Recently, two of my colleagues pulled off a surprise baby shower for me, all while sitting in an open office environment. Needless to say, I was completely surprised! As you can probably imagine, a lot of work goes into planning a surprise party. Granted, some of it can be done through good ole’ e-mail communication, but at some point, all that scheming has to occur somewhere beyond that.  

So, how did two people that sit immediately to my left and right, without any walls or workstation panels separating us, pull this off?  This can’t be easy in any work environment, but somehow they were able to keep it a secret. So, does this mean it’s possible to have private conversations and work on top secret information in an open office environment without your surrounding colleagues hearing or seeing your work? Well, it definitely seemed to work in this situation.  
As my colleague Jodi Williams and I continue to embark on a journey to debunk open office myths, here we present you with busted myth #1: You can’t have private conversations or work on confidential information while sitting in an open office work environment.
 
Now, I know some of you out there may still find this to be a challenging issue, especially if you are sitting in an open office and shouldn’t be because of the nature of your work OR because you don’t have access to private spaces, etc. We heard you…we’ve been reading all of your comments and blogs on the internet [...]

As we’ve been working on this blog, we keep seeing the same few search terms come up: workplace trends, workplace 2010, innovations in workplace, etc.  To help answer some of these questions, we thought we would reach out to some of our colleagues, clients and friends and ask them about some of their workplace experiences.  Today is the first post in that series, and features HOK Washington, DC’s own Amy Fabry. 
What is your current role?  I am a Senior Interior Designer in the Washington, DC studio.
What would you say are current “trends” when it comes to the workplace?  Cram as many people in as possible. 
Seriously, many of our corporate clients recognize that there is a large portion of their employees that do not need a dedicated desk or private office, so they are moving towards a shared open office environment where workstations are not assigned to any person in particular.  While this “trend” has been around for a while, we are seeing our clients getting more daring with their sharing ratios and providing more “private” areas in return.  These private areas are generally small, unreserved rooms for one to two people to have a private conversation, take a phone call or conduct a conference call without disrupting others seating in open office areas. 
Another trend I see is the return of the lunchroom.  This isn’t your elementary school lunchroom, it’s a destination space with finishes and details that rival some of your favorite restaurants.  The key is to create a space [...]

When driving to the office, overtime everyone develops their own set of best practices and habits which help streamline arriving and leaving from the office. Getting to the office without any traffic issues and or having a stress free drive helps start the day on the right foot.
But this week i’ve had two interesting incidents with driver x vying for the same spot which left me irked to start the day. I’m not one of those people who park in the first open space. I’ve strategically picked out specific spots to where i want to park. I have my option A, B and C-they all consist parking next to walls to minimize scratches and dings. With my option A spot, it’s a friendly battle ground to get to the spot first, but I sware, if car x arrives the same time and i’m right behind, the other driver x will deliberately take option A spot. Normally, if the car x arrives first they may or may not take my option A spot. Car x is definitely aware of my fondness of this spot. It’s kinda annoying, but hey it’s not a reserved spot and it’s on a first come first serve basis thus leading me to option b or c. In the end, it’s a friendly battle at who gets it, gets it.
My situation reminds me of the car ongoing feud between Mr. Bean’s vs. the Blue Three-wheeled Car sans the road rage:

See more of Mr Bean vs the three-wheeler incidents here. 

Our office garage is a ten-story (more if you count the below ground levels), [...]

My workstation has been getting very messy lately. I’m going through the CA (Construction Administration) phase on a project and my desk has suddenly been bombarded with stacks of paperwork, rolls of drawings and product samples. I’ve started a bad habit (one of my pet peeves) of putting junk on the floor next to my workstation. I HATE crap on the floor. Drives me nuts. Why can’t there be a perfect little spot to store everything? I keep thinking “this is just temporary. No biggie. Once we get through this phase of the project my desk will be back to it’s normal, organized, peacful state”. But then I’ve been noticing others around me also have this habit of keeping stuff on the floor next to their desk. For some people it’s not temporary. It’s a horrible way of life. On the one hand I can chalk it up to the creative process (we’re designers, creating cool stuff, we can’t be TOO organized, we feed off that creative chaos, right?). But then I realize that it’s not “creative chaos”, it’s  just ”too much crap” chaos. People simply have too much junk and never enough space to keep it all organized. So I grabbed my camera and went around to see how people are handling (or mishandling) their junk. Some aren’t so bad but some people can use a lot of help.
And I’ll ask the rest of you readers…what do you do with all YOUR crap? Send in your photos!

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It’s Friday!!! Here’s some videos to get you through the day.

I first read about this a few months ago and was fascinated with the idea. The Mars 500 project is a research endeavor that aims to simulate obstacles that a manned mission to Mars would experience, including stress, claustrophobia, fatigue.
Video: Locked & Sealed: 520 days, 6 men, 1 bunker
Six participants will spend a total of 520 days in a series of modules, part of an isolation facility in Moscow.
During the isolation period the candidates will be simulating all elements of the Mars mission, travelling to Mars, orbiting the planet, landing and return to Earth.
The crew will have to be self-reliant, and organise a great deal of their daily tasks. They will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the health and psychological states of themselves and each other, monitoring and controlling and maintaining systems, including life support, control resource consumption, carry out standard and non-standard cleaning and maintenance, as well as fulfilling scientific investigations.
The other interesting catch…all communication will be on a 20 minute delay to simulate the delays that would be anticipated travelling so far away. Makes my spotty cell phone service not seem so bad, I suppose.
I’m curious to see the research findings on the psychological and physical effects of this experiment and if there are any takeaways in terms of how the “human factors” will ultimately help shape the design and experience of the physical living/working conditions.
Looking at the photos of the facility my first thought was “wow…wood paneling!”. My second thought [...]

Wharton just came out with a research article called,  “How Group Dynamics May Be Killing Innovation.”   The premise is how in business tend to encourage groups to work together to innovate, but working in groups , at least 100% of the time, may not be the MOST innovative model.  In fact, group dynamics might stifle early ideas, and a little alone time to develop an idea may help greatly improve innovation.  Researchers also found that working alone 100% of the time is not as effective either, because individuals may not recognize a great idea on their own.  The best solution for innovation is a combination of alone time and group collaboration. 
Why does always working in groups have limits?  According to the article:
Employees might censor themselves to go along with the status quo or to avoid angering a superior.
Putting several people in a room together is bound to create a lot of conversation; if everyone contributes, there is less time for individuals to share all of their ideas.
Some people may think less critically about a problem because they are happy to let others do the heavy lifting.
The article also pointed out the pitfalls of “build-up, or the tendency of people to suggest ideas similar to one that has already been proposed, and embraced by, the unit. They found that ideas built around other ideas are not statistically better than any random suggestion…  Build-up, Terwiesch believes, ‘is a social norm showing that you listened. If a group is working together on an idea [...]

One of the cool things about doing a workplace project with HOK is that we host a fun, inspiring, interactive vision session as each project kicks off.  The goal of the vision session is to get the client and consultant teams aligned on critical elements of the project and make sure that everyone is working toward the same goal…from day one. 
For some (ok, a lot) of projects, we do an “image & character” exercise in which we use words and images to help our clients explain their vision.

As we were putting together a recent proposal, a colleague asked me, “Out of curiosity, do you ever have a vision session where they pick words like ‘enclosed,’ ‘dim,’ ‘private,’ ’somber,’ etc?  it seems to me like everyone would want to work in a bright cheery open enthusiastic office if they could, but there are probably some hold-outs in ancient corporate America, right?”
While yes, it does seem that everyone would want a bright, cheery office, and yes, you’d think that it would be some old corporate stooges that were the holdouts, this has not been my experience.  In all the corporate projects I’ve worked on, the leadership has been extremely visionary and welcoming of the open office concept.  Typically, they see this as a way to save money by reducing real estate footprint, or to increase collaboration and improve business (or both).
Plenty of clients give us a hard time about needing enclosed offices – for concentration, for visual privacy, for audio privacy, because [...]

In my online shopping for a new desk, I came across this workplace speed-ster… I’m not quite sure it would make me work any faster.

It did get me thinking though… what would make me not only work faster but more thoughtfully and productively.
My list so far:
1. More sleep
2. Checking email less often
3. Eating healthy meals throughout the day (with a few gummy candy breaks thrown in for good measure)
4. A cute work outfit (okay… probably not that one)
5. Setting measurable goals for each day
What do you need to be your most productive?
Image courtesy of Furniture Store Blog.

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The workforce has gone mobile, old news right?  Why is this?  Because the things that used to tether us to our desks no longer do.  The technology that had us previously deskbound now allows us to work just about anywhere, literally.  The hard copy files that we swore we had to have to do our jobs are now available electronically.  The need to come into the office to collaborate can now occur via WebEx, Skype, or via high definition desktop video.  While nothing compares to meeting a client or colleague in person for the first time, it has become socially acceptable to meet virtually after the initial introduction.  For these reasons the workforce is becoming distributed and accustomed to working is a mobile fashion.
Distributed work can be internal (inside an office environment i.e. you work in different settings throughout the day) or external (outside of the office i.e. home office, coffee shop, your car) or some combination thereof.  It’s all about where you spent you time.  Whether you spend more time in a conference room instead of your office or you’re working from your home office — you’re working in a mobile fashion.
How best do we enable a Distributed workforce?  First, we find out how distributed their work really is.  Is there mobility internal, external, or some combination thereof?  Second, find out what is required to enable them to be most effective at their job.  You may be surprised at how simple it is to accommodate a distributed and mobile workforce.  [...]