Placing a name on something brings more meaning to it.  A name describes an object of interest, providing additional insight into what the object is.  For example, think about the sky.  The sky is a big entity that we can all associate with.  But give the sky a “name”, and a different understanding is gained:  blue sky, stormy sky, angry sky, sun-set sky.  Each name fills out of different image in our mind of the nature of the sky.

Finding an all-inclusive name for work has been a broad search in recent years.  We in workplace strategy have been seeking the right name to describe the evolving world of work we are living in today?   I turned to Google’s search engine to collect some data on today’s more common work names.

“Knowledge Work”:  1,880,000 results

Peter Drucker created the name knowledge work in 1959 to describe work based on using information to develop knowledge to gain results.  This name differentiated work that was primarily focused on products and goods.  The PBS study “The First Measured Century” stated that knowledge work (tertiary occupations) began at 21% of the male workforce (sorry females!) in 1900 and ended at 58% in 1998.  In 1900 20% of women held professional work.  In 1998 52% of women held professional work.

“Telework”:  1,660,000 results

According to Merriam Webster’s, an associated name to telework, “telecommute”, was first used in 1974.  In using the connector “tele”, the name pays tribute to the most commonly owned technology of the 1970’s – the television.  The television was a device designed to transmit vision over huge distances.  Telework, then, is work that happens over distance.  In 2010, the president signed The Telework Enhancement Act, which was intended to enable government workers to engage in more work at a distance, thus reducing costs.

“Smart Work”:  1,620,000 results

Smart work often is described as work to make ideas happen.  Scott Belsky writes in his “WorkSmart” blog in Fast Company that, “The greatest achievements happen in the overlap of three things: Your genuine interests, skills, and opportunities. To find success, work within your overlap.”

“Mobile Work”:  1,350,000 results

Mobile work has one core principle:  work results are not dependent on a single place.  The impact of mobile work on the workplace has been most dramatic in the past ten years.  Some estimates are currently quoting that there are 1 billion mobile workers in the world today.  We consistently see utilization measurements averaging as low as 35% in workplaces today.

“Alternative Work”:  668,000 results

Alternative work is most often used to describe protocols for work under variable schedules.  The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has published an on-line Handbook of Alternative Work Schedules.

“Distributed Work”:  477,000 results

In the 2002 book titled “Distributed Work” published by The MIT Press, the authors expanded the definition of telework to include the attributes of smart work.  The combination of diverse locations and a concentration on idea generation within distributed work is uniquely dependent of the use of technology. 

“Flexible Work”:  4,340,000 results

Of all the names for work, the name that leads them all is Flexible Work.  Such phrases as “work & life balance”, autonomy of choice, engagement & worker satisfaction, and overtime regulation are within the meaning of the name flexible work.  Of all the names given to the nature or work today, the name Flexible Work stirs that most change reaction.  A 2011 Fortune article states once again the challenges from the perceived losses of face time and visible long hours in the office resulting from Flexible Work. 

Workplace strategy has not condensed the nomenclature around a common name for work.  As companies of all types and sizes continue to develop their own uniquely branded names for the work that is actually occurring within their footprints, more names will surely be created.  There may be as many names for work as there are companies in the world. 

My opinion is that “Flexible work” is the best of the bunch, as it is the most encompassing of the basic migration of behaviors of work process.  And flexible OR agile space design is a good general term for workplaces that meet the evolving work processes and cultural needs of all companies at work.

I do not like “alternative work”, “tele-work”, “smart work”.  Each of these implies that there is an opposite version of work, which creates conflict.  It is a continuing debate with no clear end in sight.

Tags: Change, Communication, Learning, Lesson
Posted in Agility, Architecture, Futuristic, Innovative, Mobility, Trends, Workplace

I’m seeing increasing evidence that skilled labor and the people who produce it are growing in value to business owners. So even in an economy with a nearly 10% unemployment rate, why are these key employees in short supply?  The answer is simple, it’s because our idea that the value of labor is rooted in an industrial revolution era concept of the assembly line.  We tend to view all labor as a mindless task reserved to those who don’t have the mental capacity to do something else.  In a six sigma, just-in-time manufacturing world, labor has become anything but a mindless task.  We are increasing the need for both thinking and doing.  I predict that this phenomenon will eventually change our mindset about higher education. To advance in the new economy, we’ll need intelligent workers who can make informed decisions in the manufacturing process and the employers who are willing to pay a premium to get workers that can both think and do.

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Tags: Behavior, Generations, Leadership, Millenials
Posted in Generations, People, Services, Trends, Workplace

In the middle of 2010, Keith Perske posted a compelling blog challenging the design field to think about work without our typical reliance on thinking about place.  I say, “AMEN”.

As an architect deeply concerned about the nature of work, I see places continually being created that are disconnected from the reality of what it now means to be “people” at work.  We have limited our thinking of “place” to the physical, and have not touched on the emotional, psychological, and inter-relationship that drive people to produce results in the context of their work.  Place is a subset of work, along with the parameters of technology, process, brand, economics, etc.  In combination, these parameters create demands of place that are simultaneously physical and virtual, but equal in social dynamics.

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Tags: Behavior, Change, Experience
Posted in Agility, Architecture, Mobility, People, Workplace

Q: How do we define Social Dynamics?

Thoughts: Social dynamics is the ability of a group of people, be it a society, a culture, an organization, a family or a team (at work), to successfully adapt to the nature of change in their system of function, purpose and governance.

What is very clear in the study of work is that the nature of performing work today has less “independence” in the activities leading to business results than in the past.  People need other people to complete their work, either from the standpoint of transactional work or creative thinking work.  The task delivery process of work (make this widget or fill this order) has been rebalanced with creative problem solving work process (solve this unique problem or create this unique solution).  Isn’t it telling that two of the most common work behaviors used to define work today are ‘collaboration’ and ‘innovation’?  Innovation can be, and is often, achieved by an individual working alone.  However, with the pace of change and the demands for results, innovation can be increased when exemplified within the social dynamics of a TEAM at work.  Collaboration and innovation involve superior levels of social dynamics, accentuating the need of a group of people to respond successfully to the nature of change to solve problems and create solutions.

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Tags: people, quality, work process
Posted in People, Workplace

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

Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study

Do you occasionally sit back and wonder why work is so complicated?  What happened to our worlds of work when we knew almost every day how to attack and beat back the infamous “to-do” list?  A good day ten years ago was when I finished all but a couple of the items on my list, and was charged up to refresh and hit it again the next day.  Those days are gone.  Work and life priorities are in constant change.  Reaction times require continuous immediacy.  Requirements simply present themselves as “complex”, sometimes bordering on the edge of chaotic.

If Uncertainty was the word for 2010, then Complexity is the word for 2011. Complexity is defined as: “the varied relationship of multiple elements that are relative and changing over time.”  The nature of the elements, the relationship of the connections, and the change nature of it all, compound over time resulting is a loss of predictability and order in the system.  The personal result is that today our daily lists of to-do’s are often blown up in hour one of the day, never to be returned to again.

In the spring of 2010, IBM released the fourth year of a study of what is on the minds of the world’s CEO’s.  The title of the 2010 report is Capitalizing on Complexity.  The introduction to the report states:

“In a world fraught with uncertainty, what are today’s CEOs doing to strengthen their situations against competitors?

Previously, CEOs have consistently identified change as their most pressing challenge. Today, CEOs are telling us that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Change, Experience, Leadership, Learning, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Cool, People, Workplace

When I began working at my current company in 2005, I was completely unprepared for the cultural shift I was about to experience.  My ideals and pursuit for professional results were an apparent match for those of the company, but my preferred behaviors and approach to work were very out of sync with “the company”.  The resulting tension that was created was palpable.  I listened with great interest to the stories about the founding fathers of the company.  I learned about the days when, if you needed a refill on a lead holding pencil for drafting, you had to go in front of the owner, Cyrus Baxter, and ask for the new stick of lead.  I found great insight in the story our current CEO told about when he was 14 years old cutting the grass at the office, and Cy came down from his second story office and chewed him out for not keeping the wheel lines of the mower straight enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Advice, Collaboration, Experience, Learning
Posted in People, Workplace

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

I recently read an article (Fortune, October 19, 2006 “What it takes to be great”) proclaiming that great success was equally proportional to great effort.  The articles thesis is:

 “You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.”

It was the idea of “painful” work that triggered my response.  Hard work need not be demanding and painful to achieve great results.  Hard work can be joyful, passionately driving more hard work and more results.  There is no doubt in the old adages, “Showing up is half the battle”, plus “put your nose to the grindstone”, equals a baseline need for greatness – at least some levels of success.  But, what success?

Pain and demand alone do not drive greatness.  These qualities create short bursts of intensity and are needed for breakthrough moments in the self-creative process.  But pain and demand alone do not sustain the journey to greatness. Joy and passion do.  These create purpose and connection to meaning and value.  If demand and pain were the central factors that drove Tiger Woods to golf greatness, it is likely that he would have stopped his pursuits in golf after earning his first hundred million.

The article concludes with the following statement:

“For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That’s the way it must be.”

Read this article with care.  Ask if “demand and pain” are what drove the people in the examples to their greatness.  Or was it something more of a “passionate joy” that sustained them?

Tags: Inspiration, Leadership, pain, success
Posted in 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