Posts Tagged ‘Trends’
June 7th, 2010 in Trends No Comments
Beyond the cube, workplace design now embraces such lofty concepts as enhancing communication, facilitating work-in-process, managing technology and providing an up-to-date alternative to “cube life”. Sound too easy? Let’s break it down. 
- Planning principals begin with storage and work surfaces, not cubicle panels.
- Natural light is shared and collaboration is enhanced.
- Work in Progress is displayed & organized as the user wants it.
- Wires, cords and connections are smartly managed and easily accessible.
Access to natural light can be increased by lowering panel height. If privacy is then an issue, incorporate translucent privacy screens. (more…)
June 7th, 2010 in Design No Comments
Gone are the workplace concepts of the 1970’s. Floor plan designs created isolating and non-stimulating environments. Physical barriers of cubicle design, circulation patterns, and the lack of daylight views for most employees blend together to inhibit collaboration and inspiration.
Teams are therefore slower complete tasks, thus affecting team, and individual results.
Workplaces also must be reinvented to accommodate new technologies, beyond just the impact of wireless technology. New hardware and software is causing workers to think and behave differently, and therefore, accomplish daily tasks in a new way. (more…)
October 21st, 2009 in Design 1 Comment
When you think of office space, what comes to mind? Perhaps Dilbert and endless rows of cubicles, Milton Waddams and his red Swingline stapler from Office Space, or Dwight Schrute from The Office? While these images may bring a chuckle, the characters have garnered a cult following simply because, WE CAN RELATE.
Perceptions of office space form because of media portrayals and due to daily interaction with our own places of work. The recent meteoric rise of Mad Men on AMC into popular culture reminds us that timeless design is still prized. The cars, wardrobes, immaculate hairstyles and suits represent a time when innovation and design were interchangeable. However, what is our modern interpretation of the office? And what is the tradeoff when low-cost practicality trumps aesthetic and quality? (more…)
August 13th, 2009 in Trends No Comments
Current economic conditions are causing many firms to cut back on real estate costs. Other companies are simply looking to rearrange things to eliminate the morale-sapping empty offices resulting from firm layoffs. This article looks at three design trends that have emerged to address this situation and create engaging environments for creativity and productivity. (more…)
July 25th, 2009 in Trends 1 Comment
The proliferation of touch screens on electronic devices over the past several years has included mobile phones (notably Apple’s iPhone), satellite navigation systems and portable game consoles. Now, according to this article, PCs will soon join the crowd. The author points out that Microsoft has already demonstrated a prototype of the next version of its flagship operating system based around “multi-touch” capabilities that allow a touch screen to sense more than one finger at once. Soon one will be able to press buttons, tap icons, call up windows and rotate and stretch onscreen objects using two fingers at a time. Apple, for its part, has put multi-touch track pads on its laptop computers and is rumored to be working on touch screens for its next line of computers. (more…)
May 31st, 2009 in Technology, Trends No Comments
In an ideal world, employees would eagerly anticipate each written company communiqué; spend their free time exploring the corporate intranet’s self-service feature and curl up with the detailed company newsletter. The reality of today’s workplace, however, is different. This article notes that employees now get instant messages on their cell phones on the bus to work while they’re reading their e-mail. They’re watching TV programs on their computer screens, browsing the Internet on their TVs and getting quick updates from friends while Facebooking, YouTubing and Twittering. New technologies have created new media trends “that are changing expectations for how, why and when employees receive information.” Companies are advised to keep up or risk their messages to employees will be left behind. (more…)
May 29th, 2009 in Trends No Comments
This article takes readers on a tour of several cutting-edge businesses in Boston and Cincinnati where traditional closed-door corporate workplaces have been transformed into interactive, open environments. The author acclaims the growth in the amount of office space dedicated to collaborative efforts and the salutary effect that this has had on communication, accessibility and speed of decision making.
There is an interesting discussion of the reaction of one law firm’s members on moving into their new glass-walled work areas. Initial concerns loomed large over privacy, confidentiality and simply keeping the spaces neat now that everyone could see in. Soon, however, people found they could communicate more quickly and they enjoyed the new sense of community as they finally began putting faces to people they had previously only e-mailed for years.
Something similar happened at Proctor & Gamble’s headquarters where their new office design and its open-door concept led to increased productivity and teamwork. As P&G’s chief executive put it, “Before a person in one office would send a memo to a person four offices away instead of getting off their tail, walking down the hall, and talking to them. That just doesn’t happen anymore… Things get done a lot faster, problems get identified sooner, opportunities get identified sooner.”
Source: Jenn Abelson – Boston Globe; May 29, 2009
April 15th, 2009 in Trends No Comments
“In Times Like These, You Get A Chance To Show Your Strength.” As Part Of Our 30th Anniversary Issue, Inc. Asked Jim Collins, Author Of ‘Good To Great’ And ‘Built To Last,’ What We Might Expect In The Next 30 Years.
This article is in the form of a conversation between author and Inc. editor-at-large Bo Burlingham and Jim Collins, author of Good To Great and Built To Last. The discussion concerns Collins’ vision of entrepreneurship and what companies and their managers will become over the next 30 years. Readers must initially wrestle with a paradox: Business guru Collins is convinced that we are and increasingly will be facing a world of “big events, big forces, massive storms … ferocious” requiring the need to have a “realistic paranoia” and the ability to “be prepared for what we can’t predict.” At the same time we need an “unwavering faith” in our ability to deal with it all. The source of his optimism is his view of the younger generation beginning to assume leadership roles in business. In his own words, “They have a sense of responsibility and service and a lack of cynicism that is remarkable and wonderful and a collective ethos that is connected technologically.”
These future leaders are epitomized by entrepreneurs who have defined success on a grand scale – Steven Jobs is most often mentioned – and are not just in it for the money but to transform society. They build their business culture around responsibility and performance with “a laser-like focus on doing first things first” and the skill to “know how to sift through the blizzard of information that hits you all the time.” (more…)
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