Encourage your staff back into the concrete jungle? You might have to embrace Burolandschaft first.

There have been enough articles debating the issues surrounding staff not working from the office, and the merits of hybrid working etc etc. that another such ramble will add little to the broader conversation.?It is clear that companies have a variety of views on how to reassemble their teams from bulk dismissal for non-attendance (Twitter ) to threats to losing out to AI if not present it the office (pwc )

Covid, and the enforced exit from the concrete jungle finally brought a severance between work (function & output) and workplace or office (physical location) and stimulated the discussion about what a healthy workplace might look like when (and if) we got over this crazy epoch.?And what did the workplace we had left behind look like??Well, I guess we could imagine the answer we would get if this elephant was able to tell us whether the space and environment afforded them was similar to their home environment – the answer would be less than complementary.

I am not the first to draw this analogy; Desmond Morris, wrote about it years ago.?More recently Judith Heerwagen has brought the concept into her thesis, and Nigel Oseland wrote a book titled Beyond the Workplace Zoo.?The concept being explored that the species will survive and thrive in an environment which best suits its needs, and not the brutalist architectural monstrosities of the 60’s and 70’s which paid scant attention to temperaments, needs or personalities of the different animals the zoo contained.

In a way you can think of the past few years as a kind of ‘re-wilding’ of our species; re-introducing us back into our home habitat.?It has had mixed results (although mostly positive) with more time for family and friends, more recreation, and thousands quitting their regular jobs or taking early retirement.

All that stuff is good: it works pretty well with SME’s and other organisations where there is a healthy level of trust and a tight-knit team, but as soon as those small team fundamentals change (and it is not necessarily numbers) the dynamic shifts towards a need to see people in the office more regularly or even daily.

Organisations (with any foresight) are looking at ways they can create a more engaging draw back to the workplace without being too pushy, whilst also deploying apps or trackers to monitor productivity across whichever environment the employee chooses to work.?

The problem is decades of cost saving by companies had led to over densification of space prior to the pandemic. And staff will not be happy to go back to that level of density again.

Welcome to Bürolandschaft – a new innovation…from the 1960’s.

So staff are being coaxed back to the office, but it is to be different from how they were in spring 2020.?We have mostly become accustomed to working remotely (we have the tools to do so anyhow) so why come to the office??Because it is a great place to be!

Welcome back to Burolandschaft.

Bürolandschaft (literally ‘office-landscape’) was described as a type of office-planning which evolved in Germany in the 1950s and 1960s by Eberhard & Wolfgang Schnelle, and based on open-plan offices developed in the USA in the 1940s. Freed from partitions, large spaces could be designed that were decently lit and serviced. The informal layouts of such spaces suggested a landscape, an effect enhanced by the fashionable placing of plants in pots.?It marked a complete departure in office design away from regimented lines of desks towards a more relaxed and democratic flow which provided for more meeting space and areas to socialise.

The enthusiastic embrace of Bürolandschaft and its impact on the offices of the day suggests that it probably was hailed as the future of the workplace.?Which makes The Future of the Workplace 2023 sound much as the future of the Workplace 1960 did.

No different – in the same way that you get happy polar bears by putting them in the correct habitat.

The key components of what make up an office have not changed in hundreds of years; it is the way we assemble them and interact with and around them that changes. Desks/tables, chairs, partitions/divisions/walls, lighting, screening, planting, meeting areas with appropriate furniture, places to prepare food and drinks, relaxation areas with relevant furniture.

What should have changed is a growing understanding of people – their differences, personalities, needs etc. how they behave together and how they behave alone, and of course, how advances in tech have added fresh demands to this particular species’ enclosure.

How do you build your Bürolandschaft ?

It is not quite that prescriptive, and the old adage that the best enclosures hide their animals holds true.?When applied to your workplace that means that it pays to take the time to understand what your staff are looking for when they come to the workplace, and having understood that work at creating (and improving) that.

The workplace experience is shaped around three spheres.

Place – your building or premises, the neighbourhood or estate/ office park

Processes – your systems, the way you do things (including your customs & rituals)

People - teams/departments and their particular characteristics, hierarchies, tribal behaviour

The intersection of these spheres will provide the workplace experience.?And while you could argue that your Burolandschaft will only influence the ‘Place’ aspect there are numerous studies to prove that the physical layout will have a positive impact on company culture and systems. (Process and People spheres) The key is how you put these pieces together.?Some of this is logic, and some may feel like a colouring in exercise (paint the kitchen wall lime green and get some pot plants…nice!)

For a successful outcome you need to understand what your team are looking for from their time in the workplace (and from working with a good number of organisations this can be less predictable than you would think).?Using an all staff survey is a great way to do this, just make sure that the questions are framed in the right way.

Gather intel on the sharing of knowledge – is it all about traditional meetings??How many, how long, how private, or are there brief standing exchanges, is everything on screens, do you deal across time zones (remember – amplified sound is far more invasive than spoken sound and you will need to design in more insulation)

And find out more about how your team socialise.?Is there anywhere for this to happen currently or are they being driven out of the office??What if you need to call an all-hands / Town Hall meeting.?Many organisations report that the biggest benefit of being back in the office more is the experience of learning by listening, chance meetings, intra-departmental conversation which even the best remote working doesn’t offer.

Whatever you build – don’t build nothing!

So there’s Utopia – Burolandschaft: just like it looked in the 1960’s.?It is still attainable, perfectly logical and accessible by all.?The only thing that stops any organisation from getting their own utopia is having the courage to step back from the status quo and take stock of what they need to really work effectively.

And that’s the point.?The workplace is a tool in the same way that a software program or a car is.?If something is no longer fit for purpose, or is obsolete it is holding you back from achieving your best.?Is that what your workplace is??If you are considering bringing the team back and you are reading this don’t build nothing.?Your team are expected to deliver their best; create their Burolandschaft to achieve it.?