It is said that Office design needs to reflect corporate culture and values.
But it's not as simple as declaring “we believe in teamwork” and then deploying a completely open office. Businesses need to find the optimum on a range of values that range from promoting joint collaboration (among employees in the office) to arranging space for quiet work.
To do so, it is important to remember seven defining factors for a tangible workspace. Next, think about the occasional dynamic particles, such as regular quick meetings (standing for 5-10 minutes, without sitting), or weekly group meetings, and try to determine if these Where does this activity lie on the variable range from cooperative to private.
- Starting with Location - Location: How centrally located does the workplace need to be? Should it be a place that is accessible to everyone or just a few (easily) small groups?
- The level of "Closed" (Enclosure) of the workspace is also a key factor - can be understood as walls, doors, even the ceiling. What boundaries should be set up between team teams or functional areas? Even need a wall or not?
- Similarly, when considering the "Open" (Exposure) - the level of privacy in terms of vision and sound in the workplace. Taking into account all routine activities, a comparison between the number of activities that require a certain degree of isolation with the number of activities that produce a steady noise is also a dynamic (in the office).
- Now let's analyze the available area of the workspace. How many people attend the meetings and programs? And when there are teamwork activities, how many people does a typical group usually have?
- Once the foundational elements are in place, think about Technology - How can technology support the use of the workspace? What do you need to be able to visualize information and communicate with others?
- To the extent that a space invites you to linger? That was Temporality - the time of staying in an area. How long do you think meetings will take? And how often do people switch tasks?
- Finally, the Perspective element - the perspective (about the workspace), also known as the personality of the space, and how it focuses the attention of the space user. You will thrive in a vibrant or quiet environment. What does your team find inspiring, what distracts?
Business leaders will have the opportunity to improve productivity, satisfaction (with job), and business engagement by improving the design of their workspaces.
But only if they know how to ask the right questions!
According to Harvard Business Review