We live in an amazingly connected world; a world where our ability to share ideas which will someday create great things far exceeds the wildest dreams of even the most creative minds of the previous generation.  A world that has been flattened by the internet has been connected by international travel and has been politically stable enough to build international relationships.  However, given the crisis mentality that seems to have gripped us and the profound and continuous change that this connectivity breeds you might be wondering if it is a good thing. 

You fear the internet might send your job to some far-away place.  You worry about the cost of filling your gas tank more than buying an international airline ticket.  You hear about the threats of terror somewhat regularly.  This constant connectivity can cause us to lose perspective and take a negative outlook about the state of the world in which we live.  Every now and then we have an experience that sharpens our perspective and reminds us of the great opportunities that exist in modern society. 

I recently read a fascinating book by Mandit Kumar:  Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality.  This is a book about the dawn of theoretical physics and the beginning of the atomic age.  It includes a twelve page timeline that starts in 1858 with the birth of Max Planck and ends in 2007 with the current puzzle of how pairs of non-local photons can behave predictably over long distances.  You might wonder what it could possibly have to do with politics, international collaboration and the building of relationships. 

The main plot of the story was not the part of the book that sharpened my perspective.  The fascinating sub-plot of the book that should be of interest to anybody trying to solve a problem that requires teamwork, was the story of the relationships between the dozen characters that led the focus of scientific discovery.  Nine pages of this twelve page saga occurred between 1900 and 1945.  If you take the time to plough through the subject matter you will realize that the incredible advances chronicled in this relatively short period of time would have not been possible to unlock by one person.  Even a person with the legendary intellect of Albert Einstein cannot succeed without the constant challenge and prodding of ideas from his peers.  As you begin to understand how long-standing relationships, respect and social engagement between this diverse group of scientists, you see the engine that propelled discovery and understand the necessity and the value of teamwork. 

Compare the collaboration tools, access to travel and the social and political state of the world between 1900 and 1945 to what we have today.  If you think we live in difficult times consider the following:

·         Forget the internet they wrote letters and had them delivered days or weeks later by steam ship

·         Commercial air travel was not available so if they met for a conference it took a real commitment of time.

·         These events took place during two world wars and the protagonists of the story were on different political and social sides of the conflicts.

With all the advantages we have today I suggest the next time you feel inclined to find an excuse about why you can’t collaborate with a colleague to solve a problem you might want to get a little perspective, role up your sleeves and get busy.  

In a world focused on action and results here are three questions that you might want to consider every day:

1.    If I hit a dead end when trying to solve a problem, what do I do?  Have you built a support network of trusted collaborators that can help you break-through?

2.    What keeps me from opening up to the insights of others?

3.    What risk did I take yesterday?  What risk will I take tomorrow?

Tags: Behavior, Collaboration, Generations, Inspiration, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Design, Futuristic, Generations, Innovative, People, Technology, Technology/Innovation, Trends

I recently had the pleasure of attending a two day Lessons Learned Workshop at NIH related to Biomedical Research Facilities that have been built in the last several years. In today’s complex world we architects are trying, harder than ever it seems, to meet the needs of our client with each project, but today, our clients seem to have many voices. The beauty of this conference was that all of the competing voices were in one place and had a chance to express their perspective in an educational setting. In the project world it can be an extremely delicate balancing act to place the proper emphasis on the right voice.

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Tags: Advice, Behavior, Biocontainment, Change, Collaboration, Labs, Leadership, Learning, NIH, pain, Programming, Research, Safety, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Architecture, Change Management, Design, Generations, Innovative, Lab Planning, People, Science

I spoke to an engineer the other day who was involved in the design of a manufacturing cleanroom for a materials science application.  This project required extremely low temperature and humidity conditions.  My first question was:  “Do people have to work in those spaces?”

He said:  “Yes and with special gowning they can survive in this harsh environment.”

I immediately thought of a conversation with a BioPharma engineer.  He said:  “We’ve spent the last 25 years trying to design people out of the manufacturing process.”  The prevailing thinking in the BioPharma industry was that people are unpredictable and have idiosyncratic needs that make them burdensome in cGMP spaces.  With the future of the BioPharma industry being focused more on low-volume, high turn-over personalized medicines, the prevailing logic around people in (or not) the manufacturing process may have gone too far.  Empowered and knowledgeable workers making real-time decisions may be the key to the TQM process, efficient change-overs and their future competitive advantage.

Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the BioPharma industry that can be applied to Materials Science.   The issue is not how people can survive in the environment, rather we should be thinking about the next generation of employees and how they can actually thrive in these highly specialized environments.

Tags: Labs
Posted in Architecture, Design, Lab Planning, People

Understanding People and Process Resulting in Design of Place

Over the next few blog entries, Brady will be discussing how individuals interact with others and their environment at work and how this affects the planning behind design of space.

How do we choose a place to work?  What drives us to join and stay with a company?  It is a complex answer that stems from functional, emotional, physical and social aspects of being a human being at work.  The balance needed to maintain a positive value proposition between an individual and an organization is in constant flux.  Likely the most complex issue that a company should be concerned about is the social dynamics of the work created. 

The science of social dynamics is the study of the ability of a group of people who are in relation with each other to react to inner and outer changes.  This mathematically inspired approach to people comprises an analysis of the group’s ability to deal with its regulation mechanisms.  Workplace design builds upon the systems, sociology and individual behaviors of the group in order to shape space to affect positive results in the dynamics of the group.

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Tags: Behavior, Experience, Interior, Strategy
Posted in Architecture, Design, People, Workplace

Over the summer of 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview community college presidents, provosts, vice presidents and deans, to better understand the challenges and opportunities that these institutions face as they navigate through these historically tough economic times. Over the course of the next several blogs, I’ll share some common themes that came up consistently during these enlightening conversations:  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Campus, college, students
Posted in Architecture, Campus Planning, Classrooms, Design, Higher Education, People

Did you know that ventilation in a lab environment can consume up to 44% of the total energy output?  

So how do you effectively and efficiently reduce the large amounts of energy that is used for ventilation while at the same time maximize safety in the lab?  In balancing these two factors more exhaust air is not always the answer – after all, more air out requires more air in. As a result, excessive ventilation can actually diminish safety conditions in the labs.  Currently Labs 21 is supporting optimization rather than maximization.  

Just as a reference point, a typical lab building consumes 3 to 5 times more energy than a typical office building.  Per Labs 21 If you break down consumption annually it would look like the chart below.  

Tags: LinkedIn, Safety
Posted in Design, Lab Planning, People, Science, Sustainability

Our world of work is agile.  How many people move around in a day?  Everyone moves; even if just to go to get coffee, or lunch, or other.  Some of us are in the office 50% or less.  The 8 to 5 day in corporate America is so far gone that the memory has nearly faded.  And the 20-somethings are looking around and questioning the value of work that is tied down in any way.  The value of the desk, the office, the conference room, is over shadowed by the desire to move, connect and produce results in agile ways.

How does space, or more accurately “Workplace” support agile work today?  Most space does not support work, and the proof is the millions of square feet our society builds, maintains and fills with the infamous workstations every year that, essentially, lie useless and empty.  Why?

What is the answer to this problem?  The solution seems complicated, but really it may be quite simple.  Management change!

Leaders are leading.  Associates are associating.  And managers are managing.  Sounds simple, but each motivation is quite different.  

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Tags: Change, Leadership, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Design, People, Workplace

At the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs are the biological and physiological needs.   Food is part of this bottom tier.  As you move up the pyramid of the hierarchy into psychological and self-actualization levels, words like “relationship”, “creativity”, and “achievement” appear.  Consider the impact that food has on qualities of life such as these.  Food is often an acknowledgement of achievement (an in a birthday cake).  Creativity can be sparked from a good meal.  Many of our best work relationships are built over the ritual of lunch.  Food is a key component of a fulfilling and value rich work experience.

Humana Cincinnati’s Café at Eden Park was designed to enhance the associate experience through the quality of food.  The following article defines the goals and attributes of the new experience of food for the 1,200 people working at the Cincinnati Headquarters.

Facility Design Project of the Month, Jan. 2010: The Humana Café at Eden Park, Cincinnati

Tags: Experience, Needs
Posted in Design, People, Workplace

Why would an organization invest time and money in a strategic design approach that creates change and potential turmoil?  What is wrong with the ways that many organizations today are delivering space to their people?

There is an excellent chapter in the new book The Commercial Real Estate Revolution which sums up the intent and value of workplace strategy.  The book is advertised to teach organizations that:

Building is a fragmented, adversarial process that commonly results in dissatisfied customers and frequently ends in disappointment, bitterness, and even litigation.   The Commercial Real Estate Revolution tells you exactly why the current model is broken! Learn the 9 key principles and trends that the most innovative firms are using to change everything we know about building.

Chapter 14 exposes and defines “Key 9: Workplace Productivity”.  The chapter is compelling in many ways, but it falls short of driving home the potential impact of design on the human experience at work.  There remains latent opportunity to explore and discover the ability of strategic design to deliver on the promise of aligning the value of space with the people who work within it.  Organizations will continue to return to outdated strategies without this linkage being made through story, balanced measurement, acceptance and integrated design.  But the chapter is well worth study. 

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Tags: Advice, Books, Experience, Strategy
Posted in Design, People, Tools, Trends, Workplace

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” Albert Einstein.

Like Tim Brown from IDEO, we have found that it is more effective to initiate the act of design by taking design out of the hands of the designer and putting it in the hands of those most impacted by the design.  On a recent project we were faced with a challenge that changed my method of initiating, envisioning and conceptualizing a project in collaboration with those it impacted the most. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAinLaT42xY

The challenge was put to us by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center when they asked us to create a new experience for the child patient, their family, and their caregivers in the design of a new satellite hospital. The essential ingredient in the process of putting design into the hands of those most impacted it was to find a way for children to be active participants in the design process.   

To do this, we created a process tool we call “Imagine.” In this case,  where we utilized narratives to lead children through a series of visioning sessions to uncover the qualities of their favorite places, the places that make them happy, feel good and most importantly not scared.  We then worked with the kids to do sketches or “ideagrams” to diagram or “draw what they saw” while listening to the narrative.  The process, taking no longer than 30 to 40 minutes opened a new way of working together that fully engaged the creativity of the children.  We then worked with the children, core project team and parents alike to apply those favorite qualities to the design of new space and the experiences they would have when receiving or giving care.  In his terrific book Inner Game of Work, Timothy Gallway puts it this way.

“It is more effective for a golfer to “see” the trajectory of his golf ball rising into an arc against the sky, then falling onto the green and rolling into the hole, than it is to say to himself, “I want to hole this shot.”  Likewise, if your goal is better teamwork with your colleagues, it contributes to mobility to envision what that might look and sound like.  When you use pictures, sounds, and words to project a desired future state, more parts of the brain are involved in the goal setting.  This increases the likelihood that more of your brain will be used in the process of fulfilling the goal.*”        

When we used this process with parents as well as kids we found it worked equally well if not better than what we were using to engage adults in collaborative design thinking.  We use this method today with a wide variety of groups, including business and community leaders complete with crayons and construction paper.  Though occasionally we find, especially serious executives, skeptical of the idea that you can do effective work with a crayon in your hand, this has tool has made the sometimes ethereal process of visioning immencely practical, leveraging the power of the imagination.

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Tags: Books, Experience, Imagination, Pictures
Posted in Cool, Design, Generations, People, Tools, Workplace