Let me start with a story. We have had companies that have employees, they expect the employees who work for them to do good work.
They decide that all these people need to come to a place to do this work. A company they typically build offices, they buy/rent a building and fill these spaces with tables/desks, computers etc and they expect their employees to come to that location every day and do great work.
But in fact if you ask yourself “Where do you really want to go when you really need to get something done”? There would be multiple answers popping up your mind now but I’m sure the word “office” at regular timings might not have clicked.
That’s because when people go to work they are basically trading their work day for series of work moments, that’s what is happening now a days. You don’t have “work days”, you have “work moments”.
You are 15 min here and 20 min there, 20 min lunch and something else to do and before you realize you get to know its 5pm and you haven’t done anything productive.
To clarify my point better, just think of the creative people like designers, programmer’s, engineers, writer’s, thinkers, these people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time to get something done. You cannot ask somebody to get creative in 15 minutes and really think about a problem. You might have a quick idea but to be in deep thought of a problem and really consider a problem carefully you need long stretches of uninterrupted time. In today’s world you really do not get long stretches of time for yourself and that is why people choose to work at home or they might go to the office early or wait late at night when there is nobody around or they work on the weekends.
My entire above sentiments concludes to the point that offices may not be the right place to get the work done. We need to change this mentality of physically going to a common place and collaborate to get the job done.
In the current competitive world where we need to deliver a lot in a very limited phase of time, the workplace and its usage needs to be improvised. How? Let me explain you in the next paragraph.
- Clement Stone once said “You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Are the things around you helping you toward success — or are they holding you back?”
Now “Offices of future” should refer to a workplace where we would be able to work with less complications and more productivity. This is currently experienced with the help of beacons, mobile apps, censors, artificial intelligence and other technologies. The current need for the hour is being connected to the work directly or indirectly. Professionals want to utilize every bit of spare time to do something productive or be updated with their work. For example: When we get up in the morning the first thing we check is Facebook, WhatsApp, emails so that we can prepare our actions for the day. Technology plays a vital role in achieving our professional needs and hence the next level of offices would be more of being connected to the network all time.
For more productivity the biggest question that organizations are having is how can they set up a space that’s not just a place to shelter all your employees, but one that’s a strategic tool for productivity, collaboration, and growth?
This can be done by following given solutions
No Assigned Seating, Music rooms, Overlap Zones, Movable desks
As above given suggestions are more tilted towards improving the office infrastructure. The other side of the coin is of providing facilities to the employees at their preferred locations (work from any remote location).
So the conclusion of the topic I suggest would be creating/providing a space to people where they are more comfortable in performing the work that they need to do. Better peace of mind would result in better results. Hence it’s a matter of thinking new designs for office to implement in future!
The Noizy Indian 