Current workplace design trends have created a variety of side effects, both positive and negative, for organizations and for the people who work in modern work environments each day. Many new trends, when improperly applied, may result in spaces that detract rather than support the way their organization or people truly work. For organizations to be successful, creating human-centric solutions that focus on empowering the employee is imperative. In the second installment of a two-part series, we’ll continue to examine these new side effects of current workplace environment trends.
Last week, we discussed the role of basic human nature in satisfying our physiological-environmental needs; the power and nuances of connecting with each other; and technology’s impact on work and place. This week, we’ll explore how emphasis has shifted from where people work to how people are working; the need for agile work solutions that maximize flexibility for end users; and the importance of both movement-based and experience-based design solutions in the workplace.
Work Where v. Work How?
The workplace of the future is about what you do, not where you do it. We are focusing less on workplace and more on how people are working. As a side effect to this new paradigm of work, the very purpose of an office will change. Instead of being a place that you go to for 40 hours a week, the office will morph into a place where you go to engage others. Work can and is happening everywhere, so what is the real purpose of the office? It’s a connection point.
And whether you can work from home or the office has less to do with personal preference and more to do with the type of work you do and the amount of interaction you need to be effective. If your business is primarily involved with sales and consultation, then not only do you not need to be in the office every day; you won’t make any money if you are. If your business is primarily creative or professional services, then bringing your team together so they can synergize, think as a unit and ideate, is critical.
Your space solutions should follow the needs of the client organization and its people. Space solutions today need to be varied enough to accommodate a vast set of needs while being able to change on a dime.
Agile Work Solutions
Everybody wants flexibility. But the most flexible thing in any office is the people. Yet most offices in the past were designed to support sedentary behaviors. Instead of designing space as if they were a one-room efficiency apartment where you sit in one place all day, we need to give people choices that meet the needs of the various activities they perform during a typical workday.
We are no longer sitting in one place all day. Hence, over the past decade we have seen the evolution of Activity Based Workplaces, ABW for short, where we create task oriented solutions that encourage movement and empower people to select the right space for the task at hand. Activity Based Work environments are about creating balanced spaces with a variety of settings that allow people to choose to go to an area that best fits the needs for the task at hand. Designers will benefit from focusing their design solutions on the words balanced, variety, people, needs and choice.
Instead of forcing people to sit in one place all day, ABW environments empower people. It’s the idea of providing different spaces for different functions, the way a house has a room for cooking, dining, sleeping, etc.
More successful work environments today are designed to be an ecosystem of spaces, primarily grouped to serve four major work functions: solo work, collaboration, learning and socializing. It is increasingly common to find work environments today with a social hub located central to the space and designed with a food component; coupled with neighborhoods of work points with phone booths and team areas close by. Today, spaces are being designed to provide options and give workers choices.
As people move through an office, they need to have access to task specific solutions. This requires that we stop designing spaces that support a single workspace per employee and instead design spaces that encourage people to be flexible and less place dependent.
“The most flexible thing in any space isn’t the wall or the furniture. It’s the people.”
In Europe and Australia, ABC design principles have already been vetted and are on the fourth and fifth generation. In the U.S., however, most companies are just beginning to embrace the concept. But what we’ve learned in the past decade of experience with Activity Based Work spaces is that the natural evolution of work goes beyond ABW to creating neighborhood based “free-range” spaces, also referred to as “team-based, choice environments.”
“Team-based, choice environments” take the concepts of ABW and expands them in two realms. The first is about creating a base or hub for teams to operate out of while still allowing people to have access to a variety of work settings. After all, we are social creatures of habit. Having a team base where we can connect and have a sense of belonging and identity is important to any team. The second way designers are expanding on ABW is by thinking outside the box, or more literally, outside the office. By expanding outside of the immediate work environment, we can begin to define and build communities. The city is the office, and the office is the city. Lines between work and other areas of life are blurred as we work more places.
Team-based choice environments focus on empowering people with choice, engagement through variety, and human-centric solutions to maximize health, happiness and performance.
“As we shift space from individuals to shared spaces, we are giving people more settings in which to work, thus increasing their options. We should not design for people as if they were potted plants.”
The Power of Designing for Movement
Novelist John Le Carré once wrote, “A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.” He no doubt had deeper meanings in mind, but from a pure productivity perspective, he was exactly right. Overly sedentary work environments create all kinds of unintended consequences, not the least of which is decreased productivity.
Getting people up and moving is not only essential for their own personal health and wellbeing, but studies show that active workers are happy, healthier, more engaged and more productive. Sit-to-stand options allow the user to select the position that is right for the task at hand and that is right for their health and wellbeing. Adjustable work surfaces allow companies to meet the needs of someone who is 6’-5” or someone who is 5’-5”.
Alternatively, combining standing height tables with adjustable seating solutions offers ease of access for individuals and groups. Those solutions often include standing-height meeting tables where teams can schedule meetings or meet spontaneously or on the go.
“Sitting stagnantly at a desk in a chair, staring at a computer all day, is killing people faster than whatever the wall across from them is off-gassing.”
But standing for long periods is not better than sitting; rather, movement is. Research has shown that standing for 15 minutes every hour is a great start for office based workers who typically sit for longer periods of time. But the ideal scenario is to work like an athlete. Sit some, stand some and move often; but when you do so, do it with purpose. Athletes typically train in 90-minute spurts. That’s also about the amount of time our minds and bodies can focus on something before we naturally need a short break. Trying to multitask typically results in poor performance on both the things someone is trying to accomplish. Employees can remove distractions and focus by energizing the mind and body with movement.
A New Experience Based Society
As we shift from a “commodity based” to “experience based” society, “place” takes on new importance. Companies and organizations are looking to create curated experiences, and even going as far as employing Experience Managers, Place Concierges or Chief Cultural Officers to ensure employees’ needs are met and that they are engaged and invested in the organization.
These curated experiences often offer employees an a la carte workplace experience with a menu of services, locations and support options. Opportunities for sharing information, visually, graphically and via technology, are all important in connecting teams today; they are also often the most overlooked element in many space solutions.
“Companies and organizations are looking to create curated experiences, and even going as far as employing Experience Managers, Place Concierges or Chief Cultural Officers to ensure employees’ needs are met and that they are engaged and invested in the organization.”
We are witnessing the evolution of the workplace, and we must continually assess and reassess it to determine what is working, and what isn’t. We need to create environments that support employee wellbeing and engagement to drive innovation and productivity. And we have to be willing to acknowledge the side effects and adjust accordingly. If we can capitalize on lessons learned and focus on finding the right solutions, we can make where and how we work a powerful asset for a business and the people it serves.
“It’s not the strongest that survive but the most adaptable.” – Darwin
Kay Sargent joined Lendlease as director of workplace strategies in 2014 bringing over 30 years of experience in the interiors industry. Prior to joining Lendlease, Kay served as VP of A&D and workplace strategies for Teknion and was a principal for Interior Architects in Washington, DC. Kay has a BFA in interiors from VCU and studied environmental design at Parsons School of Design in NY. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies on their global real estate strategies and designed workplaces of the future. Kay serves on the Advisory Boards of WorkDesign Magazine, PaletteApp and IFI. She has also served on the International Boards of IIDA, ASID, NCQLP and NCIDQ. She is an active member of ASID, IIDA, CoreNET and IFMA.