It's with visions planted by this program that I now imagine a future workplace as an amusement park for adults. The typical cubical will be for the history books, replaced with coffee shops that can transform into personal offices or meeting rooms simply by pressing a button on a iPhone or iPad.
Despite our best efforts to anoint our creative intuition as the vanguard of modern design, our genius goes only as far as prevailing technology can carry us, and for good reason. The technology of today has been developed and field-tested to ensure our creations can stand the test of time --“ in addition to the test of unexpected client demands and abuse.
Technology has had a big impact on how we work. As few as 5 years ago, there were still people working very closely together in shared office spaces. They depended on accessing the same information at the same time -- which was probably on a server in some closet that was in the office.
While we've seen growth in how many employees telecommute, this growth is likely set to continue to expand in dramatic fashion for several reasons that are all converging. Changes in technology, psychology, and the environment are going to spur more people to work at home on a more frequent basis in the coming years. Do not be surprised if we see a large shift towards telework sooner rather than later.
While many companies are espousing innovation and new ways of working, most organizations have failed to bring together the people and issues with the physical environment in a way that will allow them to remain relevant.
The new office design reflects that company--â„¢s brand and its core values, creating offices in which staff members have a sense of shared vision. But the new office design is more than a simple exercise in corporate identity; it--â„¢s about using every surface to also create strong and effective color associations.
For years, fluorescent bulbs were the standard. Lighting designers created so many new styles, shades, and features that a change in lighting became a decorative choice rather than a functional one.
Traditional management practices put way too many barriers in front of employees. We've got to rethink our role as workplace professionals to focus our attention on leveraging human talent -- on creating workplaces that enable people to be productive, to collaborate with each other, and to invent new ideas.
For any given organization, culture is the essence of success, failure, growth, and decline. Interestingly, all four of those forces occur at roughly the same time.
The last decade has seen unprecedented change, driven by technologies that have forever altered how and where we work, so that, not long from now, there won--™t be offices --“ or at least, not offices as we understand them.
The future of the workplace is evolving into a playground of possibilities. Collaboration of multiple parties was not the norm 20 years ago. The sole purpose in the business world was to get yourself ahead, not bring others along with you.
I believe we are sitting at an important crossroads in the life and evolution of the workplace. This crossroads offers us a route of change and opportunity that we cannot afford to ignore. These changes are fundamental and they have the potential to change everything. We should also not underestimate the effects of liberation driven by flexible information technology and a new generation of workers.
