Better the devil you know, right? Or maybe not. The coworking industry is constantly evolving and it is only fair that the values regulating the industry are also adapted and adjusted to suit the everchanging needs of the coworking community.
Bernie J Mitchell, host of the Coworking Values Podcast, he gives us the full lowdown about August’s Coworking Idea Project challenge which is about living the coworking values.
Do the Coworking Values need updating?
Bernie explains that he can’t think of anybody who was present when the original coworking values were decided upon. Many people heard them first and second-hand and then adopted and implemented them going forward, he elaborates.
However, it has been a while since they were re-evaluated. There are some necessary adjustments and additions that need to be made now that people have a clearer understanding of what those words actually mean and how they play out in people’s lives to-date.
About the Coworking IDEA Challenge
The Coworking IDEA project is about inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. A lot of people have been talking about this non-stop for five years and have committed to learning more about it and how to articulate it. The topics therein are more than just teaching people to be anti-racist. Bernie is dyslexic and accessibility speaks to him on a personal level. As a dyslexic person, being around people like Jeannine van der Linden, director of the European Coworking Assembly, has assisted Bernie in understanding how other spaces approach this.
August’s coworking challenge is about living the coworking values. This challenge is self-explanatory and more than anything it encourages people to go back to the basics and consider what the coworking values are, what they mean, and why they are needed. It is only after answering these questions that one can truly decide if the current values are still doing the coworking industry justice.
