulate higher divergent thinking performance.”

The results of the research found the opposite, that individuals in the conventional workspace had higher divergent thinking performance than those in the non-typical space. In explaining this, the researchers found individuals in the unconventional space scanned their environment for ideas to stimulate their thinking and then became fixated on these ideas, limiting their ability to come up with unique solutions. These experiments were replicated in a virtual setting with similar results.

So, what of this?

First, “atypical workspace designs are not silver bullets for fostering creativity.” They’re good for when we can’t draw ideas from the immediate environment.

Second, “companies should not blindly copy the alternative workspaces of other organisations.” It’s horses for courses.

Third, when designing an alternative workplace, ensure the employees who use it perceive it as an unconventional workspace, and that its design doesn’t directly relate to the tasks the employees carry out.

Fourth, note “it is possible that the unconventionality of the space can wear off over time as individuals adjust to their environments.”

Last, as reported earlier, “it is possible to replicate unconventional spaces in virtual settings.”

Does this settle the discussion? No, but it does provide some ideas to ensure unconventional workspaces are most effective.

---

Photograph: Austin Distel on Unsplash.