Beta Space: Innovating the Workplace by Going Back to Basics

Amsterdam’s Alphabet Building is a prime example of Beta Space in action.

The idea of sharing office space has been around for over a decade, but only in the past few years has that idea evolved from employees simply sharing contiguous physical space into something much more exciting: coworking. Coworking’s simple tagline: “Working alone sucks, come and join the coworking revolution” says it all, as do the metrics associated with the coworking environment: According to Global Enterprise, an economic think tank based in Brussels, about 87 percent of coworkers start new projects with others they meet in their space. Other statistics from the Global Coworking Study shared by DeskMag, the magazine about new type of work places, indicate that 86 percent have built their business network thanks to coworking, and 57 percent work in teams more often.

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The Office Strikes Back

The office is striking back. After years of unprecedented technological, economic and societal change, companies are re-establishing the physical work place as the first choice place to work for a liberated and mobile workforce. The next decade will see even more change in the world of work, and I believe it will have even more of an impact on office design than what has taken place in the last 20 years.

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Distractions, part 3 or “Knock Twice and Barge In!”

I apologize for the long gap between my blogs on this subject…frankly, I have been distracted working on projects about distraction in the workplace! My fascination (some might call it an obsession) with workplace distractions is the result of surprising observations stemming from a study we did several years ago, looking at the work processes of two different organizations. One was a law firm, the other a bio-tech company. We wanted to know where employees did their focused concentration work. Each organization was full of knowledge workers, and the work setting provided for their focus work was individual offices with fully closing, wooden doors.

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The Unsung Office Hero

With startling consistency, predictions of the future workplace envision open, densely populated office environments full of constant interaction, collaboration, and teamwork. In this vision of tomorrow, the cubicle and private office are extinct, and dynamic, barrier-free workplace layouts spur innovation and push employees to perform at their highest levels. That’s great if you’re an extrovert who feels comfortable spending the majority of the day interacting with colleagues, but for the estimated 25 percent* of the population who are introverts, that future workplace is a daunting prospect.

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Focus on Focus

The places where we work have dramatically changed over the last thirty years. At the extreme, we have gone from private offices in the 60’s to open work benches that are not dissimilar to workspaces from the Industrial Revolution, a time of wrenching change, challenges and opportunities much like today. So much of this change has been driven by the need to facilitate communication, enhance collaboration and break down the silos that have paralyzed many organizations.

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