If your brief is to design the set for a theatre piece set in a construction industry training room, then make sure it includes the following:
White boards. Spare furniture. A clock that doesn’t work.
Security blinds, locked shut to keep intruders out, as well as the sunshine.
White board fluid. Extension leads. TV on a stand.
Unconnected audio equipment. Post-it notes. Antibacterial fluid.
Green cables. Red cables. Blue cables. Yellow cables.
Archive boxes. Abandoned teleconference equipment.
Laminated instruction sheets.
Flip chart architecture. Highlighters. Slips of paper with the wifi code. Speakers. Panel heater.
And a hat stand.
Arguably (I am sure I have argued this before) learning should be the objective of a high-functioning company. We don’t just do a thing: each we do it, we learn from it and do it better. (Otherwise lessons learnt become lessons lost.)
If learning were the organisational objective,, then the training room wouldn’t look like this.
It wouldn’t be a storage space for forgotten equipment and excess furniture.
It would be the nerve centre of learning. A place that celebrates learning rather than treats the experience as second rate.
Just imagine what that room would look like.