June 3, 2011
Today’s business environment has dramatically changed in the past few
years. The marketplace has become global, creating a non-stop hypercompetitive
environment that requires constant creativity and innovation.
We are in the midst of an epic recession, with high unemployment created by
downsized organizations across many industries, which requires companies to
do more with less—forcing employees to work harder, smarter, and longer.
Business, and the
world in general, have
become more complex.
Countries, economies,
and people are more deeply interconnected than ever
before, and this connectivity continues to expand
at a rapid pace. For the first time in U.S. history,
the workplace has four generations working sideby-
side with diverse perspectives, motivations,
attitudes, and needs.
These changes are driving alternative work
strategies that impact not only the workplace but
create a fundamental shift in how we work. Current
research has revealed that most work today is
done in collaboration with others, versus individual
contribution. Increased knowledge sharing leads
to enhanced productivity, improved quality, and
accelerated innovation, which is all required in
today’s business environment. This fundamental
shift provides a huge opportunity for our industry,
which encompasses a wide variety of technologies in
very diverse locations.
Trends in the Workplace
Over the years the office workplace has evolved
from openness to private spaces and back again to
open spaces. From the 1920s until the mid 1960s,
the open, bullpen office concept dominated many
working environments. You have probably seen
photos of large, open spaces with row upon row
of tables or individual desks, surrounded by private
offices for the managers to oversee the business.
During those days the work was primarily repetitive
tasks, and the space planning was just an extension
of the factory environment. Although you could
consider it to be an open office, this business
environment was not about collaboration, but instead
about timely task completion without conversation.
As job functions shifted from repetitive tasks
to more knowledge-based work, and a telephone
on every desk became the norm, the open office
environment became chaotic. Concentration was
a challenge, and privacy was nonexistent. During
the mid-1960s, inventor Robert Propst devised an
office setup with short partition walls set at 90- or
120-degree angles, allowing workers to face away
from each other, providing a feeling of privacy. As
time went on, the partitions became taller, completely
covered in fabric, and much closer together. As they
continued to evolve and became known as cubicles,
they turned in to massive maze-like structures
that often went as far as the eye could see—
obviously not a great environment to promote
spontaneous collaboration.
The Spaces of Tomorrow
Although few workplaces today currently
support collaboration well, the trend in modern
office space design is moving to fewer individual
workspaces, with a larger portion of the
space being dedicated to solutions that foster
collaboration. These collaboration spaces
typically vary in size and technology support,
ranging from large, formal presentation spaces
to small, two-person alcoves. The mix of
space types as well as their proximity to more
individual workstations is critical. With the
economic driven reduction in workforce and the
need to reduce one of the top operating costs—
real estate—many companies are taking one more
step by eliminating an assigned desk or workstation.
Instead, they are opting for hot-desking or hotelling
workstations for employees who only come to the
office occasionally. The difference between the two
is whether the workstation can be reserved ahead of
time (hot desking) or on a first-come, first-served
basis (hotelling).
Over that past few years, the quantity of
employees working from home, or telecommuting,
at least on a part-time basis, has been steadily
growing. The availability of quality broadband as
well as wireless voice and data on handheld devices
allows transparency between office and home office.
Another interesting trend is satellite facilities where
space is available to work or meet with clients. These
are typically located in close proximity to their user
base offering an alternative to a long commute. This
strategy allows the company to further reduce the
quantity of workspaces in the “main” office.
R. Randal Riebe (randy.riebe@polycom.com) is the director of
AV integrator business development at Polycom.
Make It Work
Some of the interesting data-points
from research on these new types of
working environments are: 1) technology
is required, and 2) access to
information should be equal for all
participants.
As you would guess, collaboration
spaces with large-screen displays,
audioconferencing, videoconferencing,
interactive whiteboards,
and easy access to data and power
are the spaces that get used. Nontechnology
spaces are last choice,
if used at all. Collaboration seems
to work best in spaces that support
eight or fewer people, physically
and virtually. Additionally, all
participants need equal access to
information displays, as well as the
ability to see each other eye-to-eye.
As you could predict, one of the key
requirements is that the technology
be simple to use and transparent to
the purpose at hand.
Of course, to make a new collaborative
workspace environment a
success requires more than just technology.
These spaces will only pay
off in productivity and creativity if
a strong foundation of organization,
regulations, leadership, and cooperation
exists.
Although large, complex meeting
room projects may quickly
become few and far between, the
increased quantity of collaboration
“mini-rooms” in the main, satellite,
and home office will drive exponential
growth in collaborative AV
technology.
—R.R.R.
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