Inspiring Innovation
through Tangential Perspectives

1. Problem Identification

While Gensler NYC is a diverse mix of 750+ urban designers, interior designers, architects, brand strategists, design strategists, digital experience designers, etc., there is still opportunity for the intersection of diverse perspectives both internally and with the outside.

Intercept Interviews
In conversation with Gensler colleagues about the company’s culture revealed many felt at some point:

• Siloed from different internal studios and design disciplines

• Desire for outside perspectives

• Uninspired during the design process

• Opportunity for more innovation and inspiration

2. Designing Tangent

Hypothesis
Creative and innovative ideas are born by connecting different and unlikely dots from diverse perspectives.

Opportunity

How might we inspire innovation by bringing in outside perspectives?

To test our hypothesis that innovation is created by connecting diverse perspectives, we knew we had to invite the outside in. In order to reach as many Gensler colleagues as once, and signify a cultural shift, we decided to design an event series called Tangent.

Event Goals:

• Create a culture of curiousity and creativity

• Provoke new ways of seeing the world

• Inspire application to attendees own creative process and innovation

• Enable a culture of engaging with Gensler’s own diverse perspectives and design disciplines (urban design, architecture, interior design, strategy, digital experience design, research)

Program Design
On every third Thursday of the month, speakers from fields tangential to design to go on tangents on what they do and how they might inspire us as a community of designers.

Environment Design
To encourage informal and conversation and spontaneous discovery, we aimed to identify an existing center of gravity within the office that already encouraged foot traffic. We identified the Work Cafe, a space where people eat lunch and meet, and transform it to become an open, circular living room atmosphere. We designed posters weeks in advance and posted 3’x6’ on the columns.

Facilitation
Speakers launch their tangent in response to Tangent’s staple question ‘How might your field inspire us as designers?’. As moderators, we follow up with questions to create a guided tangent.

Speaker Identification

Inviting speakers in tangential fields from film producers, set designers, chefs, psychologists, to toy designers and beyond.

• Ryan Cunningham, Comedy Producer & Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Producer of Broad City

• Cas Holman, Toy Designer

• AccidentallyWesAnderson, Urbanist

• Lakshmi Rengarajan, Human Connection Designer

• Michael Offerman, Brand Sustainability at Redscout

• Bradford Shellhammer, VP of Buyer Experience at eBay

• Alex Blau, Behavioral Scientist at Ideas42

• Peter Himmelman, Singer/Songwriter

• Derek Gruen, Musician from Scissor Sisters

Event Production

Collaborating with IT, Catering, Office Services, Leadership, Model Shop