Next Work Innovation.

Redesign Work.

The next work innovation garage is a multidisciplinary think tank that researches, advises and coaches on new work in the digital age.

We combine the New Work movement founded by Frithjof Bergmann with a new understanding of productivity and value creation for the digital knowledge age.

We look forward to hearing from you!

What we do

Innovation and creativity are thought processes that need an optimal business environment. Together with you, we develop value-added-specific Next Work concepts for your company and accompany you in the transformation.

Consulting

We accompany you and your company from the development of goals and analysis to the conceptualisation and successful completion of the transformation process.

Coaching

We accompany entrepreneurs, management and HR professionals in the transformation process, which always affects their own role.

Training

We train Next Work Coaches, Next Work Leaders and Next Work Conflict Coaches to become active shapers of transformation.

Impulses

Fancy some input?
We hold stand-ups, key notes and lectures – dialogue-based, down-to-earth and with professional depth.

„If the brain is the machine of the creative, service and technology industries, why do you keep interrupting it instead of kick-starting it?“

– Cal Newport

Our motivation

Work in the digital knowledge age is brain work: our work design and environment should promote the performance of our brain.
Our everyday life: open-plan offices, fragmentation, multitasking, information overflow, inefficient meetings, culture of constant accessibility, dissolution of boundaries, etc.
Companies need Deep Work as a system competence.
Agility and adaptivity are introduced in many companies at the method level. Becoming an agile company requires work on the system. Agility emerges in an environment that is psychologically safe, that makes decentralised self-organisation a systematic outcome of management and that lives a NEW WORK understanding of leadership.
Agility needs NEW WORK.
Old metrics that are still used to measure productivity, e.g. the duration of presence at the workplace, cannot make a valid statement about how productive a person is when he or she is doing (innovative) mental work.
Consequence: Outdated working time models lead to unproductivity and the return on investment of digitalisation fails to materialise (productivity paradox).
Productivity needs new metrics.

Neuroergonomic working is a prerequisite for innovation and productivity in the digital knowledge age – which is why we need to rethink value creation.

– The Focused Company Approach

Our projects

Project The Focused Company-Model

Companies need Deep Work at system level to increase creativity and innovation. For this purpose, we at the ThinkTank have developed a model for brain-friendly work. The Focused Company model is not a blueprint, but a process framework that every company systematically and structuredly goes through in relation to its own specific value creation in order to become a Focused Company. In contrast to strategy processes, implementation of new process models, culture change approaches, etc., which are each implemented in the individual dimensions of strategy, structure or culture, our focus is on the brain-friendly design of the value creation process itself. The change of this core process then has strategic, structural and cultural implications.

Project Study on Productivity and Concentration in Knowledge Work

  • Wir planen derzeit die erste digitale branchen- und hierarchieübergreifende Studie zu Konzentration und Produktivität im Unternehmensalltag von Wissensarbeiter:innen.
  • Universitäre Begleitung durch einen Wissenschaftsbeirat, mit dem Neurowissenschaftler Prof. Dr. Volker Busch, Universitätsklinik Regensburg, und dem Sozialpsychologen Prof. Dr. Rolf van Dick, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
  • Auf Basis der Studienergebnisse werden betriebswirtschaftliche Ableitungen getroffen, um den Produktivitätsausfall durch Multitasking und Fragmentierung zu beziffern.
  • Zudem dienen die Ergebnisse als Basis für die Weiterentwicklung unseres The Focused Company Modells für konzentriertes Arbeiten in Unternehmen.

Unternehmen, die Interesse haben, an der kostenlosen Studie teilzunehmen, können mit uns dazu sehr gerne über kontakt@nextworkinnovation.com Kontakt aufnehmen

Team:

Team:
Next Work Innovation - Study on concentration and productivity in knowledge work 2022
Klenk & Hoursch and Next Work Innovation - Study on concentration and productivity in knowledge work 2022
Core Value and Next Work Innovation - Study on Concentration and Productivity in Knowledge Work 2022
Novustat and Next Work Innovation - Study on concentration and productivity in knowledge work 2022

Project New Work Book Edition

  • In our New Work book edition, we address the question of how New Work can be translated in a value-added-specific way and design prototypical utopias for individual sectors.
  • Publication date “New Work in Medicine. How we can succeed in utopia!” on 8 March 2022, by Rossberg Verlag. The book is published to complement Antje Schneider’s documentary film “4 Sterne Plus. From Patient to Guest. The hospital of the future” about the Waldkliniken Eisenberg and co-author David-Ruben Thies.
  • Planned follow-up volumes 2022/23:
  • New Work in Start-ups
  • New Work in Architecture
  • New Work in Cultur
  • New Work in Consulting

Realisation period for the planned 10 volumes of the New Work Edition from 2022-2027.

New Work in Medicine by Vera Starker, Dr Mona Frommelt and David Ruben Thies, Rossberg Verlag 2022

„The most valuable asset of an institution in the 21st century … will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.“

–Peter F. Drucker

Who we are

Vera Starker

Co-Founder NWI, TFC author, speaker, the creative-researching mind in the garage

Anne
Starker

Co-Founder NWI,
Next Work Consulting,
Coaching

Matthias Schneider

Co-Founder NWIG,
CEO NWIG, cultural scientist, author

Prof. Dr. Volker Busch

Neuroscientist,
speaker,
author

Angelika Westerwelle

Author,
Next Work Consulting,
coaching,
training,
speaker

Susen Starnberger

Author,
Next Work Consulting,
coaching,
Time Value Designer, Team Development

Elsa van Amern

Next Work Counselling,
Leadership training,
Author

Susanne Nitzsche

Next Work Expert
for new working methods

Felix
Russwinkel

Next Work Consulting,
Coaching

Alexander
Milz

Existential Analyst,
Next Work Coach

Markus Väth

Humanfy,
one of the leading New Work minds,
author and Next Work Speaker

Daniel
Hanke

CEO Klenk & Hoursch,
Next Work Speaker

Oliver Schmidthals

Brand Expert,
New Work Consulting

Martin Kley

Occupational scientist,
Next Work Speaker

And You?

Join us!

Penny

Chief
“more balance than work” Officer

Unsere Partner

Our references

Datev - Next Work Innovation
PwC Germany- Next Work Innovation
PreZero - Next Work Innovation
Charité - Next Work Innovation
edenspiekermann - Next Work Innovation
Axel Springer Corporate Solutions - Next Work Innovation
Total Energies - Next Work Innovation
50 Hertz Transmission GmbH - Next Work Innovation
Twaice Predictive Battery - Next Work Innovation
Hornbach Baumarkt - Next Work Innovation
BNP Paribas Germany- Next Work Innovation
Liberta Partners - Next Work Innovation
Public utilities Bochum - Next Work Innovation
NWI-References-Cabka
Klier & Ott - Next Work Innovation
HVLE - Next Work Innovation
Kptncook - Next Work Innovation
futureworks - Next Work Innovation

The book by Vera Starker „Ich war noch niemals in New Work“ touched me deeply and gave me great deal of pleasure and delight.

–Frithjof Bergmann, the founder of the “New Work” movement

Articles and interviews

Podcasts

Books

Deep Work for Companies

Deep Work for Companies

Redesign work in the digital transformation era – The Focused Company Framework

By Vera Starker, Matthias Schneider & Martin Kley

Deep Work for Companies – The Focused Company is the first systemically integrated framework for focused work in organizations, developed by the ThinkTank next work innovation. In an era characterized by multitasking, information overflow, fragmentation, and dissolution of boundaries, enjoyment of work, productivity, and innovation are falling by the wayside. TFC can significantly increase the productivity of knowledge workers, as it implements relevant neuroergonomic principles, significantly increases the self-organization of employees, redefines leadership and implements a culture of concentration. The TFC New Work centerpiece: employees are involved in the productivity increase “in time”!

From the foreword by Prof. Dr. Volker Busch, neuroscientist and Spiegel bestselling author, for The Focused Company Workbook: “This workbook wonderfully summarizes the current state of knowledge and research. We will have to rethink not only work, but also our ways of working. New Work must also include brain-friendly work. As a neuroscientist and psychiatrist, I would unconditionally agree with the authors: The ability to redirect your attention in a purposeful way is pretty much the most important trait for mental success, which you should reclaim and develop.”

Focus time is a core element of the TFC method and comprises a mutually agreed upon period of two hours in the morning during which completely undisturbed work is possible. There are no phone calls, meetings or email communications. TFC is the first systemically integrated framework for concentrated work in companies in an age characterized by multitasking and fragmentation. TFC increases the productivity and self-organization of knowledge workers by implementing relevant neuroergonomic principles, redefining leadership and establishing a culture of concentration.

Bestellen beim Verlag

Endlich wieder konzentriert arbeiten!

Endlich wieder konzentriert arbeiten!

Wertschöpfung im digitalen Zeitalter wirklich, wirklich neu denken. The Focused Company New Work Book für Unternehmen

Von Vera Starker und Matthias Schneider, Rossberg Verlag 2020

The Focused Company ist das erste systemisch integrierte Framework für konzentriertes Arbeiten in Unternehmen. In einer von Multitasking, Informationsoverflow, Fragmentierung und Entgrenzung gekennzeichneten Zeit, bleiben Spaß an der Arbeit, Produktivität und Innovationskraft auf der Strecke. Durch TFC lässt sich die Produktivität der Wissensarbeiter deutlich steigern, da es relevante neuroergonomische Grundprinzipien umsetzt, die Selbstorganisation von Mitarbeitenden deutlich erhöht, Führung neu definiert und eine Kultur der Konzentration implementiert. Das TFC-New- Work-Herzstück: die Mitarbeitenden werden an der Produktivitätssteigerung „in Zeit“ beteiligt!

Aus dem Vorwort von Prof. Dr. Volker Busch, Neurowissenschaftler, für The Focused Company Workbook: „Das vorliegende Workbook fasst den aktuellen Wissens- und Forschungsstand wunderbar zusammen. Wir werden nicht nur die Arbeit, sondern auch unsere Arbeitsweisen neu denken müssen. New Work muss auch gehirngerechtes Arbeiten mit einbeziehen. Als Neurowissenschaftler und Psychiater möchte ich den Autoren bedingungslos beipflichten: Die Fähigkeit, Ihre Aufmerksamkeit wieder ziel gerichtet zu steuern, ist so ziemlich die wichtigste Eigenschaft für geistigen Erfolg, welche Sie zurückerobern und entwickeln sollten.“

Aus aktuellem Anlass gibt es die Beilage im Buch: Das TFC-Krisenmodell. Mit TFC maximal stark durch die Krise und maximal produktiv nach dem Lockdown.

Bestellen beim Verlag