How the right Architect can kickstart your business productivity.

If you are planning to change your Office footprint, have you thought about whether your current space and ways of working serve your current purpose? Does the space connect your people to get them talking and collaborating? Does it fulfil needs that cannot be met in the home working environment?? Are workflows and work purposes hard wired into your design to enable efficiency and connection? Is it a place where your people can do their best work to create innovation, streamline operations and deliver growth?? Does it feel like the home of your business, built with your dna and expressing your culture, values and ethos?

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Some of these questions may be overlooked in the early phases of real estate and project management when the focus is on building a cost proposal and scoping major works. This is a huge, missed opportunity. When the architectural solution is grounded in research and data linked to the future business occupiers aim and purpose real magic can happen. Space can be inspirational, bold, and innovative, places that help shape a better world for tomorrow.

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Recently we connected with the inspirational team at Spacelab in North London to explore how things could be different? for our clients in the office move space.? Can architects help design spaces that make it easier to effect change? Can Change Managers use the dimension of space to bring greater purpose to new ways of working, organisation design and technology? Can a new office location change behaviour and redefine the purpose of the office in the working week?? How do Architects and Change Managers work together to bring the full potential of the people dimension to footprint optimisation in the post pandemic world so that less (office) space is more (business) growth?

Credit: Spacelab Project Boden HQ Acton, London UK

Spacelab do things differently and have years of collaboration with academic research to underpin their approach. Their 4-step process of Understand, Imagine, Create and Build has design thinking and collaboration at its heart. They aim to design a space that will fully enable the organisations they work with – and they use analysis and collaboration to validate their ideas, taking stakeholders with them in the process. I was minded of Einsteins quote about problem solving as we spoke with them – “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it”. Wise words, but most organisations don’t heed them when tackling office build or retrofit projects.? So when we asked Spacelab’s Kara Carter to share more insight on their approach she highlighted four important considerations

1. Workplace Culture - the most impactful workspaces are typically when a designer has been able to crystallise a brand and the space becomes a physical manifestation of the companies culture; creating spaces which are a represent and extend the companies brand, ethos and purpose. It is not about sticking a logo on the wall, a truly branded environment allows you to connect and feel the companies manifesto on greater level.?

2. Function and form - Your sense of a building goes beyond aesthetics alone. Does it function as is should? Is it comfortable to be in? Does it meet my needs?? Human centred design delves deeper into the workplace experience, it considers personalities and behaviour differences and empowers people with choice.?

3.Employer value proposition- The physical workplace is a vital part of an?employer value proposition and should be optimised to retain and attract talent. Workplace design should be less about sqm metrics when determining size of an office and more about experience per sqm meter.

4.Strategy and data should underpin the design- ?Being intentional about the placement of facilities and people / teams will determine movement and visibility? It can bring people together or be divisive for collaboration and concentration. Understanding how people move, connect and share knowledge is vital.? Both planned and unplanned interactions must be properly engineered especially as unplanned interactions often underpin business performance and success. Data?is vital to support such decisions and design.?

As change managers, we want to be in the scoping conversations right at the start of office footprint projects so we can put people at the heart. Collaborating with architects who share our passion for people and business centric solutions means we can truly effect change in every sense for the organisation, not just a change of address.? We’d love to help if you are considering an office move, you can get in touch through our website jamesandcarmichael.com

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About Kara Carter:? Since joining spacelab_ 20 years ago, Kara has played a key role in the ongoing success of the business through her commitment to creating tailored design solutions for clients. As spacelab's Creative Director, Kara has extensive experience in workplace strategy which drives organisation transformation and visionary designs which truly work for people and brands.

Mel Horton is a Managing Partner at James and Carmichael with over 30 years’ experience delivering change in large corporations. In this series of articles Mel shares her insights on Change Management in the Office Footprint Space, an area of much focus post pandemic as companies work to resize, reshape, and reinvigorate places of work for hybrid working and growth and innovation.