The open workplan format is facing no small amount of scrutiny lately as a creativity killer. Among the most recent sources of controversy is the publication of new book, “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” whose author, Susan Cain, posits that the open workplan may be stifling creativity.
Fortunately, advocates have Paul Wheeler to defend the cause (or at least to define it properly).
On Monday morning, BBC Radio’s Vanessa Feltz dedicated a portion of her program to an interview with Susan Firth, occupational psychologist, who challenges the open work model, citing the noise, interruptions, and spotty concentration associated with large, partionless spaces. All of these, she says, contribute significantly to reduced productivity and raised stress. The interview raises a critical question: Is the open workplace concept merely a perceived good, passing, unchallenged, from one real estate executive to another because it is cost efficient?
Enter HOK’s Paul Wheeler, who, as Workplace Strategist, spends his days helping corporations create innovative new approaches to working. BBC Radio invited Paul to join the program as an opposing view.
Paul, however, agreed.
The open workplan can indeed be distracting and noisy, he says.  The problem is in assuming that a collaborative workplace must look (and function) like a warehouse full of desks. As designers, architects and consultants, says Wheeler, we need to listen very carefully to what clients and their end users are asking for… and then help them figure out what they actually need to work productively. In his call to [...]

Wikipedia defines telecommuting as “a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations.”
Many organizations spend a lot of time developing methodologies for telecommuting – a lot of what I hear about telecommuting is about how to go about “getting it done”. Establishing policies, procedures, technology, etc. This all comes from the organization’s perspective, but how does this relate to you? I personally have left a standard 9-5 office environment and now am telecommuting at least once a week. I realized quite quickly that I needed to change some behaviors to be effective and it helped me to establish some ground rules for myself:

Get dressed for the day. Sure it’s a lot of fun to think about spending all day in your pajamas, but getting ready psychologically puts me in a different frame of mind. I become more task oriented and effective.
Flexibility comes with responsibility. You are an adult – act like it! Be accountable to yourself and your employer. Meet deadlines and make sure they know what you are doing – communcation is key so that trust is reinforced.
Figure out a schedule that works. Seriously? Do you think your IT guy is going to hang out till you are ready at [...]

I came across this article from the Harvard Business Review blog, in which blogger (and CEO of The Energy Project) Tony Schwartz describes a list of 12 items that his “dream employer” would provide. 
His list includes some seemingly obvious (though often-overlooked) items such as paying employees living wage, offering two-way performance reviews, fair and respectful treatment of employees by upper management, among others.  Hopefully all of your employees do at least these! 
Item #3 on his list is where we here at HOK come into the picture: “Design working environments that are safe, comfortable, and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.”  We’ve been seeing this trend of mixing space types with many of our clients, including Deltek who just moved into their new office space, complete with a game room, community whiteboards, and more. 
 One of my two favorites is #12—“stand for something beyond simply increasing profits.”  This enables employees to gain a sense of real meaning from (and feel good about showing up for) work every day. 
As for my other favorite—that would be #5: “create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks.  Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.”  With all of the studies showing that naps increase productivity—you’d think every one of our clients would insist we design napping rooms into their [...]

Competition.  We all know that word, whether in terms of projects we’re trying to win or our favorite basketball team.  And we can probably agree that a healthy amount of competition can be a good thing – drives us forward, causes us to focus, challenges us, and introduces us to new ideas.  Well, how about when one of your biggest competitors (ahem…SOM) wins a competition to design a new “Silicon Valley” in New York City?  How does THAT make you feel? 
In late 2011, Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology – with SOM and Field Operations (designed the High Line in NYC) – won a competition run by NYC’s administrative office under Michael Bloomberg to repurpose a portion of Roosevelt Island.  The winning proposal included 2.5 million square feet total, with technology focused on NYC-centric industries such as medicine, finance, and advertising, and endowments for start-up companies.  What is particularly attractive about the campus, however, is that the proposal centered the 2,500-student academic institution around central “hubs” (see Fast Company for the animations of the space) and expansive, open areas organized by interest, not by discipline, to foster the exchange of ideas.  Polish it off with interwoven public spaces to serve the academic and general population and a net-zero goal for each of the academic buildings, and you have a pretty great recipe.  Or, at least one good enough to garner the attention of Bloomberg anc Cornell alumni alike. 
Understanding how people work, how ideas are shared, and how environments affect the [...]

In recognition of the global environment that we all work in, I would like to take pause and recognize an upcoming milestone – January 23rd marks the next Chinese New Year: 2012, the year of the Water Dragon! I ran across a Feng Shui forecast predicting the following:
“In Eastern symbology, the Dragon is considered a benevolent creature that brings about luck. The Dragon, even though it was the largest, fastest and most powerful animal of creation, it arrived fourth to the call of the Jade Emperor because it stopped along the way to make rain for the farmers and to help the Rabbit cross the river that all animals had to cross to arrive at the palace. Dragon years are expected to be full of benevolence and grace.  This year is going to be a transformational life-changing year! Generally, there are more goodies in store for you in the year 2012 than 2011. It’s a good year to improve oneself, take calculated investment risks and to build wealth. The year 2012 holds much promise and may be a major transition in your life. Whether it turns out extremely good, or really bad, will depend on how you ride the mighty Water Dragon!”
Whew! The economist must happy to hear the “building wealth” part, but what does this forecast this mean for the workplace and the people who occupy it? The main message that I pick up is that of transformational change, either organizational or personal. It is often said that the [...]

Change.  Transformation.  Evolution. Integration.  Adaptation.  Performance.
The sands are shifting.  Every client we work with has something going on in their organization that will change their future landscape/workscape.  New IT systems, tools, changing processes, organizational structures and performance measures are all constantly in play – sometimes a symphony…sometimes more jazz free style.
Strangely, when you add workplace change to that ensemble, things can get really messy.  The physical, visible manifestations of the past/present – that often represent personal and individual sense of stability in  the chaos – can send otherwise sensible and professional people into panic.
A dear friend of mine (Dave Lathrop at Steelcase) can be quoted as saying “workplace change boils every dysfunction of the organization to the surface” (I’ve attached an article from him).  I believe he is right.  With everything else in flux, it would seem that the sacred cow is workplace. 
I think that there is a huge opportunity to make workplace the thing that ties everything together…rather than the final straw the breaks things apart.  The challenge is approaching workplace change as an integrator, which means approaching the entire design process in a new way.  Developing workplace strategies that anticipate an uncertain future requires a unique thought process.
“Insanity is doing things the same way and expecting a different outcome”
Let’s stop the insanity.  Let’s really look at workplace as the powerful change integrator it has the potential to be.  Can we make it an enabler of new process…and more importantly new attitudes and behavior?  Can we make it be [...]

Just a quick video to make you smile today: Steve Hargis inspires corporate real estate folks as part CoreNet’s Corporate Real Estate 2020 initiative:

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The cube is dead!  Long live the cube! 

Just read an interesting article in Interiors & Sources: The Cubicle, Deconstructed, quoting one of HOK’s own, Pam Light, Director of Interiors in Los Angeles.  The article quickly moves through the history of the open plan office, highlighting some of the successes (better space efficiency!) and failures (can’t find anyone in a maze of high-paneled cubicles!), and then addresses some of the major concerns users typically have:

Visual privacy
Noise or acoustical privacy
Hierarchy
Flexibility

Designers and furniture manufacturers are amply aware of these concerns and have been addressing them through thoughtful space planning and design and manufacture of products that offset the issues.  Check out the article for some tips and product ideas.

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This week marks the 5th birthday of the iphone! As I thought about this, I started to reflect on the impact that this one device has made…many people could not function well without it. I count myself in the group – I totally drink the Apple Kool Aid (full disclosure)! So why is it that I have become so completely dependent?
There has been a growing trend over the last 10 years called “convergence”, where many aspects of the world are coming together in ways that they never have before. For example, social media sites networking together so that you can pull a news story from one location and share on Face book – or vice versa. Grocery stores use cards to track what you purchase to give you specialized coupons intended to get you to try new products, as well as monitor your spending habits and sell that information back to the manufactures. All this data is tracked and stored for marketing purposes.
For me, convergence is epitomized on a personal level in the iphone – for example, when traveling I simply forward any email reservation confirmations to a website aligned with the Trip it application that organizes and creates a travel itinerary for me. When I arrive, the application interfaces with the GPS on Google Maps to give me direction for driving, walking, or public transportation to my destination. Also included are phone numbers that I can dial from the iphone for the destination if there are any problems along [...]

Ok, not exactly sex, but it caught your attention, right?!  Ran across a great article on CNN.com: How Hollywood Lies about the Workplace?  I agree with all their points!
1. All the beautiful people.  Obviously I am beautiful all the time (HA!), but all of my colleagues and clients…gasp…are not. P.S. who wants to wear 4″ stilettos that cost $600 to work anyway?!
2. Executives work? Neh.  Pretty sure every executive I’ve ever met has a pretty darned grueling schedule.  And those that don’t, well, they tend not to last
3. Your outfit? Anything goes. We to this day discuss an intern who worked at our company 2005 and dressed quite fashionably but quite inappropriately for the office. And trust me, if you’re not dressed professionally, HR will be sending you home or walking you to the store to help you pick something more appropriate for the office. Not sweats and flip flops.
4. Work is so easy. HA!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Also, as an architecture firm employee, I firmly believe that the field of architecture has been excessively glamorized (HIMYM, It’s a Wonderful Life, the Brady Bunch).
5. Money is no object. See note above regarding $600 shoes. And note above about architects in Hollywood - not so many make enough to afford the crazy lifestyles and fab apartments
6. Your boss is a horrible person and/or idiot.  Well, I’m certainly not going to say that on a public blog!  And, by the way, my boss is great.  No lie there.
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