Your Coworking Space May Be Killing Your Creativity, Study Finds

In the last few years, shared working spaces have increased in popularity. While the idea is that they could foster collaboration and creative innovation through shared ideas between start-ups, a recent exploration of a bunch of case studies suggests the opposite could be happening.

One of the largest dedicated hubs in Europe, Level 39, was investigated by Haefliger and Yacoub. The seven financial tech start-ups were the subject of a case study.

"Despite the emergence of co-working spaces as new work practices, little is known about the formation of collaboration and specifically the emergence of collaborative practices given these open and flexible workspace to meet and interact with employees of other organizations," the pair wrote in their paper.

A sense of community and openness are processes that encourage productivity. It seems odd that the team found that working in a shared environment hindered the collaborative practices between firms that might seed innovation.

The shared spaces helped initiate fraternizing between the start-ups, with informal and planned interactions including events, workshops, and talks in the common areas.

Attempts to organize the space for events were seen as distraction when those activities continued.

The benefits of collaborative spaces did not last as more companies were added and three start-ups left the space.

A representative from one firm speculated that it might be too big for everyone to benefit.

"I think there are too many companies there and the main lounge area is overpopulated with drop-in members rather than as a casual place for the permanent companies there to get together and talk and get to know each other."

The perspective of its users could be seen as a conflict because of the company's goal of scaling-up.

There is a balance between encouraging innovation and stifling it when it comes to managing the collaborations.

It is the responsibility of the host of the space and those that use it to make it a setting that can see booming partnerships and a hotbed of next generation ideas.

There are seven financial technology firms that make up this example of the coworking experiments happening around the world. The researchers point out that other industries, like creatives or non-profits, may find the process different for them.

The research was published in an organization.