Search Results for: media

What lift design tells us about who we are and how we work

What lift design tells us about who we are and how we work

by • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

In 1959, cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman identified the personality traits which go hand in hand with disproportionate levels of heart disease. These include an overblown sense of time urgency, a desire to fit as much into each second as possible, excessive competitiveness and aggressiveness and frustration when other people are doing things more slowly than absolutely necessary. In other words – your typical 21st Century human. Friedman and Rosenman coined a term for such people which has now entered common usage. They called them Type-A personalities.

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The growing urbanisation of work and workplaces 0

by • Architecture, Cities, Features, Workplace design

The question of what makes a city great is an old one but has never been asked more than it is right now. It is usually couched in terms of the urbanisation of large parts of the world but it is important for other reasons too, not least because the urban environment is an increasingly important part of the virtual workplace many of us now inhabit and offices themselves increasingly resemble the agglomeration of spaces we have typically associated with our towns and cities. Recently, McKinsey published a  report into urbanisation, based largely on the usual premise of the proportion of the world’s people involved, but it is an issue that touches all of our lives and in unexpected ways.

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Country walks and writing letters among twenty ways Brits are “embracing reality”

Country walks and writing letters among twenty ways Brits are “embracing reality”

by • News, Wellbeing

A UK wide study commissioned by photographic tech company Popsa claims that as many as 66 percent of the nation feel frustrated with the online world, and are actively seeking more “authentic” experiences, with meeting people for coffee face to face (31 percent), going to the cinema with friends (23 percent) and listening to vinyl or CDs (17 percent) among the list of ways to embrace reality. (more…)

Commercial property investors underestimate risks of climate change

Commercial property investors underestimate risks of climate change

by • Environment, News

Melting ice showing climate changeInvestors in commercial property are underestimating the risks associated with climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and need to rethink their assessment of asset vulnerabilities, according to a new report from the BlackRock Investment Institute.

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Seven in ten Brits claim online world affects their mental health

Seven in ten Brits claim online world affects their mental health

by • News

A new, nationwide study released today, has revealed over a quarter (28 percent) of Britons feel their phone or social media addiction is actively stopping them living life to the full, with as many as 83 percent saying they are desperate to spend more time in the real world, according to the report commissioned by the photographic tech company Popsa. (more…)

Channel 4 chooses Bristol’s Finzels Reach for its new Creative Hub

Channel 4 chooses Bristol’s Finzels Reach for its new Creative Hub

by • News

Channel 4 Bristol new creative hubChannel 4 is in advanced negotiations with developer Cubex to locate its new Creative Hub at Finzels Reach, Bristol’s new waterfront quarter. Channel 4 will lease 3,200 sq ft of space on the second floor of the Fermentation Buildings at Finzels Reach. Channel 4 announced in October 2018 that it had confirmed that Leeds would be the new National HQ alongside Glasgow and Bristol as its Creative Hubs.

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Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires

Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires

by • Features, Workplace

A still from Jacques Tati's film playtime as the protagonist looks out over cubicles in an officeMore and more companies, government agencies, educational institutions and philanthropic organisations are today in the grip of a new phenomenon. I’ve termed it ‘metric fixation’. The key components of metric fixation are the belief that it is possible – and desirable – to replace professional judgment (acquired through personal experience and talent) with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardised data (metrics); and that the best way to motivate people within these organisations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance. (more…)

Co-design is an old idea, but it belongs to the 21st Century like never before

Co-design is an old idea, but it belongs to the 21st Century like never before

by • Comment, Workplace design

A group of people share ideas around a tableAs with so many apparently new ideas that resonate in a contemporary context, co-design has a long history. Originally referred to as cooperative or participatory design, it was first applied in Scandinavia in the 1960s and 70s, especially as a way of engaging stakeholders in the public sector in the design and development of IT projects, healthcare and workplaces. Arguably, our modern understanding of the idea was first set out by C.K. Prahalad and Venkatram Ramaswamy in a 2000 Harvard Business Review article called Co-opting Customer Competence and a subsequent book by the authors on the subject. They argue that there is a growing trend for firms to actively seek the insight and competence of customers to offer them better solutions, tailored to their own needs. (more…)

Smartphone addiction is driven by need to connect, but means we make bad choices

Smartphone addiction is driven by need to connect, but means we make bad choices

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Two new studies published in the Journal Frontiers in Psychology explore our complex relationships with smartphones. The first study from Canadian researchers, concludes that our addiction to smartphones is a real phenomenon but one that is rooted in a primal desire to connect with other people, suggesting that smartphone addiction is best described as hyper-social, rather than anti-social. However, the second study led by academics in Brazil claims that a pronounced preoccupation with smartphones can lead to poorer decision making.

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Managers frustrated by email from colleagues in the same building

Managers frustrated by email from colleagues in the same building

by • News, Technology

email iconOver a third of managers find it frustrating when colleagues email them when they are based in the same building, according to a new survey from 247meeting. The study of 2,000 managers with varying degrees of seniority claims that 36 percent find it frustrating when colleagues email them when they are based in the same building, proving that face-to-face interaction is still the preferred communication at work. Other irritants described in the report include lack of communication from senior management and lunchtime meetings (cited by 41 percent). Overall the two most preferred forms of communication are face to face meetings and phone calls. (more…)

Feeling appreciated and the quality of workplace both key to employee happiness

Feeling appreciated and the quality of workplace both key to employee happiness

by • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

The quality of the workplace has a powerful effect on the levels of happiness of staff, with nearly half of respondents (49 percent) to a recent survey stating that having a great office environment is important to their happiness at work, but according to the figures, only a quarter (25 percent) say a good workplace environment is a current positive about their work. The survey from Peldon Rose also found that less than half (45 percent) of employees actually feel appreciated at work and only two-thirds (67 percent) report feeling happy. Yet the majority of workers (80 percent) who took part, believe that feeling appreciated is most important to their happiness at work – ahead of salary (58 percent) and feeling trusted (55 percent).

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Pressing self-destruct, a final solution to workplace noise, a broken psychological contract and some other stuff

Pressing self-destruct, a final solution to workplace noise, a broken psychological contract and some other stuff

by • Features

I’ve never really wanted to go to MIPIM. I’m suspicious of it all for a number of reasons I won’t go into although you might reasonably guess what they are. So, I enjoyed this piece from Polly Plunket-Checkemian about her own misgivings. I understand that the testosterone level has been dialled down recently, but like Polly I’d like to see a re-examination of its format and intent, especially given that the real estate sector is having to rethink where it fits into the new era of work and meets the challenge of coworking.

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