Creativity and Technology

In our ninth podcast, part of our mini-series from Workplace Trends, we are joined by Nigel Oseland (@oseland) and Mike Adams (@supervideomike) as they discuss creativity and the impact of technology on the workplace. 

People should been seen as a company’s “best assets” due to the creativity they bring to the workplace.  Yet Nigel believes people are expected to be seen at their desks and look busy, despite this not necessarily meaning people are productive and creative. So how do we foster creativity? Nigel advocates that we give employees choice. Employees should have the choice to sit in designed learning environments, places to socialise, or healthy eating areas, even less stimulating places to allow people to sit in quiet and think. 

Fostering creativity is not just allowing for the time needed, it’s clear that it can also depend on the way the employees are treated. Nigel discusses how employees should be allowed to have time to develop and think about their projects. He believes in “Non taxing involuntary attention” which is the idea of processing information subconsciously – this is something every single one of us do, whether you’re taking a walk on the beach or relaxing in bed, your brain is always subconsciously processing ideas, until you finally discover an solution and it becomes a conscious thought again. 

We use technology every day and it could be said that without technology delivering on our creative ideas would nearly impossible. Technology is continuously being improved for the market and the demand for the latest device or software is only increasing. Mike Adams, technology consultant for VEGA Europe, believes that the pace of change has its challenges. He finds that many “people are afraid of technology; they see it as a horror story” and explains why as he discusses the current technology trends: wireless technology, video communication and conferencing and working remotely.

Mike advocates BYOD (Bring your own device to work) because we are more comfortable with technology we know and understand. Our lives have come to a point that we depend on our devices.  We rely on our phones for finding locations, storing our contacts, taking photos, organising and reporting on our socialising; our laptops for presenting meetings, creating compelling documents, and storing information. The flip side of this is reliance is that when our technology is not working we are affected emotionally, becoming frustrated and miserable. Mike argues that in this technology based workplace, it is critical that we simplify technology so that is usable for all.

At Ecophon we believe that to support an organisations most important asset, its people, the right sound environment should be a critical part of the workplace design. To learn more about how to design with the phycology of your teams in mind, click here. For inspiration in office design, visit the recent projects section of our website.