Discover the Magic Behind Red-Thread: Transforming Workspaces for Ultimate Productivity, Well-Being, and Company Culture

In my last US visit, in the heart of Boston, I had the pleasure of visiting the experience center of Red Thread Spaces, a company renowned for its innovative approach to creating dynamic and efficient work environments. This visit was made possible thanks to Ashish Maru, CTS-D, LEED AP , the Director of AV Technology at Red-Thread, who is a great mentor and friend, played a key role in our previous client relationship with Red-Thread. Because of him, I had the opportunity to meet Jeff Keener , the visionary CEO of Red-Thread.

I know Ashish since 2016 when we at Atulsia Technologies Private Limited had first started building AV Quotes / Estimates Generating application which ultimately became Red-Thread Proposal Development Tool (RTPDT). It was a mix of iPad & Web based application for AV companies like Red-Thread to generate proposals for client intelligently. In the absence of today’s Gen AI technologies, this tool had 100s of rules to come up with right information based on user’s requirements. It was really interesting as well as challenging project.

When I visited Red-Thread Boston offices, we revisited those good old memories. I got really inspired by how Red-Thread is pioneering the way we think about office spaces. Red Thread serves as the authorised Steelcase dealer. Their solutions are not just about aesthetics; they are about creating environments that foster collaboration, productivity, and well-being. From ergonomic furniture that supports physical health to advanced technology integrations that enhance connectivity, Red-Thread’s offerings are designed to meet the evolving needs of modern businesses.

I was amazed by the innovative and unique approach to workspace design by Red-Thread. In traditional offices, we often encounter fixed workstations arranged in rows with desks, partitions, chairs, and storage underneath. Conference rooms are usually situated at the periphery, alongside executives' cabins, reception areas, server rooms, pantries, washrooms, and employee relaxation areas. These designs are predictable and common in most offices. Some of these designs lack comfort, optimisation for flexibility, collaboration & sometimes required necessary privacy.

So I thought, today I will share a bit more about what unique Red-Thread as a company is doing in changing the workspace design all together. It's really interesting to learn about it. Keep reading :)

Red-Thread is one of the nation's leading providers of knowledge, products and services for workplace, Healthcare and learning environments. They help people do their best work by creating spaces that work better. Through the analysis and many workshops with employees, what they have learned is that employees wanted spaces where they could collaborate but they also wanted spaces where they could do heads down work. So let's see what all solutions Red-Thread has come up with.

Below are their high level solutions offered by Red-Thread:

1. Office Furniture Solutions: Check out more details here.
2. Lifestyle Group: Hospitality and Amenity Spaces: Check out more details here.
3. Collaboration technology: Check out more details here.
4. Architectural Systems: Check out more details here.
5. Commercial and Office Floor Covering: Check out more details here.

Now, whatever I have learnt about the different solutions by Red-Thread, I am putting all the notes below. There may be even more than these. But I'm really fascinated by just the overall thought process of completely changing our work areas and make it so innovative! Here We go!

Workspace Innovation Solutions offered by Red-Thread LLC

• No fixed desk: Nobody has an assigned desk here at Red-Thread. Yes, like literally. This really helps to support the hybrid work model. Also, it saves space. How? They don't need to have a desk for everybody, who's not in the office at any given time because either employees are travelling for client visit or demonstration or their job wants them to be on the ground and not in the office.

• Better employee engagement: The saved space now can be used to better support collaboration and employee engagement. You can come up with spaces of different kinds so that employees can act and work differently from the variety of space types.

• Move around: Since the desk is not fixed, employees are always moving around and they are encouraged to do so. They literally own the whole space! Thus entire office environment becomes so much welcoming in nature and supports connection amongst employees and even customers.

• Movable Wall Systems: There are many spaces designed here with movable walls. Demountable or Movable walls are architectural wall systems that can be unmounted, relocated, and reinstalled at a new location. Really Cool! The wall system solutions offers soundproofing, aesthetics and technology integration as well.

• Flexibility: all the solutions put together allows any company to build out spaces that are flexible for the future. It's like space keeps adapting and changing based on your current needs.
• Mobile Displays: Each neighbourhood has some mobile displays that can be moved around depending on where employees need to work.

• Microsoft Front Row Room: It really provides a very equitable meeting experience for those people who are working remotely. This way people can collaborate regardless of where they are. They can share content, have good audio and video calls. It separates out people in the room so that they appear on a monitor in a similar way to how remote participants appear so you can see the facial expressions.

• Neighbourhoods: At their East Hartford office, they have concept of dividing workspace into different neighbourhoods. Each area can have different colours and styles to accentuate each neighbourhood. For example, following neighbourhood types gives idea into how to divide spaces:

1. Inspired Neighbourhood: Teals and blues with some pops of warmer tones
2. Dynamic Neighbourhood: Very very vibrant
3. Tranquil Neighbourhood: Muted and soft
4. Organic Neighbourhood: Natural elements

After going through all these pictures, do you not think this is far more better office space management? Can you imagine working in such a beautiful, carefully thought workspaces? How cool is that?

Overall I just loved this idea and thought to write an article on this to share on this topic. Otherwise furniture, architecture, design etc is not my space :) But I could not resist to write about such a cool way of transforming office spaces.

If you'd like to find out more about Red-Thread, you can go to their website here.

Thank you so much for reading! If you have some cool and innovative idea about workspace transformation, do share in the comment below!

Until next time.

Kailash Tulsi Gajara

Founder, Atulsia Technologies

Founder, Megastores.com