October 26, 2021
A burst of technological innovation is reshaping the future of work
Even as we begin to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic, evidence suggests that many workers want to carry over the working flexibility that the pandemic afforded into the post-pandemic world and a new future of work. Namely, employees are wanting to adopt a ‘mixed’ working style – spending time both working in the workplace, enjoying the office’s many benefits, as well as spending some time during the week working from home. A YouGov poll suggests that close to 40 percent of employees wish to continue to work from home some of the time post-pandemic – a fact that is supported by CIPD research. More →
In just two weeks, the much-anticipated 
I was reminded the other day of the instructions on a bottle of shampoo I once used which said, simply: “Wash, rinse and repeat.” Why? I’ve just washed my hair. Why do I need to repeat? It’s a bit like that old adage about how to sell more toothpaste, by widening the hole it comes out of, because we all still instinctively try to cover the whole of the brush head, however thick the line of paste. 
The events of the last 18 months have given us a once in a generation opportunity to reinvent work. Our generation can create a discontinuity between the assumptions of the past and the opportunities of the future. To capitalise on these opportunities though we have to dispense with the assumptions we hold about work and the places where work takes place, including many of the assumptions we hold about hybrid working. We have to re-examine the purpose of the office and what form it might conceivably take in the future before we can decide if it has any place in our plans. 
An idea that has never really gone away, but which seems to be enjoying a new lease of life is the tabula rasa. The conception of people as a blank slate is something a that has crept back into mainstream political and social thought for a variety of reasons. Arguably, it is also behind many of the most misleading notions about work and workplace design, perhaps most importantly that a change to some single element or characteristic of a working environment will lead to a specific outcome in the behaviour of people. 
Organisations are having to rethink the form and function of their offices in ways unprecedented in their relatively short history. And perhaps the biggest challenge is to create places to work that reflect the organisation’s culture and the needs of the people who work there (some of the time). One possible framework for aligning an office design model with the culture of the organisation is presented in a supplement published in the current issue of
The debate about the workplace and the future of work gets more interesting by the week. In the last few days alone, I’ve listened in on three great speakers talking about the opportunities, challenges, nuances and complexities of it all in a way that has been all but impossible in the past 18 months. In addition, Nigel Oseland has published 
October 27, 2021
Hybrid working: too few companies are making the workplace changes they need
by Tony Antoniou • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design