Whimsy in Workplace Spurs Creativity Among Employees at Google Zurich

published May 9, 2008
Whimsy in Workplace Spurs Creativity Among Employees at Google Zurich
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.