Working environments of the future

Last week I wrote how one of the biggest considerations for companies adopting remote working is enabling serendipity — the opportunity for good things to happen by chance.

I concluded that entire teams working independently and in separate locations communicating only via video conference and instant message was not optimal for spontaneous creativity and that companies should repurpose office budgets to provide access to environments where this could happen.

It got me thinking about the typical types of work people do and the kind of environments that suit them and how if we’re design the ways of working of the future, whether we could do it with this in mind.

Offices spaces of the past

In the 1980s a typical company’s approach to maximising productivity of the office was to stack as many workers together as possible, as cheaply as possible. As such, office workers were boxed in fabric wrapped cubicles built from temporary, carpeted dividers that were cheap and flexible. The cubicles gave a sense of privacy and cut down on audible and visual distractions while still allowing workers to be observed. Workers hated them and they have long been ridiculed as dreary, uninspiring places and the subject of much mockery.

In the 2000s companies recognised that productivity could be improved through teamwork, innovation and creativity. They decided workers needed to interact and collaborate more, and so offices were re-designed as open plan spaces designed to inspire communication and collaboration. Still workers were not happy, and recently there has been a revolt against the trend towards open plan offices (including Apple’s $xbn HQ). The common complaints being constant interruptions, distractions and noise that make it impossible to concentrate.

It seems quite clear that the reason workers are never happy with their environments is that different kinds of work benefit from different working environments, and a modern office worker does lots of different kinds of work.

Office spaces of the future

Our enforced work-from-home experiment has taught us that many tasks are more efficient when working remotely, while others are more challenging. In a future where workers are no longer tied to a fixed office space, employers can use this opportunity to provide them access to the environments which best suits the work at hand.

A private ‘productive’ space

Whether this is an optimised location at home, a private office at the company HQ or a suite in a co-working space, solo work and certain remote meetings can benefit from a degree of privacy, quiet and minimal interruptions. Here’s some tasks I think are better executed away from your colleagues:

Building things

Programming, writing and design all require long periods of uninterrupted time and are significantly penalised by context switching. These tasks are best completed alone in an environment with minimal distractions.

Customer interactions

Sales calls, product demos and general customer service all benefit from the quiet environment a private space brings. Whether it is a audio or video call a private space allows you to concentrate on your customer without worrying about disturbing or being disturbed by your colleagues.

For structured meetings

Certain types of meeting that benefit from efficiency seem to work better remotely. Typically they are meetings with a tight structure and defined agenda: Daily stand-ups, project planning or updates, management and board meetings can all work better remotely.

A communal ‘innovative’ space

Other tasks benefit from the multiplier effect and energy that only an in-person group brings. An environment where it’s okay to say crazy things, ask silly questions, make noise and interrupt others:

For ideation

Although an idea might start from a single person, to be fully realised it needs developing and challenging by others. This works best when there is the fast exchange of ideas, speedy back and forth discussions building on each others contributions. The collective energy that builds up as a good idea, is difficult to replicate in a remote meeting as parties struggle to try and avoid interrupting and talking over each other.

For problem solving

A problem shared is a problem halved, two minds are better than one etc. Effective problem solving is not something that takes place alone, the psychological benefit of sharing the burden of a difficult to solve problem is significant, but is only really felt in-person. Again, the rapid exchange of information in tackling a problem as a team can be lost when attempted remotely.

For socialising and bonding

Not something that is typically listed on anyone’s task list but clearly vital to an organisations success. Extremely difficult to establish remotely but happens naturally when teams meet in person.

Conclusion

As has been proven by the last few months of lockdown, the majority of knowledge workers are perfectly capable of completing the entirety of their roles remotely. However a hybrid environment is more favourable once you realise that most will require both time away from the office to focus and be productive, and time with their colleagues to innovate and socialise.

Innovation and productivity are two key elements to any organisations success and both benefit from radically different environments. Typical office environments have always been a compromise between the two. As we come out of our Covid enforced work from home and design the flexible ways of working of the future, it’s a great opportunity to recognise this.

For most, the private productive space will be their home, as it has been for the last few months. For the few that can’t work from home, employers can repurpose their office spaces to provide quiet private offices for the productive work to take place. The reminder of the space can be repurposed for the purposes of innovation and socialisation.

In reality, I suspect it won’t make sense for most employers to try and maintain these office spaces beyond the terms of their leases. Instead we will see the rise of even more subscription based co-working spaces where organisations and their employees can access the appropriate spaces they need as and when they need it.

Maybe Softbank’s investment in WeWork won’t turn out so bad after all.

Explore this with me

Each week I’m going to do a deep dive into a different area of work that has been permanently altered by our collective experiences in lockdown. I want to look into the direct benefits and challenges these changes could bring to both employers and employees, as well as imagine some longer term second and third order effects.

Throughout this process I hope to get ideas, not only of how to re-design Meetupcall as a place to work post-lockdown, but also identify opportunities for products, features or companies we could build to tackle some of the inevitable new challenges that organisations will face.

If you re interested in exploring ways I which we can re-imagine the way we work, learn, live and interact in a post-lockdown world then then please follow me on Medium or Twitter, connect with me on LinkedIn or sign up to my Substack newsletter. New content will be published every Tuesday.