Recently, the concepts of Agile and Activity Based Working are gaining more and more popularity, and many companies are already considering the possibility of implementing them in their office, but are experiencing certain difficulties. Often times, management cannot make up their minds to make such changes, fearing to face employee dissatisfaction and a decrease in their productivity.
Denis Chernichkin, director of Haworth Business Interiors, told us about why a change in the concept of an office interior can negatively affect the work of the company and what needs to be taken into account in order to organize the space as efficiently as possible.
What are the main difficulties in implementing projects like Agile and Activity Based Working?
- Offices implemented according to these concepts, first of all, presuppose the presence of many different functional areas that an employee can choose at his discretion, depending on the specific task and type of activity. This diversity gives such freedom of action when planning an office that the people responsible for this sometimes have no idea where to start, what to focus on, or do not decide at all on significant changes, and if they do, they cannot clearly formulate the task and explain to the architects what result needs to be achieved. Usually the formulations are too abstract, based on feelings and trends rather than concrete facts and statistics. These wishes are far from a meaningful, structured, high-quality technical assignment, which reflects the requirements for an efficient space today and at a distance of three to five years for a particular company. The result may turn out to be inappropriate to the customer's expectations.
Often, companies, not understanding what exactly they want to get, start copying the ideas of existing offices without adapting to their own needs and implementing them in a completely different space, in different conditions, in other teams that are fundamentally not ready to accept such concepts. As a result, this leads to a significant decrease in productivity.
Despite the fact that these difficulties are more inherent in the transition to the concepts of Agile and Activity Based Working, they can arise in the creation of any space. Of course, it is easier to create a standard “open space” office, where solutions of the same type are often used, but difficulties in formulating the requirements for effective space arise in such cases as well.
How do you define effective office space?
- This is a space that brings people together and where they are most productive and efficient. This is the environment within which work teams or individual specialists can maximize their potential, when the surrounding space does not hinder them, but helps. And since each team and each specialist has individual characteristics, the effective space is unique to each individual organization. There is no single scenario or correct answer, because a lot depends on the goals of the company. For some, at the moment, it is important to reduce costs, reduce square meters per person, for others - to create a new product or bring a new technology to the market, for someone - to increase customer satisfaction and quality of service. Sometimes these tasks are in conflict. Therefore, each company must determine what its goals, criteria for success and how to achieve it, and how the space can help in fulfilling these tasks.
I would suggest starting by identifying one very important parameter - organizational culture. It is she who distinguishes the companies from each other. This is an extremely important characteristic that is often underestimated in our market, although its importance has long been recognized in the world. Knowing and understanding your company's culture makes it easier to determine what space it needs.
How can culture be related to space?
- Culture affects literally all aspects of an organization's activities, including management, business processes, products created, employee attraction and retention, decision-making system, reputation and much more. It builds a sense of security, commitment to the company and influences employee satisfaction and productivity. Therefore, it is often viewed as a full-fledged and very important asset of the organization.
Usually culture in a company is associated with formal things, such as corporate values, work standards, codes of conduct - the so-called visible factors. But there are also invisible factors that determine the unspoken rules and habits of people. In this area, the workspace also plays an important role, including architecture, interiors and furniture solutions. That is, the workspace is an important part of the organizational culture and must correspond to it. It's like a piece of a puzzle taken from another set - it will not only not fit the adjacent elements, but it will ruin the whole picture altogether. It's the same with space. In many ways, it shapes the way an employee works, so if the space does not fit the current culture, people will work against the values of the company.
It turns out that if you move an employee from one office to another that is noticeably different from the previous one, he will work differently?
- Certainly. Of course, this change will not always be as flashy, but the point is that the type of space, the functions available in it, and the organizational culture in general determine how a person approaches tasks, interacts with colleagues and makes decisions. After all, even if we usually do not think about it, the influence of culture on our behavior is really great. It is worth changing the place, and we already unconsciously behave differently.
I like the saying by Winston Churchill: "First we define the shape of our buildings, and then our buildings determine the shape of our behavior." And indeed it is. Take, for example, for comparison, the behavior of people outside the office - in an expensive restaurant and in a regular pub. In the first case, we try to match the level - a formal style of dress, a calm tone, often a conversation on intellectual topics. But imagine that we are in a pub - our behavior will be more free and informal. The same thing happens in offices - the space directly affects the behavior and work style of employees.
What if employees don't like the space in which they work? How will this affect them?
- This is an extremely important question. Employee dissatisfaction with office space, where, for example, it is impossible to find a comfortable functional area suitable for a specific task, or there are many annoying distractions, creates a significant negative effect. But, unfortunately, employees cannot change the existing space on their own. Such authority falls on the shoulders of the professionals responsible for the creation of the office interior, who must take into account the cultural characteristics of the organization in order to create the most comfortable environment. Moreover, due to the different types of activities of departments within one organization, there are so-called sub-cultures, which must also be taken into account when designing.
We all know that the architecture of different countries and cities is different from each other, reflects cultural characteristics and creates a unique atmosphere. In the office, everything is the same - the design and architecture of the office space should reflect the individuality of the organization and its divisions.
How can you define your organizational culture and understand which space best suits it?
- It's actually quite simple. There is a classification based on 25 years of research by University of Michigan professors Cameron and Quinn called "Competing Values." Scientists have identified four dominant values in companies: Cooperation, Rivalry, Creation and Control. Each value is associated with a set of characteristics of the workspace that maximizes its support. By the way, this model was recognized by many experts as very effective and entered the top 50 best business tools in history according to the Financial Times rating.
For example, let's take a look at companies where the Control value dominates. For these organizations, the key is to do the job “right”. They are characterized by a clear organizational structure, hierarchy, strict control, an abundance of protocols and procedures, and formal employee interaction. Most often these are large bureaucratic corporations and government agencies, as well as financial and legal departments. The space in this case should be characterized by an orderly, understandable arrangement of workplaces, maintain hierarchy and status, be equipped with high partitions and specially designated areas for interaction, rather, separate meeting rooms. Workplaces are usually isolated, rigidly divided into departments in close proximity to the boss, conservative colors are often used in the interior.
For comparison, let's take the opposite value "Creation". Companies dominated by this value are characterized by the desire to make a product or service first, they focus on innovation, on out-of-the-box thinking, on the desire to become a leader through new developments and faster release to the market of a unique offer. This type is often associated with IT companies as well as creative marketing agencies, but in fact, almost any company that creates its own product has this value, especially if it is in a leading position in its industry. For such companies, it is extremely important to have the opportunity at any time to hold group discussions, brainstorms, meetings, and informally share their ideas with colleagues. Therefore, this type of organization requires a wide variety of places for individual focused work, as well as for collective interaction and spontaneous meetings, large surfaces for visual display of information, more spacious spaces with a good perspective, as it promotes the imagination, more complex and organic layout, lack of uniformity in design and repetition, inspiring interior solutions, fewer restrictions and more freedom, and many different areas for creativity with good acoustics, because the creative process is very easily destroyed.
But the most important thing to remember is that every company always combines all four values. As a rule, two of them dominate, but, in any case, the organizational culture of each company is a unique combination of all these values, which are present in certain proportions. Therefore, you will not be able to find companies with the same culture. Knowing your own organizational culture, understanding the balance of key values, you can get a clear idea of what space is needed for each specific department and the company as a whole.
How exactly can you identify the culture in a company?
- A comprehensive scientific approach is required for a clear diagnosis of the organizational culture of the company and its divisions. We at HAWORTH have our own patented CultureLENS ™ methodology for doing this kind of research. Thanks to computer technology, all employees can participate in this study, remotely answering questions to analyze the current organizational culture. Top managers answer additional questions that help determine the preferred organizational culture that they would like to see in their company in 2-3 years. All responses are processed by a computer, allowing office space experts and strategists to draw up individual conclusions and recommendations for the client. For example, comparing current and preferred cultures can help you understand which direction to move and what changes need to be implemented in the office space to achieve the desired results without causing rejection and resistance from the staff.
Do I understand correctly that the results of the study of organizational culture form the basis of the terms of reference for the design of the office? Do customers need to provide something else?
- Yes, the result of the study is a detailed report, which is a design brief, a detailed terms of reference for the creation of a future office with examples of spatial solutions that will support the preferred organizational culture of the studied company. But I talked about only one tool, albeit a fundamental one. In addition to the organizational culture, it is important to understand other individual characteristics of the organization - existing working styles, types of interaction between departments and employees, statistics on the use of workplaces and common places, personal satisfaction with the current workspace, etc. There is additional research to help companies identify all of these features.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once again that each company, when designing a new office or carrying out renovations in an existing office, must carefully analyze itself and its needs. It is possible that this organization does not need to switch to Agile or Activity Based Working. No one is tasked with following fashion or being trendy, our responsibility is to create the right space that increases productivity, satisfaction and employee commitment. After all, people are the main asset of any company.
