Channeling creativity and innovation in your Workspace

KOFISI is proud to consistently provide the most creative and innovative workspaces for businesses in Africa and in celebration of Innovation and Creativity Day this month, KOFISI’s Annebelle Wafula has written a blog, based on an article by the Harvard Business Review, on how creativity can assist productivity and innovation in the workplace.

“We recognize the importance of your workspace and environment on your performance. Our office designs over the last years have evolved to incorporate tools that ensure increase in productivity. As companies slowly reduce hybrid working and go back to the ‘norm’ before COVID, it is crucial to look at ways that they ensure the return has a significant change in the employees, positively and increase profits made. It is key to recognize that office space is no longer considered as just an asset, or real estate but a strategic tool for growth and communication.

Statistics and research have shown that unplanned interactions and chance meetings have increased performance among employees. Encouraging different departments to interact improved sales, individually and as a team. We recognize the impact of the magic that happens when collaboration occurs and the innovation that follows when people collide.

The secrets of a good office design lay in density, proximity of people, and social nature. We’ve learned, for example, that face-to-face interactions are by far the most important activity in an office. Human beings are social beings and while we enjoyed working from home, we recognize what a good work environment does to an individual.

Some of the strategies we’ve implemented to enable our Members achieve their goals and beyond are:

• Recognizing that two-thirds of meaningful interactions happen outside the office. Our Lounge areas are the new office, perfect for a brainstorming session. As you grab a cup of coffee, you are likely to interact with another Member.
• Strategic office layouts and designs that increase the chances of interaction, improved communication, accelerated decision making, and colliding with a Member from a different department or even field of work. Building networks has proven to be one of the fastest ways to grow as individuals and even as a business. Our Knowledge Rooms and Assembly Space are prominent in ensuring different layouts accommodate different goals from formal meetings to movie premiers.
• Embracing technology to march the upcoming trends. Our Jamboard and 360 Degree camera ensure that while building designs may not drastically change, we are able to use tools that merge the quickly evolving digital space with physical space.

Leveraging different software and tools like our phones, which are also part of innovation over the years, companies are able to measure whether the design of their workspaces helps or hurts performance.”