SHIFT is a boutique consultancy with people in Austin, TX, Sydney, Australia, and New York City, NY. Our broad experience includes HR consulting, marketing and advertising, management education, IT consulting, and design anthropology. Simply put, we have synthesized our knowledge of design, anthropology, and business into a philosophy that innovates around work.
Our practice is grounded in the architectural philosophy of Christopher Alexander, who has written eloquently about how important space is in shaping how people interact and what they are able to accomplish together. While our passion is innovation, we believe—as many others do—that most companies get it wrong for some very simple reasons.
The impediments vary. Sometimes, firms will commit enormous amounts of resources to customer insight research and design research, only to have that insight sit on a shelf, because the organization is incapable of acting on it—negating its value. Other times, top management insists on known-results and perfect predictability, thus preventing any experimentation from ever occurring.
We address these impediments by focusing on the elements of innovation capacity, mainly space and talent. Too often, companies try to innovate, quite simply, with the wrong people working in the wrong spaces. If a firm is filled with predominantly left-brain MBA types, then the odds for differentiated thinking can be quite small. If the problem solving approaches presented by team members are more or less the same, then there is little chance for a game-changing breakthrough. And, it is not possible for workers to collaborate and innovate sustainably if they are working alone in cubicles all the time.
We believe that space is culture. It sounds simple, because it is. Workspace design sits at the center of the innovation equation.
To get a glimpse of what wide-open innovation looks like, look to the clouds. Some of the most inspiring and creative innovation is now happening outside the borders of companies—in coworking spaces, in coffee shops, and in inspiring places around the world—where talented, creative people are working, collaborating and innovating.