A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Fostering Creativity and Innovation: Spheres of Interaction
Influence Chance Encounters
Claudia Erni Baumann, Frank Zoller and Roman Boutellier
ETH Zurich, Technology and Innovation Management, Zurich, Switzerland
cerni@ethz.ch
fzoller@ethz.ch
roman.boutellier@sl.ethz.ch
Abstract: Knowledge creation, but also the efficient exploitation of existing know-how has become of strategic
importance and a source of competitive advantage for many companies. The level of specialization has increased
in many branches, necessitating an emphasis on integrating the knowledge of many people with diverse
backgrounds. Communication is key for both creative tasks and the coordination of processes. Despite the introduction
of a variety of different IT-mediated communication systems in the last decades, the critical importance of
face-to-face communication has remained untouched. Direct encounters enable people to gain trust in one another
and to transfer more than just the spoken language. An encounter between people who were not planning
to meet may be especially fruitful. Such coincidental meetings, so-called chance encounters, lead to the creation
of weak ties, i.e. loose relationships. These facilitate access to new knowledge while keeping the diversity of
opinions high. Encounters also catalyze the transformation of loose relationships into strong ties. Strong ties are
especially important for efficient coordination. Workspace design may help to coordinate work, reveal conflicting
opinions to a greater or lesser degree, help management steer knowledge creation and support company-wide
projects. Chance encounters especially are vital for knowledge sharing, knowledge creation and the development
of new and innovative ideas. Based on two case studies in the pharmaceutical industry and in academia, this paper
presents a framework that illustrates the impact of workspace design on encounters and communication. A
holistic view of the design of the working environment, including its influence on the interactions between the employees
and the barriers to and enablers of the flow of information, is presented. The findings show that the architecture
of a building and the design of a workplace are important factors in increasing the number of face-to-face
chance encounters. Another important, yet subordinate, factor which influences the number of chance encounters
is the physical proximity to other researchers and companies. However, IT is the sphere of interaction in
which most of the chance encounters take place. The findings of this study can help innovation managers and
architects to shape innovative activities consciously. The framework and the figures which are presented in this
paper finally help us to understand where chance encounters take place.
Keywords: chance encounters, spheres of interaction, communication, innovation, workplace design, architecture
1. Introduction
Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into
someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow’, and soon you’re cooking up all
sorts of ideas.
(Steve Jobs, cited in Isaacson, 2012, p.100)
The emergence of knowledge societies has become manifested in corporate architecture: in the past
decade, a series of multinational companies have changed their headquarters from productionoriented
industrial sites into campuses tailored to the requirements of modern knowledge workers.
Large corporations, such as Google or Apple, sought inspiration for their new corporate centers from
the campuses of universities. It is the role of university campuses as incubators of innovation that
makes them worth imitating. Campuses function as centers of knowledge and learning because they
promote internal knowledge transfer and social interactions (Hoeger, 2007). It is the special architecture
that fosters human encounters and, among these, the especially significant chance encounters.
This paper presents the results of two case studies which shed light on the phenomenon of chance
encounters from a managerial perspective. Starting with a literature review on the importance of
chance encounters for creativity and innovation, we will then show where the important encounters
take place and how these interactions can be influenced.
2. Literature review
Until recently, the work environment in a typical company was seen as nothing more than a means to
an end: many office buildings were built according to the work model which was developed in the 19 th
century. There was a very strict separation of work and leisure time, the work itself was heavily standardized
and the workspaces of the employees were all exactly the same (Duffy, 1997). However,
over the last few years there has been a drastic change in how we perceive work and workspaces:
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