Columnists
September 28, 2018
The horrors and harmonies of workplace hierarchy
by Monica Parker • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
I am a child of the seventies, and one of my favourite shows when I was just a tyke was The Jeffersons. For those not familiar with The Jeffersons, it was about a black family in New York City who had, through ambition and entrepreneurship, ‘made it to the top’. George Jefferson, the patriarch, was […]
September 27, 2018
We need to take a scientific approach to the potential impact of AI
by Eleni Vasilaki • Comment, Technology
Should we be afraid of artificial intelligence? For me, this is a simple question with an even simpler, two letter answer: no. But not everyone agrees – many people, including the late physicist Stephen Hawking, have raised concerns that the rise of powerful AI systems could spell the end for humanity. Clearly, your view on whether AI […]
September 24, 2018
It is not particularly easy to change human behaviour by design
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
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 […]
September 18, 2018
Building a culture of creativity that unites the physical and digital workplace
by Serena Borghero • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Agreeing on the definition of creativity is no easy task, as it can mean a whole range of different things to different people. To some, creativity means painting a beautiful picture or creating a unique sculpture, while for others it might mean writing a catchy tagline, developing a new business model, or building an innovative […]
September 14, 2018
All those workplace trends lists that you see? We’ve been there before 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design
Conference and show season looms and with it arrives the annual swarm of workplace trend forecasts. These are often presented as groundbreaking but many of them are indistinguishable from each other and based on some very familiar tropes and assumptions. These days such things tend to be shaped into lists, because that’s how the Internet likes […]
September 12, 2018
Reinventing jobs for an automated future workplace
by Ravin Jesuthasan • AI, Comment, Technology
Earlier this year, the European Commission announced it will invest €20 billion in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and development by 2020 to boost the adoption of AI and robotics across multiple industries, which will have a significant impact on the way work across sectors gets done. Facing demographic deficits, Europe and Japan – and to […]
September 10, 2018
The evolution of the workplace conversation in ten graphs
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design
September 7, 2018
How Thomas Jefferson came to invent the swivel chair and laptop 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Technology, Workplace design
In 1775, Thomas Jefferson was a busy man. As part of the Committee of Five men and at the tender age of 33, he had been charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence that was to be presented to Congress the following Summer. By all accounts, Jefferson was a self-contained and self-sufficient man and, like […]
September 6, 2018
Creating a productive workplace for people is all about context
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design
The quest for a proper understanding of the links between the places we work, the things with which we fill them and our wellbeing and productivity has been ongoing for a very long time. It predates our current thinking on productive workplace design and the facilities management discipline as we now know it by decades […]
September 4, 2018
Don’t stand so close to me: why personal space matters in the workplace 0
by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design
As successive BCO Specification Guides and the research of organisations like CoreNet Global have proved, the spatial dynamics of offices have changed dramatically in recent years. Put simply, the modern office serves significantly more people per square foot than ever before. Originally this tightening was largely down to the growing ubiquity of flat screen and […]
October 5, 2018
Developing a resilient mindset to cope with stress
by Portia Hickey • Comment, Wellbeing
Earlier this year, The New York times reported on a company in New Zealand that reduced its employee’s work time to four days a week whilst paying them for five. The idea came to the CEO after he read research that showed that employees generally only spend three hours a day on actual productive work. […]