The Office as Ecosystem: Strategy 2

March 21, 2023
Building a Commute-Worthy Workplace

Improving an office ecosystem only pays off if employees actually come into the office to experience it. And what gets employees into the office? Studies show the strongest incentive isn’t a free lunch, dry cleaning services, or foosball tournaments. It’s other employees.

 

That means a commute-worthy office is, in essence, one that builds community. The table stakes, like good coffee and comfortable surroundings, are essential, but the communal energy that can’t be replicated at home is the true galvanizing force to get people there on the regular.

 

2201 Westlake, Portland, Oregon

📸: Moris Moreno

 

And it turns out, that communal energy is rarely serendipitous. It’s carefully designed into the space. A strategic approach to desk density can create the right level of buzz and activity without sacrificing employees’ abilities to concentrate. A variety of thoughtfully designed spaces for spontaneous and planned collaboration can get people talking and building deeper ties. Areas for curated surprises and engaging employee programming reinforce a sense of belonging to a company that is creative and cares for its people, while also creating reasons to get people together.

 

When your employees can get their work done anywhere, workplace design stops being about desks, chairs, screens and printers, and starts being about the interactions that make work worthwhile.

 

Want to learn more? Check out our full strategic roadmap, The Office as Ecosystem, here, or watch this space for our next installment, “The Not-So-Office Office,” coming next week.

 

 

Michael Stueve

Michael Stueve, Principal, UX Strategy 

 

 

Banner photo: Buchalter, Portland, Oregon

📸: Magda Biernat

SEARCH

This search form (with id 2) does not exist!

The Office as Ecosystem: Strategy 1

March 14, 2023
The Office Gets Personal (And the Ecosystem Thrives)

The Office as Ecosystem approach has 3 key tenets:

  • The well-being of one lifts the prospects of all
  • Fostering connections between people is the primary function of the office
  • Productivity is a by-product of belonging

 

When we think about and design for the office as an ecosystem, we’re essentially saying that if one area, department, or person is underserved, the workplace as a whole will suffer. Likewise, we acknowledge that moves toward inclusion, equity, and belonging benefit not just the person or people for whom they are taken, but everyone in the greater workplace community.

 

This kind of people-first thinking and design can manifest in small, easy-to-implement tactics, as well as larger, systemic shifts.

 

At a systemic level, there’s a paradigm shift from the office in service of a business function to an office in service of individuals, each of whom brings different needs as well as gifts to the ecosystem. This requires abandoning both the one-size-fits-all, as well as the set-it-and-forget-it mindsets. Instead, it requires companies to embrace custom solutions, curiosity, and continuous improvement.

 

Aspect, Portland, Oregon

📸: Christian Columbres

 

This can be as simple as inviting a wider array of people with a more diverse set of perspectives to the proverbial table when it comes to office planning and design, asking what they need and building solutions together. Truly ecosystem-focused companies might even go a step further and imagine the needs of future staff and visitors, envisioning a truly welcoming environment for people of all abilities and backgrounds. In this way, companies become attractive to a wider, more diverse, and more engaged talent pool, and avoid the need to react and retrofit with each new hire.

 

Tactically, there are new, people-first solutions emerging every day that allow workplaces to serve the needs of the individuals within their workforce. Straightforward but ingenious solutions, such as furnishings that support fidgeting or fit a variety of body types not only accommodate differences but celebrate them. Visual cuing systems for d/Deaf persons meet a specific need, but also raise the consciousness of everyone in the office about the myriad ways people receive and process information. Imagine the impact when that understanding gets translated to customer, client, or shareholder interactions. When people-centered design becomes the “norm,” everyone in the workplace community – and often well beyond it – benefits.

 

Want to learn more? Check out our full strategic roadmap here, or watch this space for our next installment, “The Commute-Worthy Workplace,” coming next week.

 

Bethanne Mikkelsen

Bethanne Mikkelsen, Managing Principal, Interior Designer

 

 

Banner photo: Fox Tower Green Room, Portland, Oregon

📸: Shelsi Lindquist

SEARCH

This search form (with id 2) does not exist!

The Office as Ecosystem

March 7, 2023
5 Ways to Design for the Workforce You Have Now and the Workforce You Want in the Future

Our workplace design team has a unique window into the changing nature of work, and the challenges that companies have keeping up with it. Every client meeting we attend, and every new design request we field, gives us a view of what’s really going on in today’s offices.

 

Late last year, we started to see some patterns emerge in the conversations we were having with clients about their workplace needs. And those patterns lined up with some trends and tactics we’d been incorporating into our projects.

 

It just made sense, then, to turn those patterns into a strategic roadmap our colleagues and clients could use as they are all rethinking what the workplace looks like. It examines the ways we need to shift our thinking about the roles, both functional and emotional, that offices play in workers’ lives today, with lots of examples and ideas to get begin the journey of workplace transformation.

 

We call the overarching approach “The Office as Ecosystem,” because it acknowledges that the workplace is an interconnected environment, where the well-being of one lifts the prospects of all.

 

If you’ve been grappling, as so many companies have, with a changed workforce and a not-so-relevant workplace, maybe a shift to ecosystem-thinking is in order.

 

Archivist Capital, Portland, Oregon

📸: Josh Partee

 

Check out the full strategic roadmap here, or watch this space for each installment, starting next week:

 

Part 1: The Office Gets Personal

Part 2: The Commute-Worthy Workplace

Part 3: The Not-So-Office Office

Part 4: New Ways to Meet

Part 5: Culture First Employee Engagement

(each Part will be hyperlinked once the blog post launches)

 

 

Bethanne Mikkelsen

Bethanne Mikkelsen, Managing Principal, Interior Designer

Michael Stueve

Michael Stueve, Principal, UX Strategy 

Erica Buss, Senior Associate, Research & Information Services Manager

 

 

Banner photo: Buchalter, Portland, Oregon

📸: Magda Biernat

SEARCH

This search form (with id 2) does not exist!

Mission Driven

Civic

Cultural

Corporate Retail

Branded Retail

Destination

Hotels and Resorts

Classroom and Office

Learning Centers

Student Housing

Behavioral Health

Wellness

Outpatient

Inpatient

Not for Profit

Senior Living

Corporate

Core and Shell

Landlord

Workplace Interiors

Market Rate Housing

Affordable Housing