Corenet Summit Echoes our Sentiments

The Corenet Global EMEA summit 2015 held this week in London echoed a number of sentiments voiced by Squaredot in recent years. Titled ‘Disruptive innovation, the business of change’ a number of familiar and slightly less familiar topics were discussed and occasionally quite emotionally. 

On a project we worked on several years ago we coined a phrase – ‘Disruptive innovation, challenging the norm’. This client operated in an environment that was built around 10% cellularised office space and a one to one desk ratio. Changing to a platform where there were no offices and 35% of staff won’t own a workstation was always going to be tricky, but the strap line helped to begin a journey that was going to be disruptive, but the pain would be worth it at the end.

The notion that offices are going to be redundant couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality business might need less, but it needs to be pertinent and based on task orientated workspaces. Whilst some organisations operate better with a more dynamic approach to office layout and working styles, others might prefer the more comfortable personal spaces. It’s about creating a sense of purpose and supporting continuous behavioural change, so creating a sense of belonging.

Engendering a community spirit by creating spaces that people naturally migrate to will open up the social as well as the digital networks, where people can share knowledge, experiences and diffuse the naturally accepted norm of the benign dictatorial corporate workspace.