Collaboration A More Important Element Of Office Design
August 15, 2012
This is Casey Laughman, managing editor of
Building Operating Management. Today's tip is that as collaboration becomes more important in the workplace, office design has to account for it.
Some types of work naturally lend themselves to collaboration to encourage communication, idea sharing and flexibility. Students work in open spaces beginning at a young age, having just enough space to claim a desk or locker as their own. Newsrooms are typically open areas where reporters and editors can easily communicate without walking from office to office or cubicle to cubicle. A portion of the work that Congress conducts is in large, wide-open chambers.
The idea of designing a workplace to encourage collaboration clearly isn't new. And when it comes to fostering teamwork, there's no one template that applies across all organizations. But more and more companies are pushing harder and harder to encourage open communication and spontaneous idea sharing. Organizations that already have open-plan workspaces are trying new approaches to maximize collaboration. And even those whose work involves client confidentiality and privacy are turning to open office space that encourages collaboration.
The team approach to collaboration not only occurs inside and outside an organization, it also happens in a variety of locations. The individuals could be at a table in the same room, they could be in the same building but in different workspaces, or they could be in different cities on a conference call.
Having greater collaboration, including taking a more team-oriented approach, also involves generational changes, demographic shifts and evolving cultures. Employees in their 20s and 30s worked with their classmates to solve problems beginning as early as kindergarten and extending into college. For some of them, taking that approach into their career is a natural transition.
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