Relational Intelligence: Space as a Counterbalance to AI

Published on July 22, 2026

AI is currently transforming systems and long-established habits at record speed. Its impact is mixed: AI makes processes easier, but it also creates new pressures, and research into these effects is still at an early stage.

One thing remains deeply human throughout this transformation: Relational Intelligence, or RI. It builds on emotional intelligence, which focuses on understanding our own emotions and those of others. RI goes one step further. It describes how people recognise and actively shape the complex dynamics within their network of relationships.

This is where Thomas Dormann comes in. He is a co-founder of Möbelkollektiv, which has been designing collaborative spaces for the past ten years, and he is no stranger to Nürnberg’s tech community: Nürnberg Digital Festival has already been hosted at Möbelkollektiv several times in the past.

“Spaces surround us all the time. They determine the degree of freedom we have, how we express ourselves as individuals and how we behave towards others, because they reflect the attitude that a company genuinely embodies”

Thomas says. Spaces therefore shape more than productivity. They also shape the relationship dynamics behind it. And AI is currently setting new standards in this area, for better and for worse.

Deep Work: Finding Privacy in an Open-Plan Office

For Thomas, the increased pace created by AI does not mean that people need fewer spaces to retreat to. It means they need more of them.

He knows the problem from his own experience:

“When you work with AI in particular, a lot has to happen very quickly, and you suddenly have a huge number of options. Sometimes that actually makes you more hesitant about the decisions you make.”

His answer is not more structure, but less friction:

“One key aspect is to keep things as accessible as possible. The available freedom needs to be emotionally intuitive rather than tied to a rulebook that you first have to read.”

For introverted people with a strong need for deep focus, this means providing small retreat spaces within open-plan areas rather than assigning permanent desks.

“As an introverted person, you essentially need different places to retreat to. In an open-plan office, these have to be created as room-within-a-room solutions.”

At the Möbelkollektiv’s own office, this works as follows:

“When you want to work, you decide based on how you are feeling. Some people prefer to go up onto the platform, take a table, unfold it and sit there. Others go into the Work-in and close the door. If that space is occupied, you choose the next one you like.”

Where AI creates more options and a faster pace, Möbelkollektiv does not compensate with additional rules. Instead, it provides a wider choice of easily accessible spaces.

Creative Phases: Spaces That People Help to Shape

According to Thomas, creativity rarely emerges in neutral spaces. It develops in places where people are allowed to make their own stories visible. This contrast is becoming increasingly important in the age of generative AI, as AI-generated content and designs become more interchangeable and can be reproduced within seconds.

One example from the Kollektiv is its work with textile manufacturers. The aim was not to purchase new furniture, but to give existing pieces a continued life.

“We have worked with textile manufacturers and created a home for them using structure, colour, texture and a style that was genuinely tailored to their character – and we developed it together with them,” Thomas explains. “They reworked and retained some of their existing furniture with us so that it could continue telling their story.”

No AI tool could have produced these pieces within seconds. Their value lies precisely in the fact that people developed them together over time.

The same applies to the graffiti wall in the Kollektiv’s own office. It was created right at the beginning as part of a collaborative process with the team and continues to shape the energy and style of the entire space today.

Thomas takes playful office concepts just as seriously.
One example was developed together with an advertising agency and included characters on the walls, sculptures throughout the space and dedicated gaming stations. For him, this only works when it genuinely suits the company’s culture. A creative space for another organisation would need to look completely different. Referring to the graffiti wall in his own office, Thomas says:

“That is why the graffiti works well as a reflection of who we are. But it would have to look different for someone else, because other people and organisations are different from us.”

Creative phases therefore do not require perfect spaces. They require authentic ones: spaces shaped by the people who use them, rather than by an algorithm capable of producing something generic even faster.

Collaborative Work: “Something Third Emerges”

Thomas sees the strongest impact on Relational Intelligence in collaborative settings, when people with different perspectives meet in the same room.

As an example, he describes an introverted developer and an extroverted sales professional with a 30-year age difference.

This is also where he sees the limits of AI as a substitute for genuine interaction:

“You can now go into a chat and look for your own personal psychological adviser within an AI system. As an introverted person, you might then have a close companion who never annoys you. That can work, but it may also keep you away from the social interaction and resilience-building encounters that you actually need.”

In the end, this could lead to loneliness – “even in the office,” as Thomas puts it. The Kollektiv therefore uses AI deliberately as a tool, not as a replacement:

“AI is not the enemy for us. We are currently developing our Zebra AI. It does not provide us with answers, but instead acts as a kind of wiki intelligence and supports us as a strategic partner.”

For Thomas, cooperation between people remains something fundamentally different:

“When someone else contributes their idea, their perspective, their experiences and even how they happen to be feeling that day, the result can ideally be something surprisingly and accidentally brilliant. The outcome is not simply one thing plus another. Something third emerges through the interaction.”

The Kollektiv refers to this approach as win-win-win:

“We do not believe in competitive thinking or in scaling for the sake of scaling. Instead, we believe that we can operate more successfully, both as a society and as a company.”

For Thomas, freedom and community are not opposites:

“I believe that independence, freedom and solidarity form a single unit rather than a contradiction.”

Ultimately, this is also his definition of Relational Intelligence: not optimising individual performance, but consciously shaping relationship dynamics – with or without AI in the room.

The Book and its Author

Thomas Dormann is a co-founder of Möbelkollektiv, or MöKo, which has spent the past ten years helping organisations create “liveable workplaces” – from spatial concepts through to organisational transformation.

Together with co-author Nora Beyer, he wrote the book Das MöKo-Buch: Wie lebenswerte Arbeitsorte Veränderung in Unternehmen unterstützen. It was designed by Nina Metz and illustrated by graffiti artist Carlos Lorente.

The book brings together ten years of project experience from the Kollektiv in a series of case studies. It has been available directly from Möbelkollektiv since April 2026 (Order the book). More information about the Kollektiv’s work: moebelkollektiv.de

Frequently Asked Questions

Was ist Relationale Intelligenz?
Relationale Intelligenz (RI) baut auf emotionaler Intelligenz auf. Während emotionale Intelligenz das Verständnis eigener und fremder Emotionen meint, geht es bei RI um die Anerkennung und Gestaltung komplizierter Dynamiken innerhalb von Netzwerkbeziehungen, aus Sicht des Möbelkollektivs die Grundlage kollaborativen Arbeitens der Zukunft.

Warum sind Kooperationsräume für Relationale Intelligenz wichtig?
Weil Beziehungsdynamiken laut Thomas Dormann stark durch die Räume geprägt werden, in denen Menschen zusammenarbeiten. Wie ein Raum gestaltet ist, wirkt sich direkt darauf aus, wie gut Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Perspektiven zueinanderfinden.

Wie unterstützen Räume Deep Work in offenen Bürostrukturen?
Durch Raum-in-Raum-Lösungen innerhalb offener Flächen: kleine Rückzugsorte ohne feste Zuweisung, die introvertierten Menschen und konzentrierter Einzelarbeit gerecht werden, ohne sie von der Gemeinschaft zu isolieren.

Worum geht es im MöKo-Buch?
Das Buch „Das MöKo-Buch: Wie lebenswerte Arbeitsorte Veränderung in Unternehmen unterstützen" fasst zehn Jahre Projekterfahrung des Möbelkollektivs in Case Studies zusammen und ist seit April 2026 erhältlich.