Environment plays a key role in innovation. It is a critical piece of the creative puzzle that can facilitate ideas, spark synergy, and guide processes. Speaking about the importance of workspaces and where ideas come from, science author and media theorist Steven Johnson said, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.”
The Missouri Innovation Center has invested in the importance of settings and situations for its entrepreneurial clients in the life science sector. Along with resources such as wet labs, shared resources, and collaborative spaces, MIC maintains a facility that is uniquely designed to encourage and amplify the creative process.
From fostering important connections to creating thoughtful spaces, this resource will consider the role of environment in the innovation process and how MIC’s industry-leading incubator offices and labs are empowering the next generation of innovators.
Understanding the Innovation Process
The process of facilitating innovation starts with understanding how the creative process works in the first place. This is a subtle and nuanced part of business that remains unreplicable by software and AI algorithms and requires humans engaging in indefinable processes.
The complexities of the act of creation, particularly through innovation in a business context, consist of a few components. The creativity of individual contributors is important. So is the culture of a founding team. Availability of specific resources is also a factor, as is strategic alignment that helps transform the potential of an idea into a solution with value for an end user.
The innovative journey typically takes place on a similar timeline. This includes:
- Ideation: This is the initial act of coming up with an idea with real market potential.
- Evaluation: This consists of fleshing out and testing an idea to thoroughly consider the costs and benefits of investing in it.
- Experimentation: Early iterations, prototyping, and testing attempt to form a real-world version of a good idea and then refine it into something with consumer value.
- Implementation: This takes working prototypes and attempts to scale them at affordable costs.
Each of these stages is critical for transforming ideas into successful products and services — and environment plays a part in each stage.
For example, a physical space can create opportunities for collaboration as an entrepreneur looks for ways to implement an idea effectively. If they are in the experimenting phase, having access to the right facilities and tools can impact modifiability. It can also help them conduct more thorough testing or accelerate the ideation process, leading to a faster time to market.
The Science Behind Environment and Creativity
What does science have to say about spatial importance for innovators? While it’s easy to generally reinforce the claim that an entrepreneur’s space impacts how they focus and create, there are a few important elements to be aware of based on statistical analysis.
One of these is to be aware of the holistic nature of a “space.” Both visual and audible elements factor into an innovation-prone environment. Audibly, much research has been done to show the impact that sound can have on creativity.
For example, studies have found that a reasonable degree of ambient noise, around 70 decibels, can encourage out-of-the-box ideas and stimulate abstract thinking. This is similar to the “buzz” of a coffee shop, although if you get into the louder environment of a restaurant or bar, it is less effective and more distracting.
Visual elements are also key. Minimalism is an example of a visual approach to decor that has been shown to stimulate creativity by removing clutter from a space and, thus, also from the mind. Nature is also a commonly trumpeted way to encourage creativity, although, like ambient noise, it has limitations. One study found that viewing a natural environment stimulated curiosity, flexibility, and imagination. However, it also reported that “highly natural environments distract our minds from work.”
MIC’s Facility Design Philosophy
Missouri Innovation Center’s facility is designed with innovation in mind. The incubator’s 33,000-square-foot floor plan integrates architectural concepts that promote creativity, such as open spaces and natural lighting.
MIC also balances the need for private-focused work areas and collaborative spaces. Our cross-section of life science entrepreneurs provides complementary input and analysis that can find expression in shared workspaces. At the same time, our rentable spaces are designed for flexibility and adaptability to accommodate the unique, innovative needs of each client we serve.
How MIC Workspaces Reinforce the Science
Missouri Innovation Center’s workspaces reflect many of the innovative findings listed above. For example, we have thoughtful spaces that include cubicle offices with an open space floor plan to facilitate focus without creating a sense of isolation. Board rooms and meeting rooms with closed-off spaces are also available for privacy and selective interactions with targeted groups as needed.
Everything is well-lit with natural light, as well. Even labs have natural light along with artificial light fixtures. All of our spaces also maintain a clean and professional look that can appeal to all startup needs. This is important, as the inconsistencies of unconventional workspace designs do not necessarily improve innovation.
The result is a business incubator that incorporates the impact of physical surroundings into a framework of solutions designed to help founders innovate, iterate, improve, and exercise effective problem-solving capabilities.
Key Facility Features That Drive Innovation
Let’s consider some of the most important elements of environmental design and how the Missouri Innovation Center integrates those key concepts into its spaces as a way to spark creativity and drive innovation.
Collaborative Spaces
The concept of offering collaborative spaces for entrepreneurs has already come up a couple of times in this resource — and with good reason. Spaces that encourage the intersection of founders as they each tend to their startups may not be a natural priority. However, finding like-minded individuals facing similar challenges in related business verticals can provide unique synergy and perspectives.
MIC’s large meeting rooms and breakout areas encourage entrepreneurs to engage in face-to-face interactions with others in similar stages of the business-building process. This helps the dozens of startups operating in our space to glean advice, hone ideas, and gain greater awareness from the insights and experiences of others.
Technological Resources
Apple may have famously started out of a garage, but many other startup models require more infrastructure right out of the gate. In a field as complex as the life sciences sector, it is particularly important for a founding team to have scientific equipment and resources available to experiment and iterate as they turn ideas into actionable business models. A dedicated space like the MIC’s facility provides access to important infrastructure and specialized tools, such as wet labs and related lab equipment.
Building an Innovation Community
Connections and support lines are an essential part of any successful startup. That’s why it is important for founders to think carefully about how they build their teams and choose their board of directors. Along with these internal influential pieces, many set up a board of advisors, seek out mentorships, and look for peers who can speak into their decisions as they vet ideas and look for the best path forward.
Missouri Innovation Center’s facilities and structure are designed to accelerate the assembly of these external elements by bringing together like-minded innovators invested in related and complementary business sectors.
The presence of mentors, for instance, can help with corporate decision-making and industry-specific application and ideation of business ideas. Peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities can also lead to mutually beneficial relationships that feature the exchange of up-to-date information.
The MIC incubator’s shared spaces make it easier for these groups to interact with founding teams. They also offer a high degree of nuance within these networking opportunities. While life sciences is an emphasis for the incubator, the clients it attracts come from a wide variety of niches within that sector, including:
- Radiopharma
- Animal health
- Biowaste
- Renewable energy
- Alternative energy
- Diagnostics
- Medical devices
- Drugs
- Nanotech.
Through its thoughtful approach to spatial design, the incubator encourages its clients to cross paths in dedicated public spaces, such as our shared office suite, wet lab resource suites, break room, and the entire portion of our facility dedicated to maintaining an open office environment.
Investing in Space as a Startup
Office space is a notoriously difficult thing to invest in as you launch a business. The high overhead makes an incubator an attractive option to reduce costs and gain access to a startup-friendly space, especially in the life sciences industry.
It is important for founders to think beyond the practicalities of equipment access and affordability, too. An optimized environment like the carefully cultivated suites and startup spaces at MIC encourages a greater sense of innovation that can play a critical role in accelerating and honing the creative process. It can lead to more informed and accurate results and speed up the time it takes to get a business idea up and running.Missouri Innovation Center remains committed to providing optimal conditions for the next generation of innovators. If you are looking for a positive space to house your startup, contact us to learn more about what it takes to apply to the incubator and become one of our client companies.
