Business today requires collaboration, but we rarely design our workspaces to support this. Here are three ways your company can restructure your office to better support people working together.
- Vary the types of workspaces. Employees need group spaces for co-creation, but there should also be areas for concentrated work (unassigned individual workstations), emergent social exchange (free-flowing hallways), and learning (rooms equipped with technology and tools).
- Provide the right tools. Make sure meeting rooms include tools like whiteboards that allow employees to record ideas and create a visual, side-by-side review of alternative solutions.
- Give project teams a dedicated space. Returning to the same workspace each day, keeping meeting notes on the board, and leaving work on tables between meetings can help teammates maintain a shared mindset, sharpening their focus and speeding up the collaborative process.
Adapted from “Better Teamwork Through Better Workplace Design” by Anat Lechner.
