D&AD CEO Dara Lynch on creativity and return to office

When WPP CEO Mark Read demanded his employees work out of office four times a week, it reportedly received pushback from the group’s agencies. It reignited the debate around working from home or office.

There is a growing argument for employees to return to the office. Some of its biggest supporters are Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, and Disney, among others.

But, what about jobs where creativity is your core role? Are the most fascinating of copy or art born in offices under florouscent lighthing sorrounded by colleagues, or in the recesses of one's mind at home? 

Dara Lynch, CEO of D&AD, a British organisation which promotes excellence in design and advertising, believes true brilliance comes from collaboration where it’s nurtured like a seed and grown, she questions “How can it be done in isolation?”

She spoke to us (afaqs!) around the sidelines of Portfolio Evening, an annual event which lets women and non-binary creatives in Indian advertising and design have their portfolios examined by some of the brightest creative minds in advertising. It was held at the office of DDB Mudra in Mumbai. 

The D&AD does not mandate its people to return to office. “We do encourage two to three days a week,” says Lynch. It is behind the D&AD Pencils, one of the most coveted awards in the creative communications industry.

With artificial intelligence slowly performing most of the basic tasks, she feels the human imagination needs fuelling be it "being surrounded by nature or human nature.” She also nods to the “slight competitiveness about ideas” which ignites human creativity, and its loss when people only want to work from home. 

And while she doesn’t support the return-to-office-or-we-will-fire-you attitude some companies wear, she firmly believes: “creativity is certainly fuelled by, by the togetherness.”