October 5, 2018
Technologies won’t replace good management
Is this the RFP – or just another country?
The way hunter-gatherers share food shows how cooperation evolved
The future of human work is perpetual beta
The most plausible cause of wellbeing decline is screen time
The gig economy isn’t going to be the future of work
The new era of Workplace Management is here
October 3, 2018
Bloomberg’s London HQ (left) came out on top at the British Council for Offices (BCO) National Awards in the UK’s capital last night, taking home both the ‘Best of the Best’ and the ‘Corporate Workplace’ awards. The office was joined by five other award winners recognised for excellence in office space. The BCO’s respected National Awards programme sets out to recognise top quality office design and functionality, with the objective of setting the standard for excellence across the office sector in the UK. The awards dinner attracted over 1,200 players from the office sector to celebrate the best-in-class talent. Winners from the 2018 Regional Awards programme attended the event at London’s Grosvenor House, hoping to take home the National Award for their category.
October 3, 2018
Two out of every five people (40 percent) claim their perception of a company or brand has been negatively affected by their experience in the corporate lobby or reception area. Of 2,000 US and UK office workers surveyed in Proxyclick’s annual ‘Office Worker Bugbears’ survey, over 70 per cent (71.48 percent) cited unfriendly receptionists, followed by over half (53.78 percent) naming a lacklustre welcome as top reasons for their bad experience. ‘The Integrated Visitor Experience’, a white paper which explores integrated building, security and workplace management technologies, claims that visitors can feel a culture the moment they walk through the door to an office. Gregory Blondeau, Founder of Proxyclick, said: “Not five to ten years ago, the visitor experience did not really exist, the basic process simply covered how someone is received in a building or premises and how they’re able to move around. Today, the rise of smart buildings, developments in automation, open application programming interface standards and cloud technology, have changed the game.” Click the link to download the ‘Integrated Visitor Experience’ white paper.
October 2, 2018
The improvement in well-being and performance in the workplace are economic and social critical factors since the loss of productivity for companies means a cost of up to US$ 550,000 million per year. Numerous studies affirm that biophilic design, defined as a response to the inherent need of human beings to be in contact with nature, in the workplace improves productivity and user well-being. As Lord Kelvin said, if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it, so the challenge that arises is how to objectify and quantify rigorously the features that improve productivity and wellbeing in spaces designed with biophilia in mind. From this, it is necessary to go a step further and objectify the design criteria serving as an operator for performance and wellbeing in design practice.
September 29, 2018
In this week’s Newsletter; The commercial property sector heads off in a new direction; why busier people tend to look after themselves more; executives love Big Data but have no idea what to do with it; procrastination isn’t all bad – read why right now, don’t put it off; changing benhaviour by design isn’t as easy as some might think; a Shakespearean take on tech addiction; and how local innovation fuels global design trends. You can also download our most recent briefings on key topics, produced in partnership with Boss Design and BW Workplace Experts; dowlnload the new issue of Work&Place; visit our events page curated by Herman Miller, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories. And don’t forget to subscribe – the form is there on the left.
September 28, 2018
The digital transformation of organisations and a shift to agile working is being held back by a reluctance to invest in new technology, according to a new report from Citrix and Capita. The Workplace agility report claims that legacy applications are delaying digital transformation of the entire organisation for more than half of respondents (56 percent) of the 200 CIOs who took part in the study. The report also claims that the inability to introduce new tech also restricts the uptake of new ways of working and the creation of agile working environments.
September 28, 2018
Changing mindsets and the workplace through co-creative leadership was the theme of the latest Quora Smartworking Summit which took place this week at ExCeL London. Hosted by Quora’s Managing Director John Blackwell, the event featured a distinguished group of senior leaders who discussed under Chatham House rules, how they have helped change their organisation’s mindsets using leadership styles aimed at achieving successful work performance transformations.
September 27, 2018
The forces that are changing the world, from AI and the current digital and technological transformation, to the short and long-term implications of Brexit, provided many of the key lessons during the first day of the CoreNet Global Summit in Madrid.
September 26, 2018
Generation Z, the latest generation of workers to enter the workplace (aged 18-24) are social creatures a new report suggests, preferring to work in an office environment, with only 8 percent thinking they work best from home compared to 20 percent nationally. However, putting aside the assumption this is because they’re sharing a cramped flat or living with parents, even within the office environment, the vast majority (81 percent) think social and communal areas are important workplace facilities compared with only 64 percent of all employees and 58 percent of Baby Boomers. More →
September 24, 2018
Many of the techniques employed by modern illusionists rely on a thorough grounding in the research of psychologists. They’re not alone in standing on the shoulders of academics to bend people to their will. Many of our beliefs about the workings of our society and workplaces and their design are based on this sort of manipulation. It’s telling that the growth of consumerism in the 20th Century, especially after the War when we first began to move from a needs based economy to one fuelled by desire, was driven by the ideas of Sigmund Freud’s nephew. Edward Bernays became the ‘father of PR’ by popularising his uncle’s theories in the US then applying them to mould the subconscious desires of the American masses. He did this not just in the name of commerce but also in that of politics because he believed that society was becoming increasingly irrational, immoral and dangerous.
September 23, 2018
In this week’s Newsletter; how half of all our tasks will be performed by AI sooner than you might think; LinkedIn’s new London offices; the great failure of flexible working; Steelcase’s latest acquisition; Europe’s first building to achieve the WELL Platinum standard; Jonathan Hindle on improving workplace interactions; Jim Ware on finding the right place to meet; and Chris Kane on how to bridge the gap between people and places in a modern context. You can also download our most recent briefings on key topics, produced in partnership with Boss Design and BW Workplace Experts; visit our events page curated by Herman Miller, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.
September 28, 2018
The horrors and harmonies of workplace hierarchy
by Monica Parker • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
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