Whimsy in Workplace Spurs Creativity Among Employees at Google Zurich
May 9, 2008 | Levent OZLER
It's the first question Google employees here must resolve when they want to go to the cafeteria or game room: Stairs, slide or fireman's pole?
The next dilemma for so-called Zooglers: homemade pastry or exotic fruit juice?
It's all part of three free meals a day, with regular snacks, that Google serves at its new European tech centre.
Then there's the phone call dilemma.
Should you use a former ski gondola that has been converted into a private phone booth?
Shut yourself inside a blue igloo or giant purple egg?
Put the call on a video monitor?
Or just take it outside and walk along a rushing alpine river?
If you want to tap into the maximum creativity of everyone you hire, Google figures it might just take a whimsical mishmash of colours, shapes, textures, nooks and crannies to do so.
"To be effective in a short innovation cycle, you cannot just be sitting at your desk," explained Matthias Graf, the company spokesman in Zurich.
more: canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i9qBDNVEqNf (127)
391 impressions - 45,305 clicks
