The creation of innovative workplaces where fresh thinking can develop and teamwork flourish has become a central preoccupation for senior managers in many organizations. As a concept, the innovative workplace is a response to the realization that the physical working environment has a profound effect on an organization’s culture and individuals’ performance.

Successive anthropological studies have demonstrated that there is indeed a connection between habitat and human behavior. Today, there is widespread acceptance that the traditional habitat for white-collar work – the modern office – has significant shortcomings in terms of planning, layout, facilities, and aesthetics. These shortcomings prevent organizations and individuals from working to their full potential.

Designing offices to release innovation potential within the organization links the application of a number of design processes directly to the realization of organizational goals. These processes include space-planning, interior, architectural, furniture, and lighting design.

Designing innovative workplaces is not necessarily about creating visually ‘wacky’, attention-grabbing environments. Rather, it is about closely tailoring the physical environment to the requirements of developing new knowledge within the organization. So, one may wonder, what are the key issues at the heart of this concept? Inside any organization, it is important to ask searching questions about the current office environment – and look at how physical and spatial improvements and the provision of different equipment might support innovation practices.

For instance, you could ask whether long stretches of dark corridors and closed doors are conducive to people sharing knowledge and ideas. Are anonymous meeting rooms booked by the hour really the best settings for project teams to brainstorm and pin up ideas? Is a dowdy and cramped reception area really the ideal shop window for potential collaborators visiting your organization for the first time, or whether linear rows of metal desks under fluorescent strip lighting really enhance the search by your employees for that great new ideas?

Office design has many different and interrelated elements, which include spatial layout, lighting, furniture specification, material finishes, technology services, and catering provisions. Within this framework, a number of conflicting agendas must be addressed to achieve a more holistic balance it workplace design is to act as a catalyst for a more agile and responsive work culture. Ideally, there are five areas of conflict at this stage, and it pays to recognize them at the outset.

First, designing innovative workplaces must reconcile the needs of the organization with those of the individual. Traditionally, office managers have been in charge, and employees have had little say over their environment, and one should ask whether this kind of setup really brings out the best in people.

Secondly, innovative workplaces must balance the need for fixed real estate against the reality of increasingly flexible and fluid work patterns. Therefore, in the mix of office-based, mobile, and home working environments, one should consider how innovation could be managed.

Thirdly, innovative workplaces must combine workspace with public or social space. To this extent, when designing the work environment one should ask, how much of the office space should be private, privileged – a club – or public, and therefore open to all-comers?

The fourth conflict to resolve is architecture versus design. How much of the workplace investment should go into the bricks and mortar of the building shell, and how much into less permanent interior settings and flexible leases? And finally, organizations need to look at the image of their workplace. Does it suggest an automaton or can it express more human values? All these conflicts resonate in the practice of designing innovative workplaces.

WHY WORKPLACE DESIGNING MATTERS TO BUSINESSES

The issue of designing innovative workplaces is of direct relevance to business decision-makers. This is because the physical environment of work can be a lever to improve corporate performance – and therefore increase sales, profits, and market share. While the work environment is inevitably bound in with other related factors that influence business performance, such as management cultures, recruitment policies, or pay structures, office design can also directly respond to key business objectives in a measurable way.

If, for example, a key aim is to reduce time to market, certain spatial layouts and designed networks can support faster exchange of information up and down the development chain. If an important objective is to reduce staff turnover and recruitment costs, designing in certain social facilities can support that objective. And if the company wants to promote its corporate image as dynamic and innovative, an equally dynamic and innovative design of its headquarters could help.

Evidence also suggests that companies can run out of perks to give highly valued employees once the limits of pay, share options, and private medical insurance have been reached. (Company cars now face stiff tax penalties). In this context, the quality of the office environment for the employees can itself become a significant business perk.

WHY DESIGN MATTERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

The issue of designing innovative workplaces is of direct relevance to civil servants and public service decision-makers because the changing demands of local and national government require a new approach to the design of offices in the public sector.

Some of the design issues and imperatives required for the civil service – such as the need to reduce staff turnover, maintain morale, raise productivity and respond quickly to external demands are the same as those required for commercial entities. However, there are some that are unique to the public sector, especially those that relate to the need for transparency and accountability (with an ‘audit trail’ that can be easily followed)

Public sector organizations have also faced many of the same structural changes that impact on property strategy – such as decentralization and downsizing, as firms in the private sector. However, there is an additional complication: salaries in the public sector generally do not match those found in the private sector. With this, more innovative ‘magnet’ workplaces are increasingly seen as a way to help bridge the pay gap.