Recently, officeinsight magazine featured a wonderful story about the design of the new Configura North American workplace headquarters in Grand Rapids. The software company who makes such significant contributions to the service delivery of the manufacturers and dealers in our industry was exceptionally strategic in its aspirations and its design of the space. The Open House they hosted to inaugurate their new workplace left attendees inspired.
But there was an additional and equally inspiring event that evening, occurring with less fanfare and after most of the Open House guests had left the Bridgewater office tower along the Grand River. It was a much smaller group but focusing on a significantly larger issue… innovation in the workplace industry. It was a group representing manufacturers, industry associations, interior design strategists and professionals, and industry consultants and communications folks. The starting thesis for the discussion was the query, “Is there any real innovation happening in our industry?”
The rationale to even pose this question is rooted in the significant innovations that the office furniture and workplace design sector has delivered in the past three-quarters of a century. The list of innovative introductions is long and has been documented elsewhere with greater and appropriate precision and comprehensiveness. Start, for example, with Frank Lloyd Wright’s groundbreaking work on the SC Johnson headquarters building and the custom furniture that was design and installed there, then a couple of decades later the introduction of the game-changing versions of systems furniture, Action Office and then others. Next, innovation emerged in the various ways furniture and furnishings accommodated the science of ergonomics and the human factors issues that arose with changing workplace dynamics, propelled by the accelerant of new technology on the desktop. Nearly concurrently, industrial designers and interior architects leaned into the value of mobility and workplace adaptability, again often fueled by technology innovations. We saw furniture that moved, both on wheels around the workplace and vertically with new height-adjustable tables and worksurfaces. Most recently, we have witnessed the convergence of increased casual comfort with workplace performance, yielding an array of furniture and furnishings that create a new, seemingly warmer atmosphere for work to happen. And that’s just a rough gloss of the long string of innovations that our industry has birthed. It’s impressive and important to remember, and it’s the context for asking if there are any innovative introductions on the near horizon of a similar magnitude.
The consensus of the cross-sectional group that gathered that evening in Grand Rapids was that there has been little genuine innovation of late, mostly incremental enhancements to the products that our industry has been manufacturing for some time. Indeed, there recently have been some new and imaginative approaches to the design and layout of the workplace, but those have centered mainly on the design configurations and not the products themselves. One person observed that it was telling that one of the NeoCon Best of Show awards recently went to a textile introduction, the comment not intended to demean the impact of textiles, but nonetheless a barometer of the state of furniture product innovations.
If this consensus is correct, why? It’s easy to identify a few significant inhibitors to innovation. Certainly, one the of leading reasons could be the seismic changes to the very nature of office work, where it happens, what enables and propels it, how it fits into people’s view of their lives, and even how it contributes to organizational success. Another factor that might inhibit innovative thinking and product development might be the corporate risks associated with making some of the longer-term investments that true innovation requires. Instead, we have witnessed a distinct focus on streamlining manufacturing operations, efficiency and sourcing issues, and process improvements. And that’s not even addressing the impact of consolidations. Innovation seems to have slipped through the cracks of the table of manufacturer concerns.
The logical next question looms: is innovation still possible, or have all the new product ideas for office furniture and furnishings been exhausted? The group that converged that evening in Grand Rapids seemed to say, “Yes, innovation still seems possible. And, in fact, maybe it will be essential to the survival of our industry.” This somewhat tentative, aspirational viewpoint emerged from an in-our-bones hope that there still might be some significant ideas for work and the workplace that could give birth to a new groundbreaking product or two. It settled into the mindset of the group because of the unmistakable track record of innovation that our industry has established. Why would this have to stop?
Everyone round the table in our discussion after the Configura Open House knew that we could not deliver a point-of-view on any lack of innovation without also suggesting some remedy, some ideas for a way to instigate innovative thinking, to spark some interest in and commitment to the imaginative thinking exercises that are most often the roots of innovative product. Perhaps a better way forward would be to go beyond demanding that each manufacturer focus more intently on innovation. Perhaps there is a response that is possible from an industry-wide collaboration, a convening of the best thinking from across an array of manufacturers and professions. Perhaps an industry “Think Tank” devoted to innovation.
We dispersed that evening with a consensus to float this idea of an Innovation Think Tank, the coming together of the best minds of willing manufacturers and other industry thought leaders, a group willing to set aside their allegiances to their companies in order to collaborate on new ideas that could propel the entire industry, then promote those new ideas to everyone for their own opportunities to each turn them into innovative products. There are plenty of details to resolve around such an idea, but it seems worth a try. Rob Kirkbride and I volunteered to suggest this approach and be a clearinghouse to convene those who might be interested. Reach out to either of us if you would like to explore further this notion. Our industry might be significantly enhanced by your willingness to participate. (Bill Wittland at: bill@voxstrategic.com; Rob Kirkbride at: rob@officeinsight.com)