There’s a dog-eared, yellowing paperback on my bookshelf called Understanding Offices. Written by Joanna Eley and Alexi Marmot, it dates from 1995. It is a handbook for everybody who needed to know how to develop a workplace strategy during the infant phase of the digital and cultural revolution of the late 20th Century. I used to refer to it all the time, but now it serves mainly as a reminder of how much has changed over the past thirty years, and also how little.
The backdrop to its guidance, is the tension that existed between the industrialised, hierarchical conception of office work and a new era of flexibility, mobile devices, better use of underutilised office space, increased collaboration between people, fewer distractions, a better approach to meetings, an increase in remote work, status free work and a greater focus on wellbeing.
And if that sounds familiar, what can I say?
The book exists in a superstate of relevance and antiquation, so we’ve needed something that retained its relevance and dusted away the antiquity for a while.
And here it is. Workspace Made Easy by Kursty Groves and Neil Usher offers a step-by- step-guide through the complexities of creating and implement a workplace strategy from first principles through to occupying a space and changing it over time.
It benefits enormously from the fact that both authors know what they are talking about. That shouldn’t need saying but you know why it does.
The authors’ experience of developing and implementing workplace strategies at major international organisations makes it far more credible than many of those other books that have appeared over the last four years. It also dishes up some tasty, anonymised (although it’s possible to have a good guess), anecdotes about where things can go right and wrong.
It tries not to get bogged down in the weeds of the interminable debate about hybrid versus in-office working by offering up some final-word definitions. It’s useful to see somebody attempt to define a distinction between flexible and hybrid work (one is about time, and one is about place according to the authors) but I don’t think that is how they are commonly used and I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the idea of defining set days in an office for everyone.
The book also sets out why people like to be together in both space and time, in an attempt to end the ‘death of the office’ claptrap, as it should. Can’t help thinking that it’s a shame that something so bleedin’ obvious needs to be set down.
On a few occasions the book flags these issues by setting out the ‘things you need to look out for’ when talking about workplaces; usually the thought-terminating clichés that beset conversations and I guess, by extension, the development of a coherent strategy.
They also advise people to develop their knowledge of the history of offices and work as well as disciplines such as anthropology to develop that strategy. At the very least this will ensure that the right questions are asked. A vision for what the workspace will be and what it will become depends on that, they suggest.
They also advise strategists to measure satisfaction levels all the way through a project, although as the environmental psychologist and workplace expert Nigel Oseland points out and the book hints at, expressions of unhappiness with the office can often be a proxy for other sources of misery.
One other measure they set out is how to gauge the amount of space that is needed for a particular organisation. This is the source of much of the tension in Understanding Offices and other publications like the BCO specification guide, because the general answer is that it depends. Neil and Kursty acknowledge the complexity of this issue and the number of variables involved in making a determination.
The book is very strong on the tensions that exist between making these decisions and allowing for change and suggest that organisations should carefully consider alternatives to the traditional models of real estate strategy. This includes integrating remote and coworking space and even public space. This is why it is so important to understand the way people work and how the organisation functions to determine what is needed now and in the future.
One of the most interesting points raised in the book is how innovation can depend on removing things, not just adding them. I remember Rafa Benitez saying something similar while at Liverpool, but he may have just been justifying his unpopular decision to sell Xabi Alonso.
Innovation can depend on removing things, not just adding them
It is this sort of insight that makes the book a must-have for any bookshelf. It also sets out as much detail as it can get away with while emphasising how important that detail is.
The book takes a stand against the fascination we have for what it calls Instagrammable offices. This includes the way some organisations insist on inserting quirky features, that nobody asked for or use, to an otherwise mundane office.
The cliché is a slide or ping pong table but one of the authors cites the example of a firm that insisted on having a 25 metre swimming pool appended to their office.
It was a beautiful facility. Of over 500 people working at the location, only five ever used the pool. no one had factored in the nervousness of being seen by colleagues in a swimsuit. It was used for photo shoots and marketing purposes, but for most of the day the water’s surfaced remained unbroken. It’s worth remembering that our work and personal lives have natural boundaries.
Workspace Made Easy is available at your local book shop or library
Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.
Main image: Sedus
July 19, 2024
Book review: Workspace Made Easy
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design
The backdrop to its guidance, is the tension that existed between the industrialised, hierarchical conception of office work and a new era of flexibility, mobile devices, better use of underutilised office space, increased collaboration between people, fewer distractions, a better approach to meetings, an increase in remote work, status free work and a greater focus on wellbeing.
And if that sounds familiar, what can I say?
The book exists in a superstate of relevance and antiquation, so we’ve needed something that retained its relevance and dusted away the antiquity for a while.
And here it is. Workspace Made Easy by Kursty Groves and Neil Usher offers a step-by- step-guide through the complexities of creating and implement a workplace strategy from first principles through to occupying a space and changing it over time.
It benefits enormously from the fact that both authors know what they are talking about. That shouldn’t need saying but you know why it does.
It tries not to get bogged down in the weeds of the interminable debate about hybrid versus in-office working by offering up some final-word definitions. It’s useful to see somebody attempt to define a distinction between flexible and hybrid work (one is about time, and one is about place according to the authors) but I don’t think that is how they are commonly used and I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the idea of defining set days in an office for everyone.
The book also sets out why people like to be together in both space and time, in an attempt to end the ‘death of the office’ claptrap, as it should. Can’t help thinking that it’s a shame that something so bleedin’ obvious needs to be set down.
On a few occasions the book flags these issues by setting out the ‘things you need to look out for’ when talking about workplaces; usually the thought-terminating clichés that beset conversations and I guess, by extension, the development of a coherent strategy.
They also advise people to develop their knowledge of the history of offices and work as well as disciplines such as anthropology to develop that strategy. At the very least this will ensure that the right questions are asked. A vision for what the workspace will be and what it will become depends on that, they suggest.
They also advise strategists to measure satisfaction levels all the way through a project, although as the environmental psychologist and workplace expert Nigel Oseland points out and the book hints at, expressions of unhappiness with the office can often be a proxy for other sources of misery.
One other measure they set out is how to gauge the amount of space that is needed for a particular organisation. This is the source of much of the tension in Understanding Offices and other publications like the BCO specification guide, because the general answer is that it depends. Neil and Kursty acknowledge the complexity of this issue and the number of variables involved in making a determination.
The book is very strong on the tensions that exist between making these decisions and allowing for change and suggest that organisations should carefully consider alternatives to the traditional models of real estate strategy. This includes integrating remote and coworking space and even public space. This is why it is so important to understand the way people work and how the organisation functions to determine what is needed now and in the future.
One of the most interesting points raised in the book is how innovation can depend on removing things, not just adding them. I remember Rafa Benitez saying something similar while at Liverpool, but he may have just been justifying his unpopular decision to sell Xabi Alonso.
It is this sort of insight that makes the book a must-have for any bookshelf. It also sets out as much detail as it can get away with while emphasising how important that detail is.
The book takes a stand against the fascination we have for what it calls Instagrammable offices. This includes the way some organisations insist on inserting quirky features, that nobody asked for or use, to an otherwise mundane office.
The cliché is a slide or ping pong table but one of the authors cites the example of a firm that insisted on having a 25 metre swimming pool appended to their office.
It was a beautiful facility. Of over 500 people working at the location, only five ever used the pool. no one had factored in the nervousness of being seen by colleagues in a swimsuit. It was used for photo shoots and marketing purposes, but for most of the day the water’s surfaced remained unbroken. It’s worth remembering that our work and personal lives have natural boundaries.
Workspace Made Easy is available at your local book shop or library
Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.
Main image: Sedus