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COLLABORATION: Accelerated Serendipity: an update

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Anyone who knows me already understands my passion for collaboration.

I wrote a blog about Accelerated Serendipity on my website last year, to try to explain some of the stand-out benefits of Flexible Workspaces. If you haven’t read it yet, you can see it here – Accelerated Serendipity – showing how and why the concept of Flexible Working / Coworking works for so many of us.

One of our regular coworkers – a graphic designer, was telling me today how much she has benefited from coming into our workspace – every time she comes in, she meets a potential client, or a colleague, or a possible collaborator. Stories like this are what keep me going, confident that this is the way forward for the workforce – not only small businesses and entrepreneurs, but also employees, if given the opportunity to have a day or more nearer home – the chance to achieve a genuine work/life balance.

Central Business Associates is an ‘office of the future’, as described in an article recently from Officing Today  (an online magazine delivering the latest news, tips, trends, and insights of the flexible workspace industry, first published in 2004 – way before flexible working was ‘the new black’!) – I was delighted to be featured alongside some other great examples of collaborative hubs within Australia. Read the article here

As always, I’d love to hear others thoughts on the subject – would you like to know how you could work more flexibly, or do you manage this already in a different way?

serendipity
ˌsɛr(ə)nˈdɪpɪti/
noun
noun: serendipity; plural noun: serendipities
  1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
    “a fortunate stroke of serendipity”
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COLLABORATION: Accelerated Serendipity…. What does it even mean?

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The video below came up in my newsfeed today, showing the benefits of coworking, and I just loved the phrase ‘Accelerated Serendipity’! Plus it described my day today so accurately, that I felt compelled to share it with everyone…
I held a free coworking morning today – I’ve been holding one every couple of months, just to try to bring those people in who have either not heard of coworking, or don’t think it is something that would work for them. I tend to find that once people have tried it out, they understand how it can work for them, and can see (and feel) the benefits.

The benefits are different for everyone – for some it’s not having the distractions of home – the family pets, the dishwasher needing emptied, the washing piling up in the corner, etc etc…
For others it might be just feeling part of a social community – having other people to run ideas past, or to talk about ‘that’ TV show that was on last night, or even discuss your thoughts on the economic development of the area we live in….!

But ultimately, it needs to be of financial benefit to be coworking, or sharing an office space – otherwise why wouldn’t you just stay at home?

Well today showed me all the reasons why it works.

I had about 4 conversations with different people, which resulted in no less than 6 collaborative situations, which may result in more income for all 6 people! Not bad for a couple of hours work…
Then I did some client work, as the office was so busy I felt I had to contribute/type faster (that’s the competitive side of me!) than the other people I could hear around me.

So I did some paid work, got details of some fantastic prospective clients/collaborations, networked, and had a bit of a laugh too!

So next time you’re wondering what the fuss is all about, bring a chunk of work, your laptop, some business cards, and see if you can have some Accelerated Serendipity too! Watch the video that started the conversation, below…….

Coworking – How coworking is changing how and where we work

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