Expert Insights

While many companies are espousing innovation and new ways of working, most organizations have failed to bring together the people and issues with the physical environment in a way that will allow them to remain relevant.

The new office design reflects that company--â„¢s brand and its core values, creating offices in which staff members have a sense of shared vision. But the new office design is more than a simple exercise in corporate identity; it--â„¢s about using every surface to also create strong and effective color associations.

For years, fluorescent bulbs were the standard. Lighting designers created so many new styles, shades, and features that a change in lighting became a decorative choice rather than a functional one.

Traditional management practices put way too many barriers in front of employees. We've got to rethink our role as workplace professionals to focus our attention on leveraging human talent -- on creating workplaces that enable people to be productive, to collaborate with each other, and to invent new ideas.

For any given organization, culture is the essence of success, failure, growth, and decline. Interestingly, all four of those forces occur at roughly the same time.

The last decade has seen unprecedented change, driven by technologies that have forever altered how and where we work, so that, not long from now, there won--™t be offices --“ or at least, not offices as we understand them.

The future of the workplace is evolving into a playground of possibilities. Collaboration of multiple parties was not the norm 20 years ago. The sole purpose in the business world was to get yourself ahead, not bring others along with you.

I believe we are sitting at an important crossroads in the life and evolution of the workplace. This crossroads offers us a route of change and opportunity that we cannot afford to ignore. These changes are fundamental and they have the potential to change everything. We should also not underestimate the effects of liberation driven by flexible information technology and a new generation of workers.

The internet, video conferencing, and cloud-based networks all enable us to have interactions and to share information with people halfway around the world -- or simply across the room. Location has, in many instances, become a non-factor in how we connect with people.

Jan Johnson leads Allsteel--â„¢s Workplace Advisory team and gives us her take on enabling human performance.

Today, far too often we still are inundated with wasting time, energy, and money by having \"“people waiting for materials and work waiting for people.--  LEAN construction can organize collaboration and improve our work process efficiency. It is one step in the right direction.

Coworking is a rapidly growing, technology-driven phenomenon and is seen as an alternative to leasing more traditional office space.