Drive Your Innovation by Joining a Collaborative Workspace

Much has been written over the past 6 months about the pros and cons of working from home. On the one hand we’re protecting ourselves and each other from a virus that thrives on human interaction. On the other hand, there’s an economic cost and one to mental health.

But there’s another price we pay for working at home, it’s less well documented but in the long term it’s one that might prove more expensive. That’s the cost to innovation.

We are not solitary creatures. Since time immemorial human beings have lived and worked in groups. We work best when we work together because everyone has something unique to contribute.

Extraordinary levels of innovation…

Silicon Valley in North America is a region renowned for extraordinary levels of innovation. But back in the late 1960s it was an area better known for Apricot farms than Apple Macs. It was Massachusetts that looked set to become the tech centre – the opposite side of the country.

So what was it that helped an agricultural area of California overtake the East Coast powerhouses? Matthew Syed, writing in the Times newspaper suggests that it was the exchange of ideas, not just within companies, but across them.

Social interactions drive the flow of innovation. It’s those water cooler conversations, the chance meetings, the sitting in the bar after work that cause a cross pollination of ideas. That’s where innovation happens, and that’s what we’re missing by working from home.

In California in the 60s and 70s it was the juke joints, the honkytonks and bars that sprung up around those firms. They attracted people after work to share their stories, to celebrate successes and turn over their failures. All of which contributed to an environment that was super conducive to innovation. Fast forward to 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic is slowly but surely breaking our hospitality sector, and the price we pay is one of untold great ideas lost and gone forever.

Imagine if Tim Berners-Lee had invented the internet and not told anyone

What if Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone but kept it to himself? That’s the situation we could find ourselves in with the hospitality sector shutting down.

Happily, there is a way to overcome that and take your innovation circle to the next level. By swopping your office for a space at Business First you’ll get to meet and interact with others every day. Networking and collaboration are one of our main selling points.

One of our newest locations is the Pendle Northlight development. It has space for 30 offices. That’s 30 different organisations all in the same group of buildings, with shared areas to encourage the sort of social interactions that lead to innovation.

That’s exactly what you’re missing when you work from home.

For more information about our Pendle Northlight development, or any of our Business First locations contact us here, or call 01282 330 330 to speak directly to a member of staff.