Concurrents: The Bigger, Better Picture

NeoCon 2023 is now over a month in the past. Some of you couldn’t be more relieved it’s done; others might lament not having enough time with sturdy friends in the industry you only see once a year. I’ve found myself even in these weeks into July returning repeatedly to one takeaway idea that has lingered. 

Perhaps I am jaded by 35 years of strolling the halls and browsing the showrooms, but this year’s gathering in Chicago, both at THE MART and around the streets of Fulton Market, didn’t seem to present any truly remarkable new products. No innovations that set the event buzzing, no breakthroughs that would clearly have lasting impact. So, is our industry losing its creative capacity? Is imagination waning? I think not. 

I submit that maybe, just maybe, we have finally as an industry and profession fully grasped a crucial lesson: that the future is not about individual products, it is about integrated work settings. Now, that may seem to many of you totally self-evident, but this year’s NeoCon may be testimony that this lesson is catching on in a broader way, at last. Most of the manufacturers — though not all, alas — focused their showroom and display spaces on product combinations, setting configurations, and interesting ideas about the workplace that drove their designs. Hooray. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love an imaginative new product, and there were some good additions to the industry’s portfolio this year. However, we may be learning the lesson that one discrete product does not a high-performance workplace make. It takes creative combinations, thoughtful integrations, innovative configurations to make work settings that make any of us eager to go to the office to work. This year’s NeoCon seemed to demonstrate that our industry is focusing on three important ingredients that comprise a workplace that will truly meet the needs of the people and the organizations that will survive these transitional times. 

The showrooms and displays at NeoCon this year seemed to center on the work process itself. Wow, that seems such an elemental thing to say, but there have been too many years, too many industry events, where there has been too little focus on the work that needs to be accomplished by the residents of today’s workplace. What sorts of settings will support the work process? What happens when that work process shifts and changes, sometimes rapidly? Who needs to be collocated with whom to optimize efficiency and energize performance? What’s the best way to facilitate and enrich interactions when they include teammates not in the office at the same time? What about the integration of tools, technology, and mobile power? And the list goes on. 

Now let’s face it, designers have been paying attention to these sorts of issues for some time, and they’ve been creating workplaces that often address the sorts of questions I posed above. But manufacturers have too often put the spotlight on individual products, not on their collective power to create work settings. NeoCon 2023 seemed to display a heightened awareness of the larger picture — the workplace as a whole. 

An additional issue that seems to be getting greater attention, with some hopeful signals at NeoCon, is the importance and impact of workplace culture. The now-waning pandemic has instigated several new work models and modes (another column on them later perhaps). Though I detest the misguided label “hybrid work” that seems to have now become pervasive, the questions about who can work where and how and with what tools seem to have prompted a freshened focus on organizational culture, and specifically the ways that the physical workplace can impact and shape culture. That might be the culture of the company, it might be the culture of a department or team. It is increasingly clear that an organization’s work culture can have a profound effect on performance, outputs, loyalty, engagement, and a range of additional attributes that go a long way to helping a company or group thrive. The work settings presented at NeoCon this year seem to have been designed with a view that the configuration of workplaces and the variety of products that comprise those configurations have the potential to shape workplace culture. Let’s hope we see more of that from many more channels. 

Finally, there seemed to be ample evidence at NeoCon 2023 that manufacturers understand that a return to the office will be largely dependent on making that office a desirable place to be. From comfortable places to perch for individual work or group meetings, to products that signal the ability to move, re-shape, adapt, and conform to people’s preferences, the settings in many showrooms at NeoCon displayed a sensibility toward human comfort and a centeredness on foundational human preferences and needs. The workforce of today and tomorrow won’t be eager to work at a corporate office just because there is a foosball table or a breakfast bar, or worse a mandate to return. They will come to the office if there are settings that make work easier, that support and enrich their interactions with their colleagues, that leave them feeling personally valued and respected. Bottom line, the workplace needs to be a place where any of us would actually want to spend time. That means that the materials and colors and textures and shapes will need to have a degree of designed beauty that beckons and satisfies. That’s desirable. 

Future NeoCon shows may have a product that makes my socks roll up and down. Maybe. But I will be more than satisfied if year after year we continue to see innovation that takes shape in imaginative settings instead, in multi-faceted workplace configurations that engage us, attract our presence, and help us work well. That prospect will draw me to Chicago again next year.