Do we need to rethink workspace culture to optimise innovation? Jeff Rodman thinks so

Jeff Rodman is the cofounder of Polycom and Chief Evangelist who recently met with some business heads in India discussing possibilities of accelerating innovation and idea creation in the digital transformation age. Considered one of Silicon Valley’s leading technologists, Rodman urged Indian businesses to reassess their workspace environments and workplace culture to unleash their true innovation potential.

Rodman believes that traditional office spaces are being replaced with more open technology-enabled environments which is the outcome of digital transformations. According to him, design and technologies that support the future work-ways will be the key in competing businesses.

With India’s younger workforce, the age-old hierarchical models are being redefined inside-out as Indian employees are looking for more privacy and agility to collaborate with those around their workspace or larger groups in informal settings.

Rodman says, “Change is happening all around us and businesses need to adapt to succeed. While there is a real urgency, there is equally a real opportunity for business to rethink their collaboration strategies. This means migrating from artificial and inefficient workplaces to more natural environments that will boost ideas and innovation while also liberating people to excel, regardless of workplace location.”

Anand Jethalia, Director – Office Marketing (UC), Microsoft, joined him at the Innovation Roadshow in India. Microsoft and Polycom have been working together to make collaborations easier and more intuitive. Both companies are looking at delivering collaboration experiences that transform the way people work. Rodman believes that as more people get access to collaboration technologies, there is increased expectation that the workplace experience should be as intuitive and natural as a personal interaction. These experiences have been able to address the most pressing challenges in business to deliver a compelling, complete, and totally interoperable, end-to-end, unified collaboration solutions.

“Whether it’s from an armchair or from a standing desk, an agile and flexible workplace is about creating the right environment for individuals and teams to work together to deliver great results. After all, no space is too small for great ideas and teamwork to happen,” Jeff concludes.