I recently attended a seminar after work at a local furniture showroom.  The one-hour presentation focused on the trends of interaction and collaboration in the “new office”. 

Did you know that 50% of our time at work is spent doing individual, heads-down work; but the remainder of our time is spent being collaborative and social?  I think designers would agree with this statement, but what about the clients we work for?

Some companies are now implementing an acronym called ROWE (results oriented work environment).  Performance is based on results, not how quickly they can get the product out.  They are also moving away from a supervised work environment to one where mentoring and coaching is key, and where teams are mobile and global.

So how do we design for this new type of workplace?

One way is to provide a number of breakout areas where casual conversation and meetings can take place, almost by accident.  A prime example of this is providing a shared copy area within the office.  How many times have you gone to pick up your copies and struck up a short conversation with someone also picking up their copies?  It’s these informal meeting points that can spark a new idea or get the juices flowing!

Furniture companies are also providing new types of furniture to suit the new work environment.  A meeting room could be one that is located in the open area of an office - that only has moveable whiteboards as walls, has chairs that are for lounging, and has places for people to lean against rather than sit (see image). 

There are many more ideas out there to help design for the new work environment.  Be open to them so that you can help your clients be open to them too.  The results are what matter, not how we get there!