The Eighth Face of Innovation: The Set Designer
Editor’s Note: This is part of a multi-part series about the book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, written by Tom Kelley. You can read other parts of this series here, here, here, and here.
Although I wrote about casinos a lot in my last article, I'm only going to mention casinos as a way to introduce the Eighth Face of Innovation, as described by Tom Kelley, in his book The Ten Faces of Innovation.
Kelley suggests that casinos make good use of space and employ Set Designers (the Eighth Face) to make sure that people are enjoying the environment as well as the products. He discusses that casinos have zig-zags in their gaming areas (another occurrence of the Baader-Meinhof effect, at least for me) which may result in a not-insignificant 0.7% increase in profit (just from casino zig-zags!) He also describes how a restaurant that might be breaking even can become profitable by using the space with entertaining gambling games or other attractions. The food might be the same, the service might be identical, but a Set Designer, purposefully defining the surrounding environment, can play a big role in how others respond to the invitations or activities that might go on in that particular space. Hospitals are classic examples of this with calming landscape photos and paintings in many recovery rooms.
Consider for a moment the office of your supervisor, family member, or the cubicle of the person next to you. Are those spaces spotless and devoid of any life? Are they colorful or decorated? Do they have a personalized touch or are they bare? There are reasons for both extremes based on the style of the individual, and the intended purpose of the space. For example, shared spaces are usually much more sterile. It's not completely fair to the person arriving after you to enjoy your collection of Pokémon figurines. However, a private desk without even a picture of their family within view can be perceived as disconnected and possibly subconsciously communicate there isn't much going on at that desk since no one seems to be there. Still, some people thrive in a completely cleared workspace. It's not a bad thing. But a Set Designer will at least be cognizant of what the setup communicates to certain people.
Thus, Kelley spends quite a bit of time describing how a Set Designer carefully promotes a stage or environment where innovation and creativity flourish. Although managers don’t often think about space as a factor “when trying to revitalize team attitudes and performances,” if the stage isn’t set, and the actors (i.e. employees) can’t get into the mood, performance will be sub-par. Excitement, energy, and innovation are likely what we want to inspire in meetings and informal conversations and but we make that objective that much more challenging to reach if the environment is bland. Kelley even asserts that “when we walk into most offices, our senses shut down from sensory underload” [Italics in original].
Furthermore, Set Designers have some influence on recruiting, even if indirect, which is a continual concern for growing companies. After all, candidates are more likely to work for and stay at a company that looks enjoyable to work at than a boring field of identical cubicles where everyone’s workspace looks the same. Some applicants will even take a lower paycheck to work in a more captivating environment.
Kelley also quotes Tom Peters, who said: “Dreariness, from the reception area to the research lab… destroys the spirit. It’s utterly impossible to imagine people laughing in such settings, or weeping, or frolicking, or producing anything interesting!”
I have a colleague whose lab is probably visited most often by visitors to our building because he always has interesting things lying around. His lab is always a stop on the tour of our engineering building. On the other hand, I also know places that don’t make it onto the tour. I’m sure there is good research going on there, but I sure can’t tell looking through those glass windows.
True, there is a time to be organized and clean, but that isn’t always the most important thing to communicate to every visitor, especially if that visitor is trying to decide if some funding will go towards innovation. I really love the cement flooring in our building on the lower levels. Even though it’s polished, it reminds me of that “unfinished basement look” where something must be happening since tools are lying around and stuff is being installed and repaired and updated and in various stages of completion. It feels alive, fresh, and new even if it stays the same way for years.
Kelley also tackles the many-year-old dilemma of the open-office concept versus private offices. In my opinion, there are pros and cons to both, and COVID is causing us to re-evaluate that while throwing in the complication of the home office. Perhaps somewhere in the middle of those is the ideal. Admittedly, we all need space alone to focus and get work done without distractions. But at the same time, those same distractions, conversations, and serendipitous discoveries are more likely to occur in collaborative groups when we bounce ideas off each other. A Set Designer knows this and creates spaces that are dynamic and changing according to the project, needs of the individuals, team size, and a host of other factors.
One observation Kelley shares is of the “private glass offices”, as an attempt to give people both their private space acoustically while still allowing them to see each other and facilitate collaboration with a nod, a gesture, and then an eventual conversation outside their offices in the public space. However, what they found is that for some industries employees would put up posters, documents, and other paper on the walls increasing their privacy by making veritable “paper walls” thereby eliminating the intended purpose of the more expensive glass walls in the first place. At a second non-engineering company, “Glass-walled offices brought neither privacy nor camaraderie.” The attempt to have both for this company resulted in a failure. These examples don’t mean that glass-walled offices are always bad, but a Set Designer will be thoughtful about how much privacy versus collaborative spaces he or she or the entire team needs to have and adjusts the environment accordingly to maximize productivity and innovation.
Kelley and his associates once visited a number of universities and found that lecture halls aren’t just used for lectures by the students nor are the hallways used for passage to the next lecture. Both of these spaces became places for students to form ad hoc studies groups, hold conversations, and collaborate on projects. The recommendations were to encourage this usage by putting up whiteboards in the hallways in small alcoves with power outlets for laptops. Using the hallways in more productive ways on campus or in a company is one way a Set Designer can promote collaboration and innovation.
But, if you don’t have influence or decisional power to make changes to the hallways in your buildings (many of us don’t) there still might be some “dead-space” over which you have control and that can become more interesting and inviting for people to meet up and collaborate in both formally and informally. The ubiquitous coffee machine, bagel station, and water-cooler locations are fairly low-hanging fruit for most organizations, but there could be dartboards, whiteboards, and shuffleboards added to the location. Yes, you might lose 5 minutes of work time but the post-game conversation might result in a million-dollar idea for the company. Who wouldn’t want that return on the investment?
Regardless, one can keep the Set Designing costs low without missing out on some great innovations. During one project, Kelley “visited a beautiful new corporate learning center that would be the envy of many innovative teams. But when setting up for a workshop, [they] were hampered in putting up large interactive posters by a ‘no tape on painted surfaces’ rule. The pristine beauty of the space had inadvertently become a barrier to idea flow.” I agree that there likely are places that should look nice and free of any tape, posters, and post-it notes but if you already have some of those, wouldn’t you want your employees to be free to explore, generate concepts, and innovate? Expensive wood paneling in every conference room, delicate surfaces on walls, and precious siding is not only more expensive but can restrict innovation if found in every room and on every surface. As Set Designers, we should be aware of these environmental factors and not be afraid to let things get messy and dynamic.
Finally, Kelley describes being a Set Designer for our environments. We may have real constraints from our budgets or anti-innovation company policies, but we can still change where we are when we talk to people. Legally, companies have to let us eat lunch so consider going somewhere with somebody to a place with an innovative environment. It might not even be that eclectic restaurant downtown. A hotel lobby, local garden, or just a park bench might be enough to mix up our static environment for that sought-after breakthrough.
If you can’t bring an innovative environment to your workplace, take yourself to the innovative environment. Set Designers for movies know that going to a location is often more efficient instead of staying at the studio where the smells, sounds, and sights are less authentic. Set Designers for product development teams know that going on location can be similarly more engaging especially when the environment can’t be easily replicated.
