Before we had the “raise hand” feature, if you weren’t the type of person to start speaking, somebody would have to give you an entree into the conversation. The technology has required me to get much better at observing people take a breath as if they’re about to speak, paying very close attention to that physical gesture, and then deferring to them because some people are uncomfortable interrupting. What has changed is I’ve honed my ability to pick up on cues. Marcella: I don’t think technology has changed all that much since we’ve gone remote. Steve: Marcella, as we look at the workspace of the future, which may continue to operate in some hybrid format, what role does technology play? Has it changed how people meet and interact, or are things fundamentally the same? So, then in thinking through where we go from here, I think we’ll find that there’s an increased need to think about the workspace as an asset that organizations can use to increase job satisfaction, productivity, and so forth. As we’ve moved to a remote environment, it’s become evident what it takes for people to be their best selves at work. You need to work in a properly equipped space where you feel like you’ve got the right monitors, the proper keyboards, and the right facilities to do your work. You have long meetings around a whiteboard, the serendipitous conversations that occur when you bump into someone in the hall. I think that’s helped us understand that there is tremendous value in the variety of different in-person interactions that happen during a workday. We’ve had to be very explicit about communication, collaboration, culture, and even mental health. It has really helped us clarify the product requirements for a workspace. Satwik: Many of us have been working in a remote-only environment for the past couple of years. Steve: Satwik, how do you see workspaces evolving? It’s about imagining all the potential ways we can use space rather than thinking it can only have a single purpose. That works well if you’ve got a space that can be dedicated to a specific purpose when needed, but that can also be flipped back into something else, like a conference room. Some companies create collaboration spaces where people can come together to brainstorm, hold meetings, and work on a particular project in private. An example is using walls that can be shifted around and reconfigured to create different spaces. Marcella: One of the keys is building in flexibility. Steve: How do we go about meeting those different needs? We need to collect the data and incorporate those observations into future designs, while remembering to consider that people experience spaces differently. In my opinion, we need to pay attention to what has worked in the past and observe how people are working presently and in the future. Likewise, there are people who work well at home and people who work well in the office. There are people who work well in open workspaces and people who work well in quiet focus. What we need is a balance, which requires some deep consideration of different types of work styles. We went from corner offices, lined up all along the window line with dark cubicles in the centre, to eliminating offices and having open workspaces. Marcella: We keep swinging from one end to the other. Steve: Marcella, given where we’ve been and where we’re at now, what do you see as some of the key considerations for designing great workspaces?
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