Destroying the old office could build new business innovation

In 2020 the "office" worker largely went home. These spaces sat silent and unused yet work continued and these office workers have longed for the engagement and social interaction the "office" provided. They proved they can do the work from anywhere, but they yearn for the human engagement. Here is why I believe destroying the traditional "office" could create a NEW benefit for both the company and those who work there.

As many traditional office workers emerge from a post pandemic world, many businesses are focused on a return to the office. This time away has created an opportunity to revisit the role of an office, our perception of "normal", and even a chance to re-imagine what these spaces could evolve into.

office: (noun) a room, set of rooms, or building used as a place for commercial, professional, or bureaucratic work.

Origin: Middle English: via Old French from Latin officium ‘performance of a task’

Prior to the wide-scale availability of the internet the office was a place where employees would go to perform business tasks because all the necessities of work were at that location. Phones, access to files, printers, computers, servers, and other employees. We didn’t have the means in most cases to have these things anywhere but in that office and so, YOU traveled to where the tasks could be done because there was simply no other way.

What if I told you that the greatest lie of the office experience is that it brings employees together? No, I don’t mean physically, I mean as a cohesive team. There is nothing about the definition of a business office that says it is a place for those who go there to engage and leverage that interaction. Social interactions are more likely social distractions in most offices. The mere mention of an "office" brings to mind rows and rows of cookie cutter assigned desks or cubicles. The layouts are normally utilitarian and hierarchical with non-descript workstations in central clusters and larger single management office spaces encircling with one glass wall keeping an eye on those in the center, and the other on a view of the outside everyone actually longs to be out enjoying.

The common ‘likes’ about an office aren’t even WORK related. “I miss the social interaction” which translates not to work but rather to coffee with workmates, shared lunches, collective griping about the boss, hearing about someones weekend or showing someone your vacation pictures (maybe even those birthday cake events). Frankly the office has been a place where you joined others in a common place but largely WORK alone.

When was the last time you said, “I love going to the office, I am SO productive, engaged and energized that time flies and I can’t wait to come back again!”

If any of this is true, then why would anyone be looking forward to a return to the office? I believe we do miss the social interactions due to all these lock downs but if you could go out to restaurants, bars, vacations, friends houses and all those other normal social interactions, would we long for the office to get these touchpoints and if so how does that help the business?

What if being AT the office had an added value FOR the business?

At this point you would be forgiven for thinking that I am not an advocate for offices and wish to see humanity work from home in some future worker renaissance. What I am offering is that the notion of an office hasn’t fundamentally been challenged until 2020 came around and proved once and for all that ‘working from home’ doesnt mean doing less or even the same amount of work as at the office. Quite the contrary, data is showing that in many cases people work harder outside the office than IN. Before all this happened, the typical changes to an office where the idea of an open layout, hot-desking or being permitted to work from home a day or two a week.

Question: If we don’t NEED the office as a source of all the things that we require to DO the work, then what is the function of the office?

I’ve been hearing lately that employees are missing out on corporate culture since being away from the office. Is corporate culture a building or is it in the interactions of the people who meet there and how the company engages them? I think it’s the latter, and to advance corporate culture we create a shared space that doesn’t just talk about it, it embraces it.

If an office is a shared space where individuals do tasks they are capable of doing outside of it, as easily as within it, then how do we make the office provide something that we cannot easily get from being apart, the ENGAGEMENT.

An "office" is an old term for individuals working on tasks together but largely alone, so let’s retire that term or leave it for those companies who want drones, not innovators.

The Rise of Engagement Spaces

We all tend to enjoy workshops, design thinking sessions and team engagement sessions because they get us out of the ‘tasks’ of the work and lets us think beyond it to exciting new potential. Now what if going to a central location, was like those workshops? Continue the mental exercise with me, if you will, and imagine that the future of work is about dynamic engagement, innovation and creativity. The reason for automation, is to create time and so that humans can do human creative things. Once we create that time, we need to spend it wisely.

Let’s take this idea for a test ride

You have been working from home, or from your favorite get away spot where you can stay connected, concentrate, deal with online meetings and the regular tasks of your day-to-day workload. Your manager contacts the team and says she’d like to have everyone meet at the CEC. The CEC is the Chicago Engagement Center, this is the old “office” space that has been gutted and reworked and newly opened. It is three stories of green spaces, smart controls, and no touch bio security. The center is specifically engineered to be a meeting and personal engagement space for the company’s local teams, guests and visiting members. Its primary goal is to bring company interests, personnel, vendors and partners into a space to be social, productive and demonstrate the heart of the company, it’s people and culture.

The CEC is almost park-like inside, brightly lit with natural light and filled with plants that makes you feel like you’re in a vast atrium. There are no conference rooms, no rows of desks or cubicles here, once you pass through the door, facial recognition allows you to pass and adds you to the on-site digital directory which is visible from various touch displays around the space and from the mobile app. A quick look at the directory and you see that your team are all here and are meeting in one of the CECs small team ideation spaces. You notice that the directory also shows that one of the company’s primary vendor partners is in the large format space and you recognize one of the members of that team so you find them on your hub directory mobile app and a quick tap later, you leave them a message to let them know you’re on site in case there is time to meet.

The small team ideation space is setup for 3 to 5 people and features a physical whiteboard (sometimes analog is easier or everyone is in the room), a digital hub display and comfortable seating with movable individual desk stands rather than a central table. The team is already spreading out since the space has enough area to move around as well as sit or stand comfortably. This mornings focus is on streamlining some manual processes with automation to free more time for others to innovate (the virtuous cycle). Your manager taps the digital hub display on the wall and brings in members of the team from the engagement center locations in Europe and South America as well as a few home offices in China due to the later hour for them. While those members cannot be in the space with you today, they have the hub app on phone and desktop and are not only using the spaces video conferencing to be with you, they have access to the CECs open space camera network. The open space camera network allows company personnel to view cameras mounted in the centers high ceilings in order to see around the center. The remote team quickly finds you and the team in this engagement area, then via this spaces 360 camera they can view everyone and check in with the team (you note it and give them a wave).

It’s down to business, your team leverages the rooms digital and analog offerings fit for a design thinking dream, post it notes, electronic whiteboards, writing surfaces, templates etc. In what feels like a blur of activity, the first team session is over, and it is time for a break to check-in back home, so you head to one of the single person concentration spaces. Designed for one, and appointed with the basics, they are situated for privacy and offer you some time to think, review emails, take some notes and make some phone calls before returning to the team.

On your way back you pass other team spaces like your own but also a few of the large team spaces, 10 to 20 people fit in these areas which are much like your smaller team space, but with more cameras and, of course, seating. Beyond these are the green spaces, they separate the team engagement spaces and act as a bit of a barrier as well as a place to take a break, eat or sit with others in a more casual setting.

You make your way back to the team space and continue your session, capturing ideas, testing theories, pushing boundaries, and creating drawings of potential roadmaps to ways of doing things that challenge the traditional thinking.

At the lunch break, the team goes together to the CEC food court for a shared meal. The fare is lighter and focused on healthy options that are energy packed. This isn’t the place you want to be weighed down by a heavy meal and looking for a nap, you’ve got an afternoon ahead of you that needs your full attention.

The team grabs a few things and sits together, sharing a meal, their ideas, personal events and plans, you break a little earlier and tell the team you’ll meet them back at the team space and you review your hub app. There is a 30-minute time slot open at the CECs tech café and you’ve been meaning to get this phone looked at as well as check out the new headsets available for home. At the tech café your local site IT representative helps you update your phone and introduces you to some of the new headset hardware. A quick scan with your phone and your order is in and will ship to your home directly, you’re so glad you don’t have to fill out all those old online forms or you might not have made it back to the team in time.

The rest of the afternoon progresses with more presentations, ideation, and excitement. Your team has created some great working plans and even set individual assignments. Your manager releases the team who sign off, others find a quiet space at the CEC while the rest just head home. You, however, are overdue for your one-on-one performance review with you team leader. For these mentoring and growth sessions the CEC has two-person privacy pods. Small but comfortable, these pods are away from the hustle of the CEC spaces and offer an opportunity to talk, in your case, it is about how your own thought leadership has energized the team and some new ways your energy could be used potentially with a team of your own.

It’s been a great day of high activity. Its good to see the team in person and have a few laughs while setting the tone and direction for the upcoming workload. Everyone has a mission now and are headed back home to be comfortable and begin executing the plans. As you head back to the main desk to leave you take note of the CEC digital display schedule. Next week is the big town hall, live from the company headquarters. You tap SAVE THE DATE which drops the event into your calendar, which is back here at the CEC for a town hall ‘watch party’ in the CEC large format space. Broadcast cameras offer headquarters an opportunity to see and engage with those here at the CEC and everyone here gets to watch the townhall together on the large format projection display.

As you pass the front desk, the recognition system bids you a good night, logging you out of the CEC on-site directory. With a nod to security, it is time to head home, to family and pets. It’s been an amazing and engaging day with your team.

Do we dare envision a future where the place we go isn’t about simply doing the work at a central location, but supercharges our engagement, re-energizes our corporate culture, and adds pride in what we do, and reminds us who we do it for?

Let’s be rid of the “office” and join the work engagement.

Afterward: Other areas of the Engagement Center

While you were purpose driven in the day at the CEC scenario, there are other things to offer at this dynamic space.

Fit for Engagement Purpose areas

These areas are use-specific to the site, or needs of the workforce, encapsulating the size of space, access, security, or technology that might prove difficult or impractical from a remote home office.

Virtual Room

Whether its Augmented, Virtual or Mixed Reality, a new depth to the workforce experience is taking shape. The nature of this technology is still out of reach or presents challenges for the average employee. In these cases, the CEC provides virtual rooms. After checking out your VR equipment from the Tech Café, the virtual room provides, connectivity, safe floor space, equipment sanitizing and clear safety training information. The rooms feature chroma key-colored (green screen) walls and cameras allowing you to be recorded interacting within the virtual reality space as well.

Broadcaster Booth

There is no denying, we are better engaged by the spoken word than the written word (the irony of this statement within this article isn’t lost on me by the way), at least when it comes to speed and maintaining attention. Set an appointment for the centers broadcaster booth and you can spend your time creating a compelling video rather than the expense and knowledge of how to make it look professional. Walk into a room with key elements already in place, lighting, backdrops, green screen, multiple cameras, boom and lapel microphones. The space features easy to move furnishings to accommodate individual speakers, two person interviews or small panels. The smart technology allows you to concentrate on the presentation while you record your session or broadcast it live.

Tech Café

While we talked about this space a bit in the scenario above, it is a concierge service of technical assistance and site supportive items and information. Via the hub app, you can book a consultation slot where you can get help with devices, view available upgrades and add-ons and quickly order any necessary equipment to support your work. You can check out various pieces of supporting technology to use around the CEC during your visit such as electronic drawing items, microphones, speakers, virtual and augmented reality headsets etc.

Near the Tech Café is the home/remote demo suite. This suite features a mockup of a typical home office space and an ‘on the go’ space like a real-world café or public transportation area. In this demo suite you can see the latest and greatest technology meant to get the most out of your work outside the center. Here you can sit at the demo home office and try out the latest web camera, multiple monitor workstation, smart lighting, microphones, and sound devices. Move over to the ‘on the go’ space and learn how to best utilize your phone, tablet and headset while learning about the company’s security best practices meant to keep you, your devices, and our data safe and secure. Everything in this space has a scannable code, which allows you to use your hub app to quickly scan and request these items.

The Tech Café also provides education and technical advancement. Classes are offered to allow you to upskill in new technologies that can assist you. Consultants are available to help understand your needs and challenges and offer digital or way-of-working suggestions, access, and demonstrations of potential options for you to solve or streamline.