More Than Media: How Starcom Is Igniting Innovation

Starcom a media agency built on human experiences recognized the need to change the pattern to break down the grind and give employees headspace for innovationamp160 When I pitched the Starcom Makerspace an innovation incubator in which employees and clients can get handson with the latest VR gear 3D printing voice assistants and more Starcom immediately saw the connectionamp160 With our brains engaged in a totally different way and with eyes on the potential nextgen of technology the results are turning out to be powerfulThinking with Your HandsIn The Makerspace we encourage everyone to tackle engineering challenges in the most intuitive way with their hands firstamp160 You can read about theory and howto all day but nothing refocuses your mind like making something with your own handsamp160 With your hands engaged your brain must change gears from the abstract to the immediateamp160and the distractions of daily work drop awayamp160 The break from the mental pressure of daily work is worth it alone but this also starts approaching the state of mind where connections come faster understanding flows more easilyamp160and problems are frequently solved with next to no effortamp160 This is where you get into the zoneIn the ZoneCoders and athletes especially talk about getting in the zone musicians will sometimes talk about it as flow but we39re all talking about the same thingamp160 It39s that state of intuitive understanding and energized focus where the perfect solution just seems to fall into your mind and out your fingertips The trick to getting into that zone is finding the right task something that39s not so easy you can do it without thinking but not so hard you have to wrack your brainamp160 The Makerspace aims for that curve of difficulty where anyone can start to touch the zone and then carry the idea quotI can solve this I just need to do itquot back into all their other workLooking to the FutureThe Makerspace has given us a place to explore our creative and engineering skills freely to invent a small part of the future at Starcom and in the worldamp160 It39s a place and an idea that encourages sharing itself inspiring people to find their own inventiveness put it to workamp160and pass the idea along Even without a promise of hard revenue the potential value of an idea like that is vast besides giving us eyes on the future of technology and media the concept itself is one that I hope to see grow throughout our company culture changing it for the betterI began my career at Starcom and I39ve seen here a fearless approach to risks and new ideasamp160 They stood strong on that when I pitched The Makerspace and now it39s a reality spreading the confident inventiveness of people who can make things for themselvesamp160 As one of Chicago Idea Week39s featured labs The Makerspace has also given me the opportunity to spread that attitude to the Chicago communityamp160 It39s such a powerful bit of knowledge that just by getting your hands working on a project by pulling an idea out of your head and into the world you can get a look at some of the inner workings of your own creativity amp160that we expect the influence of quotMakerismquot to keep spreading and inspiring all on its own from the seed The Makerspace plantedClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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More Than Media: How Starcom Is Igniting Innovation

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Bob Rzadzki

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More Than Media: How Starcom Is Igniting Innovation

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