“Freedom for new things is always created where there was clarity before.”
Yasmin Hameed
What made you decide to work at ifok?
“Only that which doesn’t exist is possible.” That’s what the band Einstürzende Neubauten says in a song – and it’s a pretty good answer to why it doesn’t get boring for me at ifok. We work with our customers on exciting tasks for which there are no simple standard solutions. What motivates me is to discover new contexts by asking the right questions, to guide creative group processes and to create dialogue and innovation spaces with the knowledge of the appropriate methods and formats.
How long have you been part of the ifok team and where were you before?
Before I joined ifok in 2016, I was a project manager in a Frankfurt communications agency. Before that, I was a research assistant in Older German Studies at the University of Mannheim. What I took away from that time was the persistence to question answers that were too quick and easy: “Did we understand what it’s really about? And are we really talking about the same thing?”
What makes you tick in your working life?
What questions and impulses do you need in order for new ideas to grow? How do you create viable solutions that are to be developed together? These are questions that I answer anew for each project and with a clear focus on results. I like to develop sophisticated workshop formats, innovative conferences and meeting opportunities in order to create the ideal places for dialogue and cooperation, both analogue and digital. I like the “live experience” and being on the road. So, it’s a good thing that I facilitate many workshops and events.
What do you especially like to do in your free time?
I am a passionate structurer, forward thinker, planner – and I am convinced that freedom for new things always arises out of clarity. Clarity in the goals, in the substance, in the structure. In my private life, however, this sometimes gets out of hand: in leisure activities such as creating multi-coloured list systems, meditative tidying up or long weekends of clearing out.