Workplace Design
March 23, 2018
Seven workplace stories that fired up our synapses this week
March 21, 2018
There are at least some reasons to be optimistic about the UK’s tech sector post Brexit
Making detailed predictions about the economic consequences of Brexit has proved a mug’s game many time over the past couple of years. The most accurate summation of what is happening might be ‘mixed’. Most recently, a report from the CBI has highlighted the resilience of many sectors while bemoaning a lack of skills in the economy. Meanwhile former Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Lord O’Neill also recently conceded that the UK economy had been more robust than he had expected following the Brexit vote, which he attributed primarily to the thriving world economy. An argument almost immediately dismissed by the economist Ruth Lea writing for the LSE, who put forward a more nuanced and mixed explanation. The same picture of tempered resilience is also evident in specific sectors, and especially those that were seen as the most likely to feel the consequences of the Brexit vote, including London’s crucial tech sector.
March 16, 2018
How adversity and chaos can often help to foster personal creativity
We may live in a knowledge economy in a world, where the most highly prized people as far as employers are concerned are knowledge workers, but the thing that sets us apart from the machines is not knowledge at all, but creativity. Acquiring managing and sharing knowledge is essential, but it’s what we do with it that really matters. So it’s no surprise that creativity has become the de facto Holy Grail for many modern businesses. A recent survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value found that business leaders believe creativity is the most important leadership competency for a successful enterprise. This should come as no surprise in the modern world but knowing it and developing a creative and innovative working culture are two entirely different things, which is why businesses spend so long pondering how best to foster creativity.
March 16, 2018
Seven of the best stories about life, the universe and everything we’ve seen over the past week
People don’t actually know themselves very well
Some actual facts about the time we spend sitting at work
German workers: satisfied, but not engaged
What skills and behaviours make a good leader effective?
Stephen Hawking’s most dire predictions for the future
The World’s happiest nations, according to the UN
A critique of the dogma of wellbeing
Image: By NASA/Paul Alers [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
March 14, 2018
New Liverpool HQ of the Royal College of Physicians set to be one of the UK’s healthiest workplaces
Plans for the new northern headquarters of the Royal College of Physicians have been unveiled this morning at MIPIM. The 160,000 sq ft building, currently in development at the Knowledge Quarter, Liverpool will be one of the healthiest workplaces in the UK for mental and physical wellbeing and among the first to achieve the international WELL standard of modern building design, according to its designers. The £35m northern building will be known officially as The Spine, taking its name from a staircase on its north elevation that resembles human vertebrae. The building has been designed by AHR Architects.
March 13, 2018
Workplace Matters Podcast: Neil Usher on the elemental workplace and a possible new era for BIFM
Workplace author, blogger and consultant Neil Usher joins 3edges director Ian Ellison again on the day of his ‘The Elemental Workplace’ book launch; also the day the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) announce their proposal to become the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM). Both of these very different, but exciting developments for the workplace discipline are discussed at length, and Neil offers insightful critique as always. The conversation ends up at one of the new frontiers for the way we work and the places we do it – and global society in general – the ethical challenges we face from emerging digital technologies. Further links from the discussion can be found in the show-notes on the podcast page of www.3edges.co.uk, where you can also find a free download of the Workplace Leadership Manifesto which 3edges co-wrote and published with Neil this January.
March 13, 2018
Many office furniture firms remain confused about social media and online communication
At Watson King we surveyed the websites of the Top 100 European manufacturers of office furniture products, the results showed that 13 percent use no form of social media at all and 25 percent use less than three types. There are also some surprising results on which the most popular channels are. There is evidence to suggest that companies are unsure about the most effective way to use social media channels and which ones are the most appropriate to select. Also, there appears to be fundamental issues on how to integrate social media and communication channels to get the best results.
March 9, 2018
White paper: How the workplace is pioneering the use of data in organisations
In 2017, a content creator called Oobah Butler decided that he wanted to do something with the experience he’d gained writing fake positive restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor. What if, he wondered, he set up an entirely fictitious restaurant based in the shed in his garden and then started to manipulate TripAdvisor ratings? What happened surpassed his wildest expectations. In just six months, The Shed at Dulwich became the top-rated restaurant in London, even though nobody had ever actually eaten there, based solely on fake reviews, fake pictures and the word of mouth created by a complete inability for anybody to book a table.
March 9, 2018
Seven great workplace stories that have inspired and intrigued us over the past week
Do people really get promoted to their level of incompetence?
Emotional Intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis
Male and female bosses share the same “masculine” personality traits
How to read less news but be more informed
The Jurassic Park problem – tech and ethics
The 911 transcripts of times Apple employees walked into glass walls
Landlords woo office tenants with worker perks
March 7, 2018
When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant
Of all the things we buy, with the exception of our clothes, furniture is the most intimate, the one item we spend most time in contact with. According to JG Ballard who dedicated himself to understanding our relationship with the world around us, ‘Furniture constitutes an external constellation of our skin areas and body postures’. Whether he would have recognised it as such, Ballard was a pioneer of the principle we now refer to as psychogeography, defined by one of its founders, Guy Debord, as ‘the study of the precise effects of setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual’. Psychogeography may have originally been about the manipulation of the aesthetic and political, as part of the Situationist movement of the Fifties, but the idea appeals to our ongoing fascination with the relationship between people and workplaces.
March 7, 2018
Google is the gold standard employer in UK tech sector but small brands can still compete
Google has been named the Ideal Employer among tech professionals in the 2018 Dice UK Ideal Employer Report. While market leaders including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and IBM are placed highly, the report suggests that smaller tech brands can also attract the top talent through benefits including yoga, in-house cafeterias and more. For many technology professionals, Google is the gold standard employer, with a perfect mix of competitive salary, perks, benefits and interesting work, something smaller companies can learn from. The survey of 464 tech professionals found that simple office upgrades including yoga, colourful furniture and other positive innovative cultural perks can help smaller companies attract the best talent, even if smaller in size. Good work/life balances, open communications and manageable working hours also ranked highly. more…
March 23, 2018
I’m a designer and I job share with an AI
by Ceilidh Higgins • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Thomas Edison is credited with the phrase “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” and I believe there is no field where this applies more than architecture and design. So often people assume that interior design is such a fun, creative job – that it’s all about drawing, colours and furniture, something like being paid to colour in and shop – when today being a designer is just as much about people management, psychology, project management, documentation, checking codes and standards and managing contracts. It’s also often about a culture that expects long hours and being always available to the job. “It’s not work when you are passionate about it?” is common. But what if instead we could all work less hours and job share with our computers?
more…