Over at officeinsight magazine, we are in the middle of an eight-part series of articles that connect to ThinkLab’s excellent Design Nerds Anonymous podcast, led by industry expert and friend Amanda Schneider. It is the sixth season of the podcast series and it is one of the best in our industry — newsy, fun, fresh and interesting. If you don’t listen to it, give it a try. I highly recommend it.

The season is tied to a few huge questions: How do we make decisions in today’s fast-evolving world? And how has that process changed? That’s the reason why we decided to partner with ThinkLab to get word out on the series. Those questions are vitally important to the industry. And if the information is important to the world of design and commercial interiors, we want it in officeinsight magazine.

During season six of Design Nerds Anonymous, Schneider has some incredible conversations with thought leaders from across industries, uncovering insights about collaboration, friction and adaptability.

I grabbed a few gem comments from the podcast that I’ll share here.

Cindy Kauffman from Mannington Commercial said, “We spend the vast majority of our lives inside buildings. Buildings are created for the space. the human occupant. And yet we make all of these decisions that are largely based on a whole series of things where people are not even oftentimes really considered. And also you think about the sort of evolutionary nature of just life itself and life as a human. We change, we evolve, organizations change, things change, trends change. Change is the constant that drives it all, and yet we’re making decisions. out of this sort of delusion of permanence and cost and other various factors. And so it’s no wonder that there’s so much pain, because I think we’re asking a lot of the wrong questions.”

And this from Amy Devers, a designer, educator and podcast host: “As we start to understand more about the value of creativity, the pipeline will expand naturally. But in the meantime, it’s up to actual creative thinkers to, intentionally expand the pipeline and to figure out how to do that. And I think it’s really important because representation needs to be. At the creative level, if the creatives are shaping the world around us, then everyone needs to be represented in that class.”

Finally this from JJ Peterson of StoryBrand: “When somebody asks, what are we trying to accomplish or what’s the purpose of this meeting, you don’t start with the purpose of the meeting. That’s the solution. When you start with the solution, you’re making yourself the hero of the story. If you start with their problem or the problem they’re feeling or experiencing, now you position them as the hero and the story is about them.”

The questions Schneider poses to her guests are important, even if the answers are sometimes difficult to listen to. It’s hard to look at yourself and your business and evaluate if you are up to snuff. But information like this can and does help the industry, which really is our mission at officeinsight magazine. We want to supply you with the most important, up-to-date and interesting information about the industry that we can find.

To that end, we are partnering more with people like Schneider and design firms like Gensler and HOK, along with smaller firms, to bring you the latest research and projects. The photos of beautiful design projects are important, but not without the “why” behind the design.

Let us know what you’re looking for as well. A good publication is a reflection of its readers, not what we think about design. We’re here to guide the ship, but it’s your job to point us in the right direction.