GOOGLE on Creative Spaces and Design Thinking

Colleagues John Warburton and Melanie Gurney visited Google Sydney with me recently. Shane Nantasis our fabulous host took us on an informative, enlightening and very interesting tour of the two Google buildings.  We studied: the different work, kitchen and fun spaces; the suite of Google APPS; plus we were lucky to meet other Googlers and have a discussion on how Government could find new ways to be creative, reduce bureaucracy and engage with our constituents, especially youth. How can Council get over the stigma of 'not fast'.

Down under Room

Our host tells us Googlers believe that the space we work in is critical to the success of an organisation. They do a lot of investigation around spaces. It's important to have a range of different spaces for an organisations culture to thrive Shane says. Google has a “Real Estate and Workplace Services’officer in each country.

All offices around the world are different – there are no generic designs except that every campus/office has a Games Room.  They want working at Google to be an 'EXPERIENCE" - fun and quirky.  Spaces in Sydney have Australian themes such as the Eski Café, the Lodge, The Downunder Room, to name only a few.

Interestingly Kitchens/Cafes are very important to Google.  They believe their cafe's can be some of the best spaces for brainstorming. Eating and Whiteboards mix well, we are told.  Food and coffee are the attractors that bring people together, often those that might not normally mix.  In fact GMAIL was invented in a KITCHEN. 

Eski Cafe

People need TIME for innovation and SPACE to think.

When you work on different things, you need different spaces.

Googlers have dedicated spaces where they can store their own photos, painting and mess but then they can move around and work in different spaces. People are not sitting in silo'd spaces but talking and relating to each other in open plan with then a range of mixed spaces - tear drop break out spaces for meetings; informal kitchen bump spaces; of course the treadmill and we also found quiet spaces including a couple of meditation/sleep pods in the library. BOOTHS we are told are silly, for one reason, the acoustics.  

Viewing APPS in the CLOUD

 Google admit that measuring the importance of creative work spaces is difficult as it’s intangible however to some extent it is can be measured through productivity.  They do a mix of ‘observation study’s’ combined with staff interviews and meetings, prototypes, feedback ‘design surveys’, and experts intuition to finalise the design that will work best in different buildings. 'Design Thinking' in other words.

On Design Thinking

Shane agreed that Design Thinking can be difficult to explain.  He said it’s more an exercise for the brain – its about changing how we think and being comfortable in new thinking.  It’s about taking the blinkers off and getting rid of the tunnel vision.    It’s OK to think differently.  We need to be aware that people stop ideas straight up – it's easy to say ‘no that won’t work' without giving more time and thought into the idea. It’s Brain Training to shift thinking.  We can use Design Thinking to create an event, design a service differently or brainstorm a new idea. It also includes partnering with new company’s not thought of before.

Partnerships!!!

Why not create interesting and different partnerships.  Google and Council could be a great combination!

Lastly, we got a glimpse of Google's culture. The biggest barriers to collaboration are workplace culture and management structure. It's a very transparent organisation which is extremely important to Googlers.  They believe honesty, trust and confidentiality are of highest importance.  So I thought I'd finish this Blog with Google's values.

On Google Values

"Top 10 things we know to be true"

• Focus on the user and all else will follow.
• It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
• Fast is better than slow.
• Democracy on the web works
• You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
• You can make money without doing evil
• There’s always more information out there
• The need for information crosses all borders
• You can be serious without a suit
• Great just isn't good enough. We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint