Does your current work environment align with your future needs?
The COVID-19 crisis has made many organizations realize that their current work environment does not align with their future needs. The increase in remote work will shift the focus of office activities. It is predicted that teams will mainly come to the office to meet, exchange knowledge, and work together on projects. Now is the time to develop alternative workplace concepts that respond to new principles. Concepts that optimally align with the primary processes of the future, reflect the new culture of the organization, and support the organization’s future strategy. How do we determine the direction to take when defining a new workplace concept? Too often, hasty and ill-prepared decisions lead to half-hearted concepts and regrettable failures. The strategic objectives of the teams involved are often overlooked, meaning the new work environment does not meet their needs.
“Look before you leap,” says the proverb, and experience shows there is deep truth in these words. The development of a good workplace concept (and any architecture project in general) starts with formulating a clear vision that is supported by the top of the organization. An inspiring text that clearly states how the new work environment should support the culture and strategy of the organization. Defining this vision can be compared to sailing to an unknown island. To navigate the ocean and set the right course, the destination must be clear. It is the top of the organization that must decide which island the ship will sail to. It is the task of the leadership to describe the view and features of this island before embarking on the voyage. The crew operates the ship, but without a clear vision, they don’t know what is expected of them and cannot fully commit to steering the organization toward a new destination.
The city of Ghent project as a good example
The City of Ghent is a good example of developing a vision. This historic Flemish student city, with around 250,000 inhabitants, had about a hundred different buildings in its real estate portfolio. These buildings were of very varying quality. Most of the work environments in these buildings were not adapted to modern operations and did not support employee comfort. Moreover, these buildings were scattered all over the city, and employees often had to bike to other buildings for meetings. This situation had its charm, but it led to wasted time and limited interaction between departments. The city decided to address this by consolidating services at a central administrative site. An ambitious master plan was developed, involving the development and thorough renovation of three large buildings at the easily accessible and recognizable “Zuid” site. The rationalization of the property portfolio was also an ideal opportunity to rethink the office environments. The city’s old offices were characterized by a lack of comfort and were completely unsuitable for modern business operations and services.
A multidisciplinary team was tasked with translating the city’s strategic multi-year plan into a clear vision of the future work environment through a series of workshops with the council and management team. After much discussion and validation, the city’s strategic guidelines were reduced to four strong core principles: sustainability, comfort, service, and attractiveness as an employer. These principles were then translated into a concrete and very innovative workplace concept for the city. Ultimately, the management team opted for thorough activity-based working. A concept tailored to the typical processes of urban administration was developed. The so-called checkerboard pattern guarantees user comfort by optimally combining closed and open workspaces and limiting open-plan offices to zones with a maximum of 12 workstations. Furthermore, the concept offers a wide range of alternative workplace types such as meeting rooms, project spaces, quiet rooms, informal corners, etc.
A clear vision at the start of the project has the great advantage that every decision can be tested against this vision. If your organization wants to improve communication between management and staff, it would be very odd to choose an inaccessible VIP floor on the top floor where employees would hardly dare to appear. If you have a clear vision that the work environment should promote transparency and openness in the organization, you can use this text to explain the decisions made. Management is not always aware that the work environment is no longer in line with the desired organizational culture. The work environment is insufficiently aligned with the primary processes or it hinders employee well-being. A new work environment can, in this case, be used as a lever to bring the organization to a new way of collaborating. Often, an external impulse is needed to visualize this necessity.
It goes without saying that the COVID-19 crisis is an extreme catalyst for this reflection. Countless organizations will be forced to develop a new vision in the coming months. But even before the pandemic, organizations were already thinking about the role of their work environment. When a well-known international manufacturer of sanitary products was confronted with the aftermath of the real estate crisis, the organization was forced to take action. Morale was low, and the prospects were unclear. This negative dynamic was further exacerbated by their dark, outdated headquarters in a hard-to-reach and dull suburb of Brussels. The need for the organization to gain a new momentum and move to a new location was high. In the outdated building, the teams were scattered across several floors. This limited contact between teams, and the promising plans of the marketing department, new campaigns, and creative promotions remained invisible. The headquarters received far too little positive feedback from the field. The finance teams felt they were sinking in a spiral of negative numbers. The contacts with the European factories were also on too low a level. Salespeople no longer came to the European headquarters to meet clients and partners but preferred to rent sterile meeting rooms in expensive hotels.
During the workshop, it became clear that the organization longed for a workspace focused on exchanging experiences and showcasing business results. An environment where teams could quickly and without barriers connect with one another. A workspace that didn’t only focus on formal meetings and professional concentration work, but also offered room for spontaneous interaction and relaxation. But above all, a work environment that could inspire employee pride by showcasing innovation within the company and making the efforts in the field visible. The vision had the baseline “bring energy to the office,” and the work environment developed based on these specifications was (and still is) very successful.
Developing a vision: interviews and workshops
Developing a creative and interesting vision for renewed collaboration in your organization requires a relatively small investment in time and resources, but its long-term added value is considerable. Typically, the process starts with interviews with members of the leadership team. As stated earlier, the top of the organization must determine the vision. Change management literature shows that the definition of a clear vision by the leadership at the start of a transition process has a significant impact on the success of this process.
During these interviews, executives are given the opportunity to provide their perspective on the project. Through targeted questions, they are prompted to think about the added value of a new work environment for their teams and the impact on the primary processes for which they are responsible. Their personal insights and preferences are also discussed. These interviews often lead to personal reflection and questioning of “habits” that have become ingrained in business operations over the years.
The next step in determining a new, strategic vision is a workshop lasting at least half a day with the executive board. Half a day is dedicated to discussing the needs of the organization and how a new work environment can give a strategic boost to the organization. This is of course not an ordinary discussion but a well-prepared workshop with a clear scenario. Organizing a dynamic workshop with an overburdened and overworked leadership team is no small task. A clever approach is needed to achieve the desired results during a relatively short session.
For example, we use an association exercise to engage each board member and initiate the conversation about the characteristics of the future work environment. We ask participants to choose from a selection of inspiring images and associate the image with a strategic question based on their feelings and inspiration. For example: How can a new work environment enhance collaboration within our organization? The wealth of information this exercise generates forms a fertile basis for drafting a well-founded and creative vision statement that will provide a clear framework for developing concrete specifications for the new work environment. We know from experience that even the most conservative management teams are drawn into open dialogue using this method. The vision is often linked to the organization’s values. It is a brilliant opportunity to turn these values into very concrete characteristics and behaviours. In the next phase, the clear vision statement also serves as a useful foundation for setting up an effective and motivating internal communication strategy.
Now that the ship’s destination is clearly visible on the horizon, the crew puts up all sails. Like a well-oiled machine, they navigate the ship through rocks and rough seas to eventually land on the warm sands of the island.
