Page 13 - VIA Broschüre

GAJA

AMIGONI

My PhD story is more than a career story. Eureka! Building on this first insight
It is the story of five years of my life. Five allowed me to shape and bring to life my DISSERTATION TOPIC
years that felt like a tortuous ride on a work: “Creative workspace: Talk vs. Action.” Creative workspace: Talk vs.
roller coaster to master resilience, acquire A qualitative study exploring the substantive Action - A qualitative study on
the substantive and symbolic
professional skills and gain focus. and symbolic effects of creative workspaces roles and effects of creative
and assessing their relations with everyday workspaces in modern
Looking back at these years, I recall as espe- creativity and corporate image in work-re- organizations
cially challenging the task of choosing a lated settings. Doing research on this topic
research topic and formulating an appropri- granted me access to internationally based, PERIOD OF STAY
04/2014 – 03/2018
ate research proposal. The right inspiration stock exchange-listed German companies,
arrived while attending an Advanced Design which understood the relevance of my study CURRENT POSITION
Thinking Program at the Hasso-Plattner and wanted to contribute to the process Design Thinking and Agile
Management Coach, Lecturer
Institute of Potsdam, where I could experi- of data collection. In addition, working in and Consultant at Nudge & Leap
ence a more agile, more collaborative and close contact with startups, innovation Consultancy / Visiting
noticeably more “creative” approach to work. experts, visionaries and designers enabled Professor at the University
me to gain valuable information. of Bergamo (Italy)
I was fascinated by this new way of working
and I wanted to learn more on how to create This learning journey was definitely worth
a corporate environment supporting change the ride on a tortuous roller coaster,
and fostering transformation. After a period especially as I knew that I could count on
of extensive contact with German corpora- the guidance of experienced supervisors,
tions, I was able to notice that all of them a community of top-performing colleagues,
were claiming the importance of physical and the comforting support of my husband
settings to foster innovation. Yet, at the enabling me to nurture my enthusiasm and
same time, the majority of their “creative gain inspiration.
workspaces” presented the same design
elements and architectural characteristics. Plenty of opportunities to develop, deepen
I started wondering how these “stereo- my learning, and network with an interna-
typed” physical environments could sub- tional crowd of professionals would have
stantially support the development of not been possible without undertaking this
the creative process, which is by definition DCR adventure, which leaves me with a great
highly individual and team specific. sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.
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