Author: Michal Matlon
Image: Nick Hillier
By now, it’s clear that we need to rethink the role workplaces play in our organizations. For a long time, our offices have been “places of habit” – somewhere people go without explicitly questioning whether they are necessary or what exactly their benefits and functions are.
Not that we would lack complaints about bad working environments. It’s just that very few people have imagined that such a big change in practices (and ensuing discussion) could come so quickly.
We suggest taking a radically purpose-oriented approach to designing workplaces. As an implication, we would not start with questions such as “Should we plan for more open spaces?” or “How can we push people to become office nomads?”.
Rather, the process would start with asking “How can spaces enable our future knowledge and innovation processes?”. Now, more than ever, is a great opportunity to ask yourself: “What is my office space really about? And how can I make it such an attractive and meaningful place where people will really want to spend their time? So that they themselves and my organization will benefit from their presence and interactions?”
Now, more than ever, is a great opportunity to ask yourself: “What is my office space really about?”
In our previous post, you have learned about why we should engage in and promote work that fills people with a deep experience of joy. We claim that joy, based on the concept of eudaimonia, is such a fundamental thing that it’s actually the final goal towards which our work (and lives) should lead. The ultimate purpose of work is to find joy in doing it.
You have learned what this means in practice and what you can do to make joyful work a reality in your organization. Now, it’s time to look at space, and how it can become an enabler of joyful work – an Enabling Space.
Yet, it’s important to understand that space alone will not make work enjoyable. As one of our interview partners, architect Stefan Camenzind, said, the workplace is what spices are to a meal. If you start with fresh ingredients, it can add a much-needed flavor.
But you can’t fix rotten meat by adding salt and pepper. The fresh ingredients, in this case, are a well-designed and purposeful organization, a supportive culture, open-minded people, and an employee community that is built on trust.
That said, let’s take a look at how to make the office the spice that enables joyful work for your employees and colleagues.
1. Let people choose how they work.
In the new paradigm of post-pandemic work, people can choose if they want to work in the office, at home, or anywhere else. Leaders need to ensure this autonomy, but also help team members negotiate with each other and create their own rules about how, where, and when the team needs to interact.
2. Understand what each employee needs from the office.
Someone with a well-equipped and comfortable home office won’t be motivated to come to work simply to do the same thing they could do at home. Especially if working in the office feels worse than at home. On the other hand, someone with an uncomfortable or distracting environment at home will want to use the office not only for meeting people and collaborating but also for doing undisturbed, focused work.
3. Allow people to personalize and customize their space.
A good office doesn’t have to come as an already finished, highly designed product, which can’t be modified or owned by people who work there. Good workplace design offers the elements that people can’t provide themselves but gives lots of opportunities for personalizing and adapting the space to the team’s culture.
We need to do away with rules forbidding employees to put up materials on walls, leave personal items in the team space, or even modify the space to fit their needs. People’s engagement and satisfaction will rise in a highly personalized environment, where they are allowed to express their individual and team identities.
4. Enable people to focus and be truly effective.
You can learn a lot about designing sustainably productive workplaces in general from various reports, documentation of certificates such as WELL, and guidelines on biophilic design. Given you apply these general principles, it’s as important to fulfill the individual needs of your employees related to work effectiveness.
You probably know “how things have to be” so that you can work well. And you are probably aware that people differ a lot on traits such as the level of visual, acoustic, and social stimulation they work best under. They also have different needs for ergonomy and equipment, which, if not met, will influence the quality of their work.
People also have different ways of organizing their thoughts – some people need to offload their minds visually, for example onto a whiteboard. Some work best when they can talk to themselves or others. Leaders need to understand their employees well and provide for these individual needs in the workplace if they are to see what the real potential of their people is.
5. Design spaces for meaningful social interaction that foster a feeling of belonging.
Your employees will enjoy their work and develop a strong relationship with their organization if they feel they belong to a true community. This also means that they have to feel comfortable with bringing their authentic self to the workplace. This is a task for leaders in the first place – this kind of feeling comes from a welcoming organizational culture. However, a well-designed space plays an important role as an enabler, too.
People need to feel in control of how much they expose themselves to others. The fashion for fully transparent offices divided only by glass walls has led to a constant sense of being observed and vulnerable.
Yet, we enjoy interactions with others most when they are not forced upon us, when we can truly decide about when to engage and with whom. This is why it’s important to design places where people can be alone, or only with their closest team if needed.
A practical example for how to realize this is the concept of a “team neighborhood”: a visitor will go through intermediate “territories” such as breakout and collaboration spaces until they reach ”, the core team space.
At the same time, it’s important to create places that support intense social interaction – where anyone from the company can visit, get to know new people, or engage with others during joint activities. These spaces can resemble social spaces we find outside of work – busy cafés, cozy clubs, activity, or event venues. Of course, organizing the right events in these places is as important as the design of the space.
6. Create places for playfulness and experimentation.
An important quality of enjoyable work is the ability to regularly try out new things and approaches to problems, and even fail, without facing negative consequences. You can design the workplace to enable these kinds of activities. For example by creating project or prototyping spaces that teams can occupy for a few weeks or months at a time while working together.
These spaces need to allow the teams to truly “own” them for as long as they need. They should be able to keep their belongings and project materials there, even if they leave the space temporarily.
These spaces should also create a safe environment by providing the team with full visual and acoustic privacy – no one should be able to see what’s happening inside until they are ready to demonstrate it to others. Then, the space should enable showcasing the work to the colleagues.
Another type of experimentation space could be workshops and maker spaces. For these, the same principles apply, with the possible addition of expert support and organized programming.
7. Design spaces for recreation and replenishment.
As you have learned on the previous pages, creating opportunities and allowing people to “not-work” at work is an important aspect of an enjoyable work environment leading to radical innovation. The workplace can enable “not-work work”, through specific types of spaces and certain qualities of design (for example biophilic design).
Leaders need to create such restorative spaces for their employees, whether it’s relaxation and meditation rooms, quiet gardens and parks, places for calm exercise, such as yoga, or even simple amenities like private showers.
However, the employees have to truly feel that they are free to use these spaces and that they will not face any social repercussions for doing so. It’s ultimately up to the leaders to develop such a culture.
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If you’d like us to help you put the Enjoyable Company principles outlined in this publication into practice, please go to calendly.com/thelivingcore/ and book a free introductory call with us.
We are a multidisciplinary team with over 20 years of experience creating enabling spaces for thriving organizations. Our clients value the authentic, purpose-driven, and co-creative approach we bring to their transformation projects.
With a background in cognitive science, we will help you to deeply understand your organization’s culture and values. Then, we will partner with you in designing a truly enjoyable workplace for your employees.
