Last week’s Dilbert cartoon highlights a common misconception about Dynamic Work. The notion that changes mean a loss of something when in reality, when done properly, it introduces the addition of something.
This cartoon pokes fun at losing privacy and quiet space, when in actuality a Dynamic Work environment has lots of extra quiet spaces for people to work in. Those quiet spaces might be someone’s home. They might be a quiet remote spot in the countryside. They might be a specially designed work room.
You get the same reaction about introducing home or remote working. People fear that they will lose the camaraderie and serendipity of the office. But, again, Dynamic Work, means adding remote working space to centralised hub working space. There might be less space overall because the choice introduces a big efficiency. But people still have the best of both worlds – a place to hook up and meet face to face, and the options to ‘get away’.
The strip does highlight that there are no silver bullet solutions to workplace design. Only a holistic approach can get the right balance of resources and practices.
Great post, Bruce. It is interesting that as people are given the option of working in a quiet place (be that at home or a designated quiet work room) where they are reportedly and demonstrably more productive, creative and focused (see for example the research of Gajendran and Harrison in 2007, burningpine.wordpress.com/…/all-gone-home) then the reasons why they will come into a centralised hub will change. They will come for reasons of collaboration and communication which require the more open workspace described.
As you say, a holistic approach is essential and this needs to include looking at communication and management as well as IT and real estate.