The Value of Places

Opening Remarks WORKTECH12 West Coast, Redwood City, October 15, 2012

Let us begin the day by agreeing that the value of places can be summed up in one simple statement:  everyone has to be somewhere all the time.  Dare I say it? We can get along without phones, laptops, televisions, and, yes, even Google and Facebook and LinkedIn, but we can’t escape being some place.  Let me say it again:  everyone has to be somewhere all the time.

Why not spend time in places that inspire us, that engage us, that delight us?

 

This is where technology comes in.  It has given us the freedom to connect to people and information from anywhere.  Technology has given us the power to work from the places where we do our best work – with others or by ourselves.  Technology allows us to shape the experiences we will have each day.

The employee experience is about culture and branding and technology and services and events and yes, places.  Most important, though, it is about the experience of connecting with other people – face-to-face or through technology. Research shows that the more diverse your network, the wider your network, the stronger your connections within your network, the more innovative you are likely to be. The number of friends a person has at work is a strong predictor of intent to stay; more friends, lower chance you will leave.  People want to be in places where there are other people, too few people and the space is dull, lifeless, and lacks buzz; too many and it is noisy and crowded.  There is a fine balance to creating the best employee experience for each unique person. 

And, yes, an empty workplace is definitely a sign of a problem. But I am afraid that we have given far too much attention to the empty seats in our workplaces and not enough attention to the people and the basic ways that work is changing.  To create valuable employee experiences, we need a comprehensive, systems-thinking approach to problem definition, recognizing that the nature of work is getting more and more complex.  Complex problems demand complex solutions.

Where to start?  Ask your Recruiting team which jobs are hard to fill and why. Ask which companies compete for the same hard-to-recruit people.  Ask why candidates choose other companies over yours.

Why?  Because unfilled jobs have a much bigger impact on the performance of your company than seats that are empty 50% of the time.  The jobs that are hard to fill are typically critical to the future success of the business.

When you listen closely, ask lots of follow-up questions, and continue the dialogue with Recruiting, you will get information that will change the way you shape the workplace experience.

My hope is that we will get to the point where we ask the questions:

·          are we investing enough in the employee experience?  

·          how does that investment impact performance at the individual, team, and organizational levels?

Then we can focus our attention on the complex relationship between investment spent on enhancing the employee experience vs. impact on performance (at the organizational, team, and individual levels).

The Future of How We Work

If you studied in the library or a coffee shop when you were in school, then the ideal workplace for you may be Grind, a collaborative workspace at 29^th and Park in Manhattan that touts itself as, “A workspace for free-range humans.”  Benjamin Dyett, a lawyer, co-created Grind after getting fed up with going to work in uninspiring, lifeless, traditional office environments.    No wonder that his creation is described as, “A members-only workspace and community dedicated to taking all of the frustrations of working the old way and pulverizing them to a dust so fine it actually oils the wheels of the machine.”

The place is so dynamic that even I, a classic dorm room studier (more on that later), wanted to sign up when I visited a few weeks ago.  Why?  My initial experience was a good one: welcoming, great views and wonderful natural light, a sense of energy and activity that felt neither too crowded nor too empty, a wide variety of workspaces, no status symbols, furniture I could move all by myself (if I wanted to).  Most of all, it was full of people who seemed like they wanted to be there, people who knew each other, even liked each other, and were excited about their work.

Sure, coworking is not new.  There are, however, several significant changes that have been shaping the trajectory of the “space as a service” trend:  large companies like Accenture are encouraging employees to use the LiquidSpace platform to find workspaces and meeting spaces where and when they need them; owners and managers of real estate are making underutilized spaces available to others on an as needed basis (such as Marriott’s “Workspace On Demand”).  Coworking spaces are not just for entrepreneurs and their start-up teammates anymore. 

Okay, so what does this have to do with where you studied when you were in school?  Well, it turns out that most of us made really smart choices when we finally had the freedom to choose where, when, and how to do our school work.  We made choices that suited our temperament and fit with our lifestyle.  Early birds registered for 8 am classes; night owls did not. 

When it came to solo work, some of us chose to work in the library or a coffee shop (or the student union or in the middle of the quad when the weather was nice) if we needed a clear separation between our personal life and school work.  These types of studiers depend on the particular setting to provide adequate light, the type of acoustical qualities we crave, comfortable temperature, and an interesting visual environment.   Some report being motivated to work when surrounded by others who are engaged in similar activities (even though they are not interacting with them).

Dorm room studiers intentionally merged their school work and personal activities, studying for a while and then taking a break to do laundry or talk with friends, for instance.  They typically work at odd hours (times of the day when the library may not have been open).   Most of all, they have control-freak tendencies.   Since I have already confessed to being a dorm room studier, I will use myself as an example.  I like to be able to control lighting, temperature, background music, whether to have a view out a window or not, and where to sit or stand or lie down while reading something.  By the way, I would never describe myself as an introvert.  Yes, even dorm room studiers crave a sense of community.  In school, it was easy to find people willing to chat in a dormitory or apartment building or house filled with other students; easy to tap into a diverse network of people when I wanted to hear a different perspective.

Here’s the connection to current workstyles.  Former dorm room studiers do some of their best solo work at home.  Those who frequented the library or coffee shop or other shared places when they were in school, should not try to do very much of their solo work from home today (they usually report feeling isolated, end up overworking, and will say they struggle to get their work done). 

Does that mean that dorm room studiers are the best teleworkers and all others are condemned to commuting to the office five days a week?  No, this is the beauty of LiquidSpace.  Through their app, people can find the ideal work environment that fits them, when needed, closer to their home or client locations.  The value of a place like Grind is that it provides a sense of community, access to people with a wide range of expertise, and a variety of workplaces to suit the work activity for as many or as few hours as needed.

Join us on February 21^st at Grind to learn more at a panel discussion on “The Future of How We Work”(please register here) where you’ll hear from:

Benjamin Dyett: Co-Founder,  Grind (an apartment studier who says: “I moved off-campus toward the end of my Freshman year so that I could live with 3 others from my program and create a little collaborative community - before I even knew what that was)

Cindy Froggatt:  Workplace Strategist, Perkins Eastman (dorm room studier)

Phil Kirschner:  Workplace Strategy & Innovation, Credit Suisse (dorm room studier)

Sonya Dufner:  Director of Workplace Strategy, Gensler (library studier)

Doug Marinaro: President,  Liquidspace (library studier)

Photo credit: Jaeger/Sloan Inc.