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The magazine of workplace research, insight, and trends   Issue 59
360steelcase.com                                          June 2010




Harder Working Spaces
The workplace just got smarter.




Q&A with Roger Martin 14                                  Trends360 17
                                                          Sustainability Spotlight 19
Finding the Holy Grail in
                                                          NeoCon 2010 Special Edition 20
business today: innovation
                                                          Atoms & Bits 56
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: The workplace has never had to work so hard. On the cover, our mind
map (a brainstorming technique used by our colleagues at IDEO to support design thinking)
illustrates how the workplace has to maximize use of real estate, attract and engage workers,
communicate company brand and culture, and foster collaboration and innovation. To help
make this idea a reality, we offer insights from designers, architects, and Steelcase research-
ers on how to plan these harder working spaces, and show companies that have pulled it
off. Next, noted business author Roger Martin discusses design thinking and how it can help
foster innovation. In our special NeoCon 2010 section, we feature the Steelcase family of
showrooms and new products that can help create harder working spaces. Working harder
just got easier.
j u n e 2010




FEATuRE                                                                                       NEOCON 2010 SpECiAl SECTiON

2    Harder Working Spaces                                                                    20 Come See us
People are working harder                                                                     A guide to all the good stuff
than ever. So should their                                        NeoCon 2010                 happening in the Steelcase
space. See how leading                                                                        family of brands this year.
companies are reducing
real estate, building brand,
fostering collaboration,                                                                      21 Don’t Miss This
and engaging employees.                                                                       From inspiring speakers to great
                                                                                              parties, there’s a lot to see and do
                                                                                              while you’re in Chicago.

DEpARTMENTS

14 Q&A                                                                                        22    Steelcase Showroom Map
Roger Martin, one of the most
                                                                                              36    Turnstone Showroom Map
insightful business thinkers
and writers around, answers                                                                   37    Details Showroom Map
questions about innovation
                                                                                              38    Nurture Showroom Map
and how companies can get
better at it.                                                                                 39    Coalesse Showroom Map

17 Trends360                                                                                  40 New at NeoCon
Insightful signposts we’re                                                                    The showrooms are packed
seeing about business,                                                                        with insightful new products
work, and the workplace.                                                                      and thoughtful enhancements
                                                                                              from Steelcase companies.
                                                                                              A quick look starts here.
19 Sustainability Spotlight
David Berger has a brilliant idea
for bringing light to off-the-grid
parts of the world.



56 Atoms & Bits
Things to check out
in person or online.




Threesixty is published bimonthly by Steelcase Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright 2010. Material in this publication may not be reproduced
in any form unless you really want to help people love how they work — just ask us first, okay? Contact us at 360editor@steelcase.com.


                                                                                              360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °        1
j u n e 2010




                                               Workers at Accenture’s Houston
                                               offices use media:scape to collaborate
                                               using extensive digital information.




2   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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Harder Working
Spaces
    The workplace just got smarter.



    is it possible to compress real estate and shrink individual
    footprints while at the same time helping people to collaborate
    and create more effectively? Yes.

    As companies work their way out of the            Several leading companies show how it
    recession, they often feel a tug-of-war           can be done. Consulting giant Accenture
    between two seemingly contradictory goals:        developed a work environment strategy
    the need to stay lean and efficient yet, at       called Workplace 2.0 that it piloted in its
    the same time, become more flexible and           newly relocated Houston office. “When
    creative. Businesses are more efficient now,      most organizations pull a workplace strategy
    having cut their biggest expenses – real          together, it really has a real estate focus.
    estate and people. Companies need                 We aligned our overall business strategy, our
    every part of the operation, especially the       human capital, real estate, and technology
    workplace, to work harder than ever. not          strategies very closely and pulled all of those
    just individual workspaces, but the entire        together into a comprehensive strategy,” says
    office. every. Square. Foot. “We don’t have       Dan johnson, Accenture’s global director,
    a client who isn’t asking for their real estate   workplace. The results are impressive in
    and workplace solutions to work harder, to        terms of real estate compression alone:
    do more,” says Lauri Lampson, principal with      Their office went from three floors and
    Houston-based planning Design Research            66,000 square feet down to one floor of
    (pDR), expressing the experiences of              25,000 square feet, while still supporting
    designers and architects everywhere.              more than 800 people.

    In a world of 24/7 competition, project           A leader in alternative work strategies such
    teams stretch from Midtown to Mumbai, and         as hotelling, Accenture prides itself on its
    business moves at race pace. Companies are        efficient use of real estate. But what sets
    looking to create harder working spaces that:     the company apart is how it considers the
                                                      workplace holistically. Instead of simply
    • maximize real estate utilization
                                                      using smaller workstation footprints and
    • foster and support collaboration                similar approaches to increase density,
    • help attract and engage talent                  the workplace is both smaller and harder
                                                      working, using a combination of business
    • reinforce the culture and build the brand
                                                      strategies in ways that work best for the
      of the organization.
                                                      organization. The company also insists
    Can space really work that hard? Is it            its workplace meet high standards for
    possible to compress real estate and shrink       what it terms “The Four e’s” of “efficiency,
    individual footprints while helping people        effectiveness, engagement, and environ-
    collaborate and create more effectively?          ment,” with collaboration as a baseline.
    To inspire workers and help them feel more        Like a lot of companies, Accenture found
    connected to company culture and brand?           that many workstations were empty for
    How can you simultaneously combine lean,          long periods of time because workers were
    innovative, and effective?                        collaborating in team spaces, project rooms,

                                                                360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   3
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    or offsite. “The briefcase, the PC, and the
    coat had one of the best views in town,”
    says Bill Mearse, Houston location managing
    director. The company realized that its staff
    was working differently, so its workplace
    had to reflect and support those new ways of
    working. The integrated work strategies and
    the Four e’s strategy address these changes.

    Mobile telecom leader Vodafone also applied
    an integrated strategy for the company’s new
    netherlands headquarters in Amsterdam.
    The company was not only moving its office
    from another city, but also consolidating
    staff from three different sites at the new
                                                        Vodafone’s new netherlands headquarters (top photos) in Amsterdam and Accenture’s
    location. “We needed to make a big step
                                                        new Houston offices (bottom photos) share much in common: unassigned workspaces,
    forward in our workspace to break out from
                                                        benching applications, and plenty of room for collaborative work in both open and
    traditional offices to something fresh, new,
                                                        closed spaces. Both companies reduced real estate substantially with these new
    even heretical,” says jens Schulte-Bockum,
                                                        workplace strategies.
    CeO of Vodafone netherlands. To support
    mobile and collaborative knowledge work,        every Vodafone staffer – from leadership         tion; the former use calls for some small
    and to demonstrate the company brand,           to the newest worker – operates from the         privacy screens and space for portable tools,
    Vodafone’s workplace has a very open layout     same workspaces. Much like Accenture’s           while the latter needs more work surface,
    with no assigned workspaces combined with       office, Vodafone’s workplace is colorful,        space for more people and no screens at
    a wide variety of meeting and project spaces.   welcoming, and energetic, and uses less          all. Real estate savings realized through
                                                    real estate than their previous offices.         benching should be leveraged for the benefit
                                                                                                     of all workers – for cafés, lounge areas,
                                                    Benching is a go-to strategy for gaining
                                                                                                     team rooms, and other shared spaces.
                                                    more efficiency in real estate footprints,
                                                    and, while it’s been used in europe for          Accenture and Vodafone made sure their
                                                    many years, it’s a growing phenomenon in         benching workspaces were augmented
                                                    north America. Benching is an application        by shared spaces, a move that pays real
                                                    approach for supporting workers with parallel    dividends. “There’s a lot more informal
                                                    work surfaces along a spine. Typically there     communication going on in the office,” says
                                                    are no space-defining panels and little or no    Vodafone’s Bockum. “People are closer to
                                                    dedicated storage and privacy. It’s definitely   one another, it’s easier to have a quick chat
      Smaller and smarter.                          an efficient approach: Research conducted        about issues. People are communicating
      Accenture’s Houston office didn’t             by Steelcase WorkSpace Futures in europe         more than in previous environments and
      just get smaller, it got smarter,             and north America shows space savings            I think that adds to productivity. Mission-
      more open, and more collaborative             of 22-26% in benching applications verses        critical information is passed between people
      to better support its 800 workers.
                                                    individual workstations, and an initial cost     more easily and people have the feeling
      FROM:                  TO:
                                                    savings of 10-15%. But there’s a risk as well:   that there’s more information sharing going
      • 3 floors             • 1 floor              cramming more desks into less space to           on, that they’re on the inside rather than
      • 66,000 sq. ft.       • 25,000 sq. ft.       save money can affect the performance of         struggling to keep up with what’s going on.”
      • private offices      • unassigned           the workplace and staff. Benching should be
                                                                                                     The flow of information and ideas is critical
         & dedicated            workspaces &        tailored to the work being done. For example,
         workstations           collaboration                                                        to collaboration, the de facto protocol for
                                                    project team members might use a bench for
                                spaces                                                               knowledge work today. It’s also the standard
                                                    individual work or as a place for collabora-
                                                                                                     embraced in the new offices of the Housing,

4   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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A benching workspace at the new Accenture
Houston office. Workers move from bench
areas for focused work to a variety of group
work spaces, cafés, and lounge areas.




                                               360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   5
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                                                    The Coca-Cola Supply workplace encourages and supports information sharing, teamwork,
                                                    and collaboration in a variety of workspaces.




    Dining, and Hospitality (HDH) department        working in the field and are not in the office    display and flexible storage. Storage doubles
    at the university of California, San Diego,     every day, 40% of the workspaces are unas-        as guest seating and work surface, and
    opened earlier this year. Workers from 11       signed. The essential nature of the space         even offers embedded technology that helps
    different locations were brought together       is open and collegial. O’Sullivan planned         people share information on monitors with
    in a workplace designed to break down           different types of collaboration spaces - large   another person or a group. Forget struggling
    internal silos and improve communication        and small, open and enclosed - and all offer      to see a computer screen tucked back on
    and information sharing. Down came the          plenty of technology support for displaying       the credenza.
    panels, in came impromptu meeting and           and sharing information. One space, dubbed
                                                                                                      The notion of “private” itself is being
    team spaces along with technology for easier    the data-presence room, features four large
                                                                                                      redefined. An enclosed office remains
    sharing of information – all to encourage the   monitors in a group and media:scape ®
                                                                                                      a private refuge, but it also must support
    ongoing conversations vital to collaboration.   technology that allows four people to display
                                                                                                      the increasingly collaborative nature of work,
                                                    what’s on their laptops in real time, side
    “It’s been just three months and information                                                      even for those who occupy private spaces.
                                                    by side.
    flows faster now, and that’s a huge benefit.                                                      The office must be able to make a quick
    We’ve brought people together and given         Alongside shared workspaces and collabora-        transition from supporting focused individual
    them an environment they can work in more       tive work areas stands a traditional office       work to group collaboration. Designers are
    effectively. We had no idea it could work       icon: the private office. At Coca-Cola Supply,    planning these new private offices in work
    this well, but it seems so apparent now.        Accenture, uC San Diego, and countless            zones: one for conversation by the entry,
    It’s amazing the way you can construct a        other companies, private offices endure –         another zone for collaboration farther inside,
    community with a building and furniture,”       with good reason. They offer the highest level    and one for concentrated work farthest from
    says Mark P. Cunningham, executive              of privacy, they’re ideal for concentrative       the door. The collaboration zone should
    director of HDH.                                work, and they’re part of the organizational      include a work surface for use by one person
                                                    culture of many companies. In the past,           or a small group, mobile seating, the means
    GREATER ExpECTATiONS
                                                    organizations often allocated private offices     to display work in progress, and technology
    Building a new organizational culture was       based on hierarchy. now many organizations        support that is simple and ubiquitous.
    the main goal for a space designed for the      are making those decisions based on job
                                                                                                      Hotelling works in the open plan, so why not
    newly formed supply chain logistics team,       function and worker needs. The private office
                                                                                                      in the private office? At some companies,
    Coca-Cola Supply, an LLC of Coca-Cola           isn’t going away; it’s being re-imagined
                                                                                                      an employee may be assigned a private office
    Enterprises, and the Coca-Cola Company          and redesigned to support the type of
                                                                                                      that is made available to others when that
    in Atlanta. Deirdre O’Sullivan, designer and    work being done, which often requires
                                                                                                      person is away for some time. The private
    principal at idea|span, says the combined       quick shifts between focused individual
                                                                                                      office worker simply isolates confidential
    group “wanted to let go of the entrenched       work and collaboration.
                                                                                                      materials in a file or other storage, and just
    ways of doing things and figure out how
                                                    Footprints for all spaces are getting smaller,    that easily the office becomes available as
    they could work together better,” and they
                                                    so every private office surface needs to          a meeting room, huddle space. In some
    used their workplace to help define the new
                                                    perform at higher levels. Walls support visual    companies, two people share a private
    era. Since many of the workers typically are

6   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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                                                           knowledge workers’ biggest beef:
                                                           not having a workplace that helps
                                                           attract and retain good talent.
                                                           Steelcase Workplace Satisfaction Survey




office full-time, often by workers who         are being adopted by their older Gen X and            project leader – build and share knowledge
regularly work together, such as financial     Boomer colleagues, creating a whole new set           that in turn drives creativity and innovation,
auditors and legal associates.                 of requirements for any company that wants            using these four modes:
                                               to compete for talent.”                               • Focusing – every worker needs some time
Rethinking the workplace takes planning,
vision, and a commitment from leadership       Creating a space that attracts all generations          that’s uninterrupted to concentrate and
and staff. At Coca-Cola Supply, “the           and helps to engage them in their work is               attend to specific tasks such as thinking,
president formed a leadership steering         no longer optional. The vast majority of                studying, contemplating, strategizing,
committee of corporate real estate, team       workers say having an office that helps                 processing, and other “heads-down” work.
leaders from both organizations, and other     attract and retain knowledge workers is               • Collaborating – Fundamentally,
workers to help define this new workplace,”    important, according to the Steelcase
                                                                                                       collaboration is about working with
says O’Sullivan. This multigenerational team   Workplace Satisfaction Survey, an ongoing
                                                                                                       one or more people to achieve a goal,
participated in a day-long education process   global survey of attitudes on work issues that
                                                                                                       such as collectively creating content
about new trends in the workplace and          has engaged nearly 23,000 respondents at
                                                                                                       or brainstorming. Ideally, all perspectives
realized the opportunity they had to embrace   133 companies. It’s the single biggest issue
                                                                                                       are equally respected, brought together
new ideas for increasing collaboration.        not being met – and it’s been that way every
                                                                                                       to leverage the group’s shared mind.
Stepping away from the paradigm of each        year since the survey began in 2004.
person owning their own space, the team                                                              • Learning – Learning is about building

recognized that by allowing some workers                                                               knowledge. Whether in a classroom
to shift to a free address system, it would                                                            or a conversation with peers, learning
open up space that could be reallocated for                                                            happens best by building on each
collaboration areas.                                                                                   other’s knowledge. When thinking is
                                                                                                       made visible and shared with others,
Figuring out how to attract and engage
                                                                                                       learning is accelerated.
the multigenerational workforce is a sticky
problem for many organizations. experts                                                              • Socializing – Knowledge becomes

often suggest the needs of different genera-                                                           ingrained in the organization through
tions are diametrically opposed, but in fact                                                           socialization. As people socialize and work
their diverse needs are more aligned than                                                              with others in formal and informal ways,
dissimilar, according to primary research                                                              learning and trust are nurtured. And those
conducted by Steelcase. A nine-month                                                                   are necessary ingredients for innovation.
study of u.S. companies shows that Gen Y’s                                                           Across the four work modes, workers create
new behaviors and work styles are driving                                                            and use two types of knowledge: explicit
                                               ENGAGiNG WORkERS
eight dramatic shifts in knowledge work and                                                          and tacit. explicit knowledge is the formal,
                                               To better engage all workers regardless of
the workplace. Moreover, these workplace                                                             systematic information typically found
                                               generation, high-performing spaces effec-
shifts are being embraced rapidly by                                                                 in documents, procedures, and manuals.
                                               tively support the four modes of knowledge
workers of all generations. “Gen Y workers                                                           In contrast, tacit knowledge is deeply
                                               work (as described by nonaka and Takeuchi
are transforming the rules of engagement                                                             personal, harder to formalize, and learned
                                               in the seminal book, The Knowledge Creating
between employers and employees,” says                                                               by experience. It’s communicated indirectly
                                               Company) common to all knowledge workers:
Sudhakar Lahade, senior design researcher                                                            through metaphor, analogy, mentoring, and
                                               focused work, collaboration, learning, and
with Steelcase’s WorkSpace Futures group,                                                            working side by side. It’s how knowledge
                                               socializing. All knowledge workers – whether
which conducted the research. “Younger                                                               gets shared, ideas are explored and tested,
                                               consultant or scientist, product manager or
knowledge workers’ attitudes and behaviors                                                           and the value of experience is passed from

                                                                                                               360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   7
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                                                               No cubes, no silos,
                                                               no worries.
                                                               new offices for the Housing, Dining and Hospitality department at the university of California,
                                                               San Diego were meant to improve communication and nurture collaboration, so the number
                                                               of private offices was cut in half, workstations were placed adjacent to group meeting spots,
                                                               and technology tools were added to help people share information. In an organization where
                                                               “it was considered better to have a broom closet than an open workspace,” the new space
                                                               has changed everything, says Mark P. Cunningham, the department’s executive director.
                                                               “The interaction now is amazing, at all levels. We have no issues with noise or privacy,
                                                               yet people are talking and sharing more. The office has become a destination.”




                                                               worker to worker. Both explicit and tacit         where workers build on each other’s ideas
                                                               knowledge are essential to the process            and together create something new. “That’s
                                                               of building knowledge and fueling                 really what a lot of companies are looking
                                                               creativity and innovation, a process              to achieve,” says Mark Adams, principal, of
                                                               that requires collaboration.                      Phoenix-based architecture and design firm,
                                                                                                                 SmithGroup. “It’s all about helping people
                                                               But not just any kind of collaboration. The
                                                                                                                 work together more effectively by creating
                                                               simple coordination of tasks (“here’s some
                                                                                                                 visual connectivity, interaction, and a sense
                                                               info for you...”) or communication (“wanted
                                                                                                                 of community.”
                                                               to let you know...”) is important to running




                                                                          it’s all about visual connectivity,
                                                                          interaction, and a sense of community.


                                                               a company. But genuine collaboration, the         Organizations whose offices exemplify
                                                               kind that leads to breakthrough ideas, comes      their culture and brand, attract and engage
                                                               from people working together specifically         workers, provide a highly collaborative
                                                               to gain new insights. As Accenture’s johnson      atmosphere, and do it all in less space are
                                                               says, “We wanted to make sure that (coming        getting their spaces to work harder than
                                                               to the office) was a very engaging experi-        ever. They also tend to be among today’s
                                                               ence, and people learned something by             leaders in business. “They let people be as
                                                               being here that they wouldn’t by not being        absolutely productive and as strong as they
                                                               here. It made the office a destination.           can be, providing them a support backbone
                                                               People are actually coming into the office        that allows them to do their job better than
                                                               now more for face-to-face collaboration and       anywhere else, and allows them to be
                                                               interaction with people, and much less for        creative, collaborative thinkers. When you
                                                               individual work.”                                 really, truly look at the ones that do these
    Organizations can mistake low-intensity interactions,                                                        things and have this philosophy, they tend to
    such as coordination of tasks (“tossing it over to you”)
                                                               In the past, most work was individually
                                                                                                                 be off-the-charts successful,” says Adams.
    or communication (“keeping you up to speed”) for true      focused, but today the reverse has become
    collaboration, which is about people working together
                                                               true: 82% of white-collar workers feel they
    for a common purpose and gaining new insights.
                                                               need to partner with others throughout their
                                                               day to get work done. Knowledge work has
                                                               become fundamentally a social activity,

8   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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NExT GENERATiON WORkSpACES                         “Innovation cannot be isolated from col-           sharing between and among employees,”
FOR iNNOVATiON                                     laboration,” notes Steelcase’s Lahade, who         as one writer dubbed it, to help keep Google
Space that’s harder working supports a             recently led a team studying innovation and        acting like a creative start-up organization.
company that wants to be lean, effective,          space. “While all collaborative work is not
                                                                                                      Mayo Clinic is another serial innovator. Their
and, especially important today, more              necessarily geared toward innovation, all
                                                                                                      SPARC Innovation Program, a first-of-its-kind
innovative. Companies are seeing signs that        innovations require some level of collabora-
                                                                                                      operation for designing and developing
the economy is turning around. Business            tion.” And effective collaboration requires
                                                                                                      health care innovations that opened in 2004,
confidence is returning and the focus is           the right space.
                                                                                                      leverages the organization’s deep expertise
shifting to growth, which according to most
                                                   Consider Google. The global search                 in health care, and makes the innovation
experts depends on what Harvard Business
                                                   engine giant has worked to build a culture         process and facility an integral part of the
Review calls the “secret sauce” of business
                                                   of innovation at every level of the company.       larger culture. In its first year alone, SPARC
success: innovation. The ingredients include
                                                   They operate as a marketplace for ideas,           generated more new ideas than the program
the right organizational culture, collaboration,
                                                   heavily cross-pollinating internally through       could handle, while the new approach
and space.
                                                   a tightly integrated culture where contribu-       proved its ability to take a wealth of ideas,
Author and innovation expert john Seely            tions from everyone on staff are encouraged.       conceptualize them, and demonstrate their
Brown says all innovation requires an accom-       It’s a natural approach for many companies         value to patient care.
modating company culture and workplace.            to look to their internal staff, not just R&D,
                                                                                                      Innovation can't be mandated. A culture that
“The cultures that constantly produce              for innovations. An iBM study found that the
                                                                                                      reveres and pursues creative ideas must be
innovation have visionary leadership, an           most common source of innovative ideas
                                                                                                      carefully nurtured. In fact, the quantitative
organizational commitment to breakthrough          for companies is its employees, relied on by
                                                                                                      skills that most companies develop for
thinking, and a place that supports the work       41% of CeOs with only 17% relying on R&D.
                                                                                                      analysis, production, processing, etc., are
of innovation.”
                                                   jan-Peter Kastelein, a partner at YNNO             often anathema to a culture of innovation,
There are two types of innovation: sustaining      consultants in utrecht, the netherlands,           according to Roger Martin, author and dean
and disruptive. The former is an improvement       worked with Google on their new R&D center         of the university of Toronto Rotman School
to an existing thing – say, release 2.0 of a       in Zurich. He notes that “Google workers           of Management. “Most companies are utterly
software program. Disruptive innovation is         have to be innovative every day, whether           ill-equipped to innovate. Leaders have to
a true breakthrough, often creating a new          it’s through new solutions, new ways of            be willing to accept an argument that
product category or market – think iPod.           doing things, or innovative products. The          says, ‘We can’t be certain, because this is
Sustaining innovation satisfies customer           space enables people to be innovative.”            something new. But here are the reasons
needs, sells for higher margins, and may           To generate novel solutions for information        we think it might work.’ Many executives
offer a competitive edge. Disruptive in-           retrieval, user interfaces, and new search         would say ‘That doesn’t seem like a strong
novation ensures competitive advantage,            features, this Google space, like the offices of   case. It looks different, it feels different,
often for a longer period of time, and builds      Accenture and Vodafone, includes wide open         it doesn’t make me as confident. Why can’t
momentum inside the organization and in            workspaces, communal cafes, and plenty             you prove this? Come back when you have
the marketplace. Companies need both               of ways to share information. At its core, the     proof.’ Another year or two goes by, some
kinds of innovation.                               space reflects an organizational attitude of       competitor does it and you’re behind the
                                                   “obsessive communication and information-          leader. You’re not an innovator.”




                                                                                                      To innovate, collaborate.
                                                                                                      The Mayo Clinic workspace reflects
                                                                                                      key principles of innovation: space
                                                                                                      for collaboration and displaying work
                                                                                                      in progress, and furniture that groups
                                                                                                      can move around and reconfigure
                                                                                                      to the needs of the project.




                                                                                                                360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   9
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                                                          No one’s ever built a start-up
                                                          business over a telephone line.
                                                          Ryan Armbruster, unitedHealth Group




     HElp iNNOVATiON FlOuRiSH                      care company. Technology can support              ability to innovate,” says Lahade. After all,
     Space is a key element that nurtures          collaboration – cell phones and video-            rethinking how space can help innovation
     the process of innovation. Martin says        conferencing help separated co-workers            flourish is one of the best ways to make
     “Innovation-oriented organizations are        communicate – but there’s no substitute           space work harder than ever.
     inherently going to be more project-based:    for rubbing shoulders. “The analogy we use        A full report on Steelcase’s innovation research
                                                   is: no one’s ever built a start-up business       will run in the December issue of Threesixty Magazine.
     most creative things in life are projects.
     Teams have to be able to work together        over a telephone line,” says Armbruster. “It’s    White papers on innovation and benching are available
                                                                                                     now at steelcase.com.
     and collaborate, so spaces that are           usually a bunch of people getting together,
     reconfigurable and more about the team        working nonstop, right? It’s intense collabo-
     than about long-term stability reinforce      ration, because you have to talk and work
     a culture of innovation.”                     things out and solve problems on the fly.”

     YnnO’s Kastelein says “Place is incredibly    Teams collaborate differently and for different
     important, especially for collaboration,      purposes. Furniture, tools, technology,
     knowledge sharing and learning. People        and space will vary by innovation model,
     have to have awareness of what colleagues     company culture or other factors. “Collabora-
     are doing, they have to have access to        tion has been a big topic for the last 10 or 15
     each other, and that’s why you’re seeing      years, but people are realizing the different
     more open planning in europe, for example,    types of collaboration we need to support.
     and people have to engage with others         More emphasis on more informal, casual
     in conversation. Space can help you with      spaces for informal get-togethers and cross
     all of those.”                                fertilization, and less about planned, formal
                                                   meetings,” says Lauri Lampson of PDR.
     “Space provides places for people to get
     together, interact, and that’s so important   “As organizations struggle to remain relevant
     when it comes to innovating around big        and meaningful, we are rethinking how space
     challenges,” says Ryan Armbruster,            can support, inspire, and enable innovation
     former director of the Mayo Clinic SPARC      business practices. We’re continuing to work
     program, and vice president of innovation     on how the design and use of innovation
     for unitedHealth Group, a managed health      spaces can reinforce the other organizational
                                                   components that contribute to a company’s

10   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
j u n e 2010




ideas for creating harder working spaces:

iNTEGRATE STRATEGiES TO CREATE               MAkE SpACES TECH-SAVVY                         REViTAlizE pRiVATE OFFiCES
HARDER WORkiNG SpACE
                                             The busiest group spaces in any                They usually house a company’s highest-
Maximize real estate performance             workplace are well equipped. Don’t             paid workers; how effectively those
by considering its relationship with         plan a project team or working group           workers are supported is an important
and impact on work processes (col-           space without tools for accessing,             business issue. Maximize private office
laboration), HR (attracting and retaining    sharing, and showing information.              real estate, provide flexible tech support,
talent), technology (information sharing),                                                  and make the office collaboration-ready:
and organizational brand and culture         uSE SpACE TO NuRTuRE SOCiAl
                                                                                            a zone for conversation by the door,
                                             CApiTAl AND TRuST
(communication, socialization).                                                             collaboration farther inside, and concen-
A workplace strategy must consider           Formal and informal social interaction is      trated work farthest from the door.
all of these factors.                        key, so encourage ad-hoc conversations
                                             with casual places for thinking and brain-     uSE SpACE TO FOSTER CHANGE
MAkE EVERY SQuARE FOOT COuNT                 storming. Benching applications help           Ryan Armbruster, vice president of
“Every seat must be a good seat,”            span boundaries that keep communica-           innovation for UnitedHealth Group, says
says Lauri Lampson of Planning Design        tion and collaboration free and easy. And      “space can help push the organization
Research (PDR). “You don’t want any          never underestimate the power of food          into change. There’s a line that you
‘low-rent districts.’ Access to natural      and beverage to attract people and get         have to brush up against, where you’re
light, separation from traffic, creating     them talking. PDR’s Lampson recalls a          changing enough that it’s making people
neighborhoods, different spaces with         scientist at an energy company explain-        a little uncomfortable, yet not so uncom-
different functions and features.” Every     ing why galley-like mini-kitchens in the       fortable that they completely disengage
square foot of real estate must perform.     corridor were so important. “She said,         or work against what you’re trying to
                                             ‘That’s where we run into each other and       accomplish.” Space where people can
FOR MORE iNTERACTiON, THiNk DENSiTY
                                             where science talks happen. The best           try new ideas, make a mess, and fail
New research finds that people in work-      ideas come out of those science talks.’”       safely behind the scenes nurtures the
stations along main circulation routes                                                      process of innovation and lets workers
have almost 60% more face-to-face            CREATE A DESTiNATiON
                                                                                            know that risk taking is encouraged.
communication with team members than         Knowledge professionals can work
those in low-visibility spots. (Harvard      practically anywhere, but the right space      YOu CAN’T ENCOuRAGE
Business Review, March, 2010, citing         makes the organization work. Genuine           COllABORATiON ENOuGH

work by James Stryker, Saint Mary’s          collaboration relies on face-to-face           It’s not only the way more knowledge
College of California) High-density          interaction. Insights and experience are       work gets done, it’s the fuel for innova-
workstation applications produced            shared among colleagues in intimate,           tion. Space saved by creating smaller
84% more team-member communica-              supportive surroundings. Innovation            individual workspaces can be used for
tions than low-density layouts. It’s a       needs places where people can share            spaces everyone will use: impromptu
huge upside to higher density. More          knowledge and build on each other’s            meeting areas, project rooms, huddle
interactions lead to more collaboration,     ideas. And company culture is nurtured         rooms. Tools for information sharing,
knowledge sharing, and idea generation       in the office, not at the coffee shop. Build   work surfaces where groups can spread
– the horsepower that drives innovation.     a workplace that’s a destination where         out the work, and vertical surfaces for
                                             all of this important work can happen.         making work visible are essential to
                                                                                            collaboration. Hot coffee and cold drinks
                                                                                            are drawing cards, and they support
                                                                                            learning, socializing, and collaborating.




                                                                                                        360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   11
j u n e 2010




          Before




                                                                   After




     A harder working
     health care space
     The health care industry                   Sixty-three pairs of patients and doctors took     Futures (WSF) observations in 2005 that
                                                part in the study. The pairs were assigned by      traditional exam/consultation rooms allowed
     is highly regulated,                       chance to either a conventional consultation       the provider primary access to information
     subject to strict laws,                    room (in the left photo) or to an experimental     on the computer, while patients and family
     and circumscribed by                       one (right). The experimental space placed         members struggled to see the information
     carefully developed                        the patient, care partner, and the clinician       from seats at the side. Sometimes physi-
                                                side by side, facing the computer screen           cians would give up their seats to allow the
     standards of practice.                     while seated at a semicircular desk.               patient and family to better see the screen.
     Yet even health care                                                                          This prompted nurture to redesign the
                                                In post-visit follow-up surveys, researchers
     space needs to work                        found that patient and clinician satisfaction
                                                                                                   space to better support the behaviors they
     harder. A recent study                     with the conventional room was very high.
                                                                                                   observed. The design included a half-round
                                                                                                   table that put the information in the center
     by Nurture, Steelcase’s                    In the experimental room, however, clinicians
                                                                                                   on a movable arm with an accompanying
                                                could share more information with patients
     health care division, and                                                                     wireless keyboard and mouse. “It’s a more
                                                while both viewed the screen. Patients
     the Mayo Clinic sought                     felt they had more and better access to
                                                                                                   egalitarian setting for the consultation and
     to understand the extent                   information, including their own records,
                                                                                                   better supports new, best practices in clinical
                                                                                                   communication,” says WSF health care
     to which a consultation                    test results, images, and education materials.
                                                                                                   researcher Caroline Kelly.
     room designed to support                   “This study supports the notion that the
     present-day clinical                       space in which people meet can influence
                                                how they work together,” says Victor
     encounters could affect                    Montori, M.D., the lead Mayo researcher.
     the quality of the                         The consultation room design improved the
     consultation between                       quality of a patient visit, although Dr. Montori
     patients and clinicians.                   says more studies in other health care
                                                systems are needed to confirm the findings.
                                                This study grew out of Steelcase WorkSpace

12   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
Steelcase Harder Working Spaces
j u n e 2010




     Photo by jeff Dykehouse




                                                                                     with Roger Martin
                                                                                     On innovation, and why
                                                                                     companies struggle with it.

                                                Roger Martin leads a busy life. He’s dean of the Rotman School of Management at the
                                                University of Toronto, a professor at the school, and a successful author. His most recent book,
                                                The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage (Harvard
                                                Business Press, 2009) is a best-seller among business books at Amazon. He serves on several
                                                corporate boards, consults with corporations, writes extensively on design, and is a regular
                                                writer for BusinessWeek.com, The Washington Post’s On Leadership blog, and The Financial
                                                Times. Dubbed an “Innovation Guru” by Business Week, Martin has a multifaceted perspective
                                                on business and innovation. The following is an excerpt from a 90-minute conversation during
                                                a recent visit Martin made to Steelcase Global Headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich.




14   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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Why do so many companies fail at being innovators?
They’ve gotten really good at what I call reliability functions:
production processing, cost cutting, efficiency, etc., which is the
business of exploiting the ideas of the past. Innovation is about
exploring new ideas that haven’t been proven and can’t yet be
measured. Some companies are dreaming in Technicolor that
they’re going to be turned on a dime just because they want
innovation. To succeed at innovation, you have to be willing to
accept an idea even though you really can’t be certain it will work.




So, how do you become               change. We are going to be more         the CFO and not feel that
more innovative?                    collaborative, more creative.”          they are hearing incomprehen-
Company culture is critical.        When you go into that space             sible bafflegab – for example
If someone tries something          now, it’s a beehive of activity.        financial ratios they don’t
brand new and it doesn’t work,      People are wandering around,            understand. They come to learn
and the next day her career’s       they can work together, stop by         a language system that enables
lying on the floor with a bullet    one another’s offices. There’s a        them to communicate with
hole in it, word gets around        lot of stuff happening. That all        business people.
fast that risk taking should be     represents the transformation
                                    of P&G, and you’ve seen the             You’re an advocate for more
avoided. Management has to
                                    results they’ve posted over the         broad-based education.
make sure that things like that
don’t happen. What did she bet      past decade.                            I just don’t think that we’re
on that turned out to not be the                                            being sensible about the level
                                    What other things do                    of specialization that people
case? As long as she’s learning,
                                    innovative companies do?                are seeking these days. There
that behavior should be encour-
aged and rewarded.                  They have a lot of ideas, and           is a dogma out there that the
                                    they don’t converge on one very         most important thing to do is to
How can space help?                 quickly. They look for real             get good at one thing. “Don’t be
Corporations could take on          variety up front. Everybody’s           a jack of all trades and master
some of the personalities of        asked to contribute. That’s             of none,” and all that. I despair
design shops. If you go into        something that I see all                at how specialized so many
IDEO or Frog Design or Design       innovative companies do. The            of our students are. Instead,
Continuum, they’ve got movable      front end of the funnel is a really     you should, for example, take
walls and reconfigurable work-      wide one and they’re willing to         history as an undergrad and
spaces – places that are flexible   consider very disparate ideas,          design at a master’s level, so
and support experimentation.        versus us business types who try        you can pull from those two
Collaboration is another thing.     to converge on what’s the best          bodies of knowledge. It makes
Project teams have to be able to    idea quickly so we can push it          sense to have a certain level of
feel like they can work together    the farthest and fastest. Real          specialization, but you have to
and collaborate. Another need       innovators just don’t do that.          have cross-cutting knowledge
is transparency. When A. G.                                                 and skills.
                                    Why are you getting
Lafley became CEO of Procter
                                    designers coming to
& Gamble, he had the executive
                                    business school?
space ripped back to the girders.
He converted half of it into        One of the reasons is to learn the
a corporate learning center,        vocabulary. Many non-financial
and the rest is open plan for       business people want to learn
the executives. He was sending      marketing and finance terminol-
a big signal: “We are going to      ogy, so that they can go to talk to



                                                                          360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   15
j u n e 2010




                                                                                                                                    THE NExT COMpETiTiVE
                                                                                                                                    ADVANTAGE: DESiGN THiNkiNG

                                                                                                                                    Martin says businesses can’t
                                                                                                                                    succeed solely on the basis
                                                                                                                                    of either analysis (quantitative
                                                                                                                                    thinking) or intuition (qualita-
                                                                                                                                    tive thinking). Both are needed
                                                                                                                                    in a dynamic balance he calls
                                                                                                                                    design thinking. It’s a form
                                                                                                                                    of thought that, once
                                                                                                                                    mastered, gives businesses
                                                                                                                                    a “nearly inexhaustible,
                                                                                                                                    long-term advantage.”




       Roger Martin will discuss concepts from his latest book, The Design of Business:
       Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage, at neoCon on Monday, june 14,
       3-4 PM, in the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza Sauganash Ballroom, 14th Floor. Sponsored in part
       by Steelcase, the program is free for neoCon attendees.




     “If someone tries something new and it doesn’t work, and the
      next day her career’s lying on the floor with a bullet hole in
                                                                                                                                    From The Design of Business: Why Design
                                                                                                                                    Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage

      it, word gets around fast that risk taking should be avoided.”
                                                                                                                                    Design thinking enables
                                                                                                                                    the organization to move
                                                                                                                                    along the knowledge funnel.
     What’s your next                               so forth. The theory was that                to change the entire doctrine      Mysteries are business
     book about?                                    shareholder maximization                     by which you are supposed to       challenges: A scientist might
     I’m doing two books. One is                    should be the clear goal of                  assure Wall Street that: “Yes,     explore how to cure a disease;
     kind of an antidote to books                   companies. And to make sure                  shareholders, you are absolutely   a salesman might wonder
     on execution that say business                 that’s the case, companies                   number one. You’re all we care     what food products people on
     strategy doesn’t really matter,                gave senior management stock-                about, that’s what we live for.”   the go want to buy. A heuristic
     that performance is all about                  based compensation, options,                 But really, how motivational is
                                                                                                                                    is a rule of thumb that helps
     execution. I think those books                 and the like to align their                  that? Who goes to work in the
                                                                                                                                    narrow the inquiry down to
     are wrong. They have an implicit               interests with shareholders.                 morning to increase shareholder
                                                    I argue that you cannot                      value? But would you go to work    manageable size. The disease
     premise that, if you’ve got a good
                                                    maximize shareholder value                   to try and make a better-suited    may have certain genetic
     strategy, then you just have to
                                                    perpetually, because shareholder             environment so people could be     properties, for example.
     focus on execution. But they
     don’t ask the question: What if                value is about expectations                  more comfortable, more healthy,    Or the salesman notes that
     you don’t have a good strategy,                of the future, and you cannot                more productive, to help grow      customers like quick service
     will execution get you anywhere?               keep on beating expectations.                this economy?                      and easy access. It’s a way
     You could execute the wrong                                                                                                    of thinking about the mystery
                                                    What’s the alternative?
     thing. So this book is about how                                                                                               that helps simplify it and
     Procter & Gamble got turned                    I mapped out the 30 years                                                       allows more focus on the
     around through strategy.                       before 1976, before we had this                                                 issue. As an organization puts
                                                    theory. How did shareholders
                                                                                                                                    a heuristic into operation,
     And the other?                                 do versus 30 years after? The
                                                                                                                                    it converts it from a rule of
     How capitalism is being                        answer is shareholders did
                                                    better when we weren’t trying                                                   thumb to a fixed formula,
     made ineffective by a crazy
                                                    to maximize shareholder value.                                                  or algorithm. Thus, a rule of
     over-emphasis on maximizing
                                                    My position is you should seek                                                  thumb that customers want
     shareholder value. About 30
     years ago there was a movement                 to earn the shareholders a fair                                                 a quick, convenient, simple
     to get managers to focus on                    return, and you do that by                                                      meal might be converted to
     shareholder value, with little                 putting customers number one,                                                   a fixed formula for the fast
     regard for other stakeholders                  employees number two, and                                                       food restaurant with a 24/7
     such as customers, employees,                  the communities in which you                                                    drive-through.
     suppliers, society at large, and               work number three. We need


16   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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                                            R&D VS. RECESSiON, AND THE WiNNER iS…       It’s here that Swiffer was born, along
                                            Capital investment: down. Payroll: down.    with other breakthrough products that
                                            Marketing: down. Research and develop-      make up P&G’s billion-dollar brands.
                                            ment spending: up. According to findings    At GlaxoSmithKline, “Innovation Hubs”
                                            of an annual survey conducted by Booz       co-locate work teams around brands in
                                            & Co. released in early May, 70% of         a flexible, non-hierarchical workplace.
                                            companies planned to hold or increase       It’s proven so successful that eight GSK
                                            their R&D outlays in 2009. “Innovation      Hubs have been constructed since 2005
SMART COMpANiES ARE iNVESTiNG                                                           in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany.
                                            is a fundamental strategy for these
AGAiN iN THEiR REAl ESTATE
                                            companies to hold onto their markets
Good news on the real estate horizon:       and gain an edge on their competitors,”
Organizations are using their real estate   says Barry Jaruzelski, a Booz partner.
to rebrand, reinvent and reposition
themselves, according to a recent study
by Jones Lang LaSalle. “It appears that
the global economy and real estate
market fundamentals are past their
worst,” says the study. Whew. In 2010,
Jones Lang LaSalle expects to see a
30 – 40% increase in commercial real
estate investment globally, with North                                                  DOllARS TO DEuTSCHE MARkS –
                                                                                        THE u.S. OuTSpENDS ON R&D
and South America at a faster 50 – 60%.
Asia Pacific will expand by 30 – 50% and                                                Overall, the U.S. spends more on
Europe at 20 – 30%. Where’s the real                                                    research and development than
estate money flowing fastest? In the U.S,   DESiGN THiNkiNG, ESpECiAllY NOW             any other country, according to a
it’s the federal government, health care,   The essence of design thinking —            new report from the National Science
energy, and clean technology.               trying to experience a product or           Foundation. And private industry
                                            service from the perspective of the         has been spending more on it than
                                            user — has reached movement status          the government since 1982.
                                            within business today.
                                                                                        CROWDSOuRCiNG TRANSFORMS
                                            Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of        iNNOVATiON
                                            Change by Design, says the imperative       Big corporate R&D labs used to hold
                                            for design thinking is even greater in a    innovation close to their massive chests.
                                            sluggish economy. “The opportunity to       Today a more open model — a.k.a.
                                            capture more market share is greater        “crowdsourcing” — is taking hold
                                            because many of your competitors have       in large companies. Crowdsourcing
MEETiNGS WiTHOuT MEETiNG
                                            taken their eye off the ball,” he says.     leverages the work of people outside
With airplane ticket prices sky high,       It’s all about creating an optimistic,      the organization — at universities and
more companies are opting instead for       experimental culture throughout the         start-ups, with business partners and
online meetings, webinars, and video-       whole organization.                         government labs. By opening itself to the
conferences, according to Workplace
                                                                                        outside world, the corporation becomes
Management. As the costs and hassles        lEFT BRAiN, MEET THE RiGHT BRAiN
                                                                                        the coordinator and integrator. IBM, for
of travel escalate, the ease and speed      Bringing together interdisciplinary teams   example, is now a major underwriter of
of technology just keeps getting better,    in one space is like putting seedlings      research at universities. At the same
so why not? As just one recent indicator,   in a hothouse: You’ll get results faster.   time, as a connoisseur of innovation it
42% of 610 respondents to a survey          For example, Procter & Gamble built         consistently collects more patents than
from Business Traveler magazine gave        an “Innovation Gym” as a resource for       any other company.
a thumbs-up to videoconferencing            longer-term thinking by people from
instead of packing a bag.                   different parts of the organization.




                                                                                                   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   17
Steelcase Harder Working Spaces
j u n e 2010




                                                                             David Berger is intent
                                                                             on lighting up the world.



                                                                         but to embrace it and enthusias-      jars, tin cans, old plastic
                                                                         tically address it,” says Berger.     bottles – even gourds.
                                                                         “It is our work as designers
                                                                                                               Developed in cooperation
                                                                         that will affect the lives of
                                                                                                               with team members from
                                                                         people today, and future genera-
                                                                                                               Wa Polytechnic in Ghana and
                                                                         tions. Given that responsibility,
                                                                                                               universite nationale du Rwanda,
                                                                         we have no choice but to
                                                                                                               the project has already attracted
                                                                         design smart.”
                                                                                                               interest from 26 countries and
                                                                         SociaLite replaces kerosene-          been featured by media outlets
if a breeder in remote Africa          The goal? To light up the world
                                                                         based lighting that’s known           including Discovery Channel,
can’t find his goats that              for the 1.8 billion poor people
                                                                         to pollute and cause respira-         The Washington Times, Voice
have wandered off at night,            living in off-the-grid parts of
                                                                         tory problems. In addition, the       of America, Business Week,
is it a design problem?                the world.
                                                                         SociaLite venture is designed         and The New Times of Rwanda.
David Berger, a 2009                   Their innovation, SociaLite,      to inspire local entrepreneurship     Berger won one of three Greener
Cooper union graduate                  is an inexpensive and durable     by providing simple kits and          by Design Steelcase Scholarship
turned social entrepreneur,            self-assembled solar-powered      training so that enterprising         awards offered in partnership
says it absolutely is.                 lantern. It provides interior     villagers can easily assemble,        with net Impact.
                                       lighting and can also be used     sell, maintain, and repair the
Millions of people around the                                                                                  SociaLite kits are sold just above
                                       as a portable lantern. The        lanterns for neighbors.
world stand to benefit from                                                                                    cost to ensure that the venture
                                       initial target market is Ghana,
well-designed solutions to                                               The design consists of a              can be sustained. A website
                                       Rwanda, and other parts of
basic, fundamental problems,                                             solar panel connected to an           is launching soon. More info is
                                       sub-Saharan Africa, eventually
he contends, and smart design                                            integrated circuit and a car          immediately available at the blog
                                       remote areas of Asia and South
is integral to the effort. Berger is                                     battery, which becomes a              http://solarlightingmicroenter-
                                       America, too.
now part of a small group that’s                                         shared, central charging station      prise.wordpress.com, including
turning a 2006 freshman-year           “While the sheer scale of         that can power up to 80 lanterns.     how to make tax-deductable
engineering project into a             responsibility may be over-       The housings are recycled local       donations.
sustainable business venture.          whelming, we have no choice       materials, including ceramic

                                                                                                             360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °   19
Welcome to
NeoCon
    2010     COME SEE uS

             Make sure to visit the Steelcase
             showrooms while you’re at neoCon.

             When:    june 14-16, 9–5 p.m.

             Where:   Steelcase, Suite 300

                      Turnstone, Suite 3-100

                      nurture, Suite 3-101

                      Details, Suite 3-107

                      Coalesse, Suite 1032

                      Designtex, Suite 1032A
Don’t Miss This
There’s so much to see and do at NeoCon it’s tough to fit it all in.
Make sure to save some time for these events you won’t want to miss:


THE DESiGN OF BuSiNESS: WHY DESiGN           ECOCRADlE™ SuSTAiNABlE pACkAGiNG              CREATiNG 21ST CENTuRY liBRARiES
THiNkiNG iS THE NExT COMpETiTiVE             BY ECOVATiVEDESiGN llC
                                                                                           Come see the most recent Steelcase
ADVANTAGE
                                             Eben Bayer is co-founder and CEO of           research on education libraries identifying
Roger Martin is everywhere these days:       Ecovative Design, a Green Island, N.Y.,       a shift from information-centered libraries
Harvard Business Review, Fast Company,       biomaterials company; and co-inventor of      to social-centered ones. This new research
Business Week and Threesixty Magazine.       MycoBond, a patent-pending technology         will be shared by Elise Valoe, a human-
Renowned author and dean of the Rotman       that uses a growing organism to transform     centered design researcher for Steelcase,
School of Management at the University       agricultural waste products into strong       and Tod Stevens, principal designer for
of Toronto, Martin will speak at NeoCon      composite materials. These materials can      SHW Group. In this session, learn about
about his new book exploring questions       be home composted and require a 10th          the key issues driving how libraries are
like: If so many companies want to           of the energy to create compared to           being designed and what activities must
innovate, why are we so poor at it? Why is   environmentally-damaging synthetics,          be supported in the 21st century. They will
breakthrough innovation so inconsistently    like foam. Eben will be in the Steelcase      also share their experiences on developing
achieved and hard to replicate? How can      showroom for informal conversations about     and using human-centered design methods
we get better at bringing innovation into    this innovative approach to packaging and     to develop solutions. neocon.com/register/
the heart of our organizations? In           some exciting new projects he is working
answering the questions, Roger suggests                                                    When: Monday, June 14, 4–5 p.m.
                                             on with Steelcase.
how to move knowledge forward, connect                                                     Where: Check Registration or NeoCon
                                             When: Monday, June 14, 2–3 p.m.                      Directory for room location
theory to business reality, and prescribes
                                             Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300
a solution to the innovation dilemma:
design thinking.

When: Monday, June 14, 3–4 p.m.
Where: Holiday Inn Mart Plaza,
       Sauganash Ballroom, 14th Floor




You can also meet Roger and talk with
                                             HARDER WORkiNG COCkTAilS                      DASH BEFORE YOu DiNE
him about design thinking, innovation,
shareholder value and other topics before    After a long day at NeoCon you deserve        Before hitting the Chicago dining scene,
his presentation:                            a Harder Working Cocktail! Join us in the     stop by and relax with a dash cocktail.
                                             showroom for beverages and conversation       We’re celebrating the introduction of
When: Monday, June 14, 1–2 p.m.
                                             with friends.                                 dash™, the sleek new LED task light by
Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300
                                                                                           Details co-developed with London-based
                                             When: Monday, June 14, 4–5 p.m.
                                                                                           Foster + Partners.
                                             Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300
                                                                                           When: Tuesday, June 15, 4–5 p.m.
                                                                                           Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300




                                             ENJOY THE CAMpFiRE

                                             When it’s time wind down after a busy day,
                                             join us for a beverage around the Campfire.

                                             When: Monday, June 14, 4–6 p.m.
                                             Where: Turnstone Showroom, Suite 3-100
n eO C O n 2010   STeelCaSe




                                                                            20


                                                                       21




                 Welcome to our showroom
                 This year at neoCon the Steelcase showroom
                 is all about spaces that work harder by working
                 smarter. This map and the application drawings
                 on the following pages are designed to inspire
                 ideas for spaces supporting a broad range of
                 work – whether it’s for “heads-down” concentration
                 or boisterous collaboration sessions, our aim is to
                 help you explore ways your space can work harder.




22   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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19




                 18       17       16        15       14




                  13



                                   12




     8                9                 10
                                                      11




                                                  4




         7            6                 5




             1                 2                       3




                                                           360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °     23
n eO C O n 2010      STeelCaSe




                       NeoCon 2010:
                       a Harder Working Space
                       There’s a new reality today: Organizations are working harder than ever. They need to balance
                       demands to be both lean and creative. To innovate. Be agile.

                       That means workplaces have to work harder too. Spaces have to be smart about the way real
                       estate is used. They need to foster collaboration. Attract the best and brightest talent and help
                       keep those employees engaged. And help build the organization’s brand and culture.

                       Organizations know they must support the different ways people really work. Research shows
                       four individual and collective states of work* help employees realize their full innovative and
                       creative potential:

                       Focusing
                       Concentrating and attending to a specific task; thinking, close study, contemplation, reflection,
                       analysis, and other “heads-down” work best performed without interruption.

                       Collaborating
                       Working with one or more people to achieve a goal, listening, discussing, presenting information
                       and ideas, brainstorming, etc. Ideally, it’s a democratic process, with all perspectives shared
                       equally to maximize the group’s collective experience and knowledge.

                       learning
                       Building knowledge through education or experience. Learning happens best by doing, building
                       on what’s already known. When people make their thinking visible to each another, learning is
                       accelerated and becomes an integrated part of an organization’s culture.

                       Socializing
                       Talking, interacting, networking, mentoring, celebrating, sharing connections that lead to common
                       bonds and building trust. More work is accomplished through these informal social networks than
                       through organizational hierarchies and form a true competitive advantage because of their ability
                       to produce new ideas and innovation.

                       Harder working spaces are also sustainable, promoting environmental health and the health
                       and productivity of the people who work and live in it. That’s why all of the products you’ll see
                       on the following pages has been designed, produced, and delivered with lifecycle thinking,
                       materials chemistry, and recyclability in mind.



                       Welcome to the Steelcase NeoCon 2010 showroom!



                       * The Knowledge-Creating Company, by Ikujiro nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi.




24   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
STeelCaSe              n eO C O n 2010




    it’s about:   nomads                                                                 products featured

1                                                                                        • frameone
    Highly-mobile nomads need a place to set up camp for a few hours,                    • soto II worktools
    focus, catch-up on work and with colleagues. They need quick
    and easy access to technology, so they can plug in fast and get                      solution supports
    to work. Screens provide moderate visual privacy, but still allow        focusing
    workers to see and be seen so they can network and learn from       collaborating
                                                                              learning
    others. Simple storage elements help people on the move pack and      socializing
    unpack quickly.                                                                      lOW                   HiGH




    it’s about:   functional groups                                                      products featured

2                                                                                        • frameone
    every day they work together, shifting between individual work                       • amia
    and collaboration. They need visual access to each other, their                      • soto II worktools

    information and even remote teammates. This space fosters
    spontaneous interactions among the team, promotes side-by-                           solution supports

    side collaboration. Convenient storage areas allow easy access           focusing
                                                                        collaborating
    to materials, provide piling surfaces and become casual seating           learning
    for collaboration.                                                    socializing
                                                                                         lOW                   HiGH




                                                                                    360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °            25
n eO C O n 2010   STeelCaSe




                                it’s about:   casual collaboration                                                      products featured

                  3                                                                                                     • media:scape lounge and
                                This spot helps small groups touch base, provide updates or share                         hd videoconferencing
                                ideas. It’s open and relaxed, but equipped with technology that                         • i2i
                                                                                                                        • montage
                                gives everyone equal access to information. Collaborative seating                       • ee6
                                lets people move and change positions so it’s easier to stay engaged                    • post and beam with duo
                                and connected with the team. Café tables allow people to prepare
                                before joining the meeting, or make notes afterward. Workers of all                     solution supports

                                generations will migrate to this spot for casual collaboration.             focusing
                                                                                                       collaborating
                                                                                                             learning
                                                                                                         socializing
                                                                                                                        lOW                  HiGH




26   360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
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Steelcase Harder Working Spaces

  • 1. The magazine of workplace research, insight, and trends Issue 59 360steelcase.com June 2010 Harder Working Spaces The workplace just got smarter. Q&A with Roger Martin 14 Trends360 17 Sustainability Spotlight 19 Finding the Holy Grail in NeoCon 2010 Special Edition 20 business today: innovation Atoms & Bits 56
  • 2. ABOUT THIS ISSUE: The workplace has never had to work so hard. On the cover, our mind map (a brainstorming technique used by our colleagues at IDEO to support design thinking) illustrates how the workplace has to maximize use of real estate, attract and engage workers, communicate company brand and culture, and foster collaboration and innovation. To help make this idea a reality, we offer insights from designers, architects, and Steelcase research- ers on how to plan these harder working spaces, and show companies that have pulled it off. Next, noted business author Roger Martin discusses design thinking and how it can help foster innovation. In our special NeoCon 2010 section, we feature the Steelcase family of showrooms and new products that can help create harder working spaces. Working harder just got easier.
  • 3. j u n e 2010 FEATuRE NEOCON 2010 SpECiAl SECTiON 2 Harder Working Spaces 20 Come See us People are working harder A guide to all the good stuff than ever. So should their NeoCon 2010 happening in the Steelcase space. See how leading family of brands this year. companies are reducing real estate, building brand, fostering collaboration, 21 Don’t Miss This and engaging employees. From inspiring speakers to great parties, there’s a lot to see and do while you’re in Chicago. DEpARTMENTS 14 Q&A 22 Steelcase Showroom Map Roger Martin, one of the most 36 Turnstone Showroom Map insightful business thinkers and writers around, answers 37 Details Showroom Map questions about innovation 38 Nurture Showroom Map and how companies can get better at it. 39 Coalesse Showroom Map 17 Trends360 40 New at NeoCon Insightful signposts we’re The showrooms are packed seeing about business, with insightful new products work, and the workplace. and thoughtful enhancements from Steelcase companies. A quick look starts here. 19 Sustainability Spotlight David Berger has a brilliant idea for bringing light to off-the-grid parts of the world. 56 Atoms & Bits Things to check out in person or online. Threesixty is published bimonthly by Steelcase Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright 2010. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form unless you really want to help people love how they work — just ask us first, okay? Contact us at 360editor@steelcase.com. 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 1
  • 4. j u n e 2010 Workers at Accenture’s Houston offices use media:scape to collaborate using extensive digital information. 2 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 5. j u n e 2010 Harder Working Spaces The workplace just got smarter. is it possible to compress real estate and shrink individual footprints while at the same time helping people to collaborate and create more effectively? Yes. As companies work their way out of the Several leading companies show how it recession, they often feel a tug-of-war can be done. Consulting giant Accenture between two seemingly contradictory goals: developed a work environment strategy the need to stay lean and efficient yet, at called Workplace 2.0 that it piloted in its the same time, become more flexible and newly relocated Houston office. “When creative. Businesses are more efficient now, most organizations pull a workplace strategy having cut their biggest expenses – real together, it really has a real estate focus. estate and people. Companies need We aligned our overall business strategy, our every part of the operation, especially the human capital, real estate, and technology workplace, to work harder than ever. not strategies very closely and pulled all of those just individual workspaces, but the entire together into a comprehensive strategy,” says office. every. Square. Foot. “We don’t have Dan johnson, Accenture’s global director, a client who isn’t asking for their real estate workplace. The results are impressive in and workplace solutions to work harder, to terms of real estate compression alone: do more,” says Lauri Lampson, principal with Their office went from three floors and Houston-based planning Design Research 66,000 square feet down to one floor of (pDR), expressing the experiences of 25,000 square feet, while still supporting designers and architects everywhere. more than 800 people. In a world of 24/7 competition, project A leader in alternative work strategies such teams stretch from Midtown to Mumbai, and as hotelling, Accenture prides itself on its business moves at race pace. Companies are efficient use of real estate. But what sets looking to create harder working spaces that: the company apart is how it considers the workplace holistically. Instead of simply • maximize real estate utilization using smaller workstation footprints and • foster and support collaboration similar approaches to increase density, • help attract and engage talent the workplace is both smaller and harder working, using a combination of business • reinforce the culture and build the brand strategies in ways that work best for the of the organization. organization. The company also insists Can space really work that hard? Is it its workplace meet high standards for possible to compress real estate and shrink what it terms “The Four e’s” of “efficiency, individual footprints while helping people effectiveness, engagement, and environ- collaborate and create more effectively? ment,” with collaboration as a baseline. To inspire workers and help them feel more Like a lot of companies, Accenture found connected to company culture and brand? that many workstations were empty for How can you simultaneously combine lean, long periods of time because workers were innovative, and effective? collaborating in team spaces, project rooms, 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 3
  • 6. j u n e 2010 or offsite. “The briefcase, the PC, and the coat had one of the best views in town,” says Bill Mearse, Houston location managing director. The company realized that its staff was working differently, so its workplace had to reflect and support those new ways of working. The integrated work strategies and the Four e’s strategy address these changes. Mobile telecom leader Vodafone also applied an integrated strategy for the company’s new netherlands headquarters in Amsterdam. The company was not only moving its office from another city, but also consolidating staff from three different sites at the new Vodafone’s new netherlands headquarters (top photos) in Amsterdam and Accenture’s location. “We needed to make a big step new Houston offices (bottom photos) share much in common: unassigned workspaces, forward in our workspace to break out from benching applications, and plenty of room for collaborative work in both open and traditional offices to something fresh, new, closed spaces. Both companies reduced real estate substantially with these new even heretical,” says jens Schulte-Bockum, workplace strategies. CeO of Vodafone netherlands. To support mobile and collaborative knowledge work, every Vodafone staffer – from leadership tion; the former use calls for some small and to demonstrate the company brand, to the newest worker – operates from the privacy screens and space for portable tools, Vodafone’s workplace has a very open layout same workspaces. Much like Accenture’s while the latter needs more work surface, with no assigned workspaces combined with office, Vodafone’s workplace is colorful, space for more people and no screens at a wide variety of meeting and project spaces. welcoming, and energetic, and uses less all. Real estate savings realized through real estate than their previous offices. benching should be leveraged for the benefit of all workers – for cafés, lounge areas, Benching is a go-to strategy for gaining team rooms, and other shared spaces. more efficiency in real estate footprints, and, while it’s been used in europe for Accenture and Vodafone made sure their many years, it’s a growing phenomenon in benching workspaces were augmented north America. Benching is an application by shared spaces, a move that pays real approach for supporting workers with parallel dividends. “There’s a lot more informal work surfaces along a spine. Typically there communication going on in the office,” says are no space-defining panels and little or no Vodafone’s Bockum. “People are closer to dedicated storage and privacy. It’s definitely one another, it’s easier to have a quick chat Smaller and smarter. an efficient approach: Research conducted about issues. People are communicating Accenture’s Houston office didn’t by Steelcase WorkSpace Futures in europe more than in previous environments and just get smaller, it got smarter, and north America shows space savings I think that adds to productivity. Mission- more open, and more collaborative of 22-26% in benching applications verses critical information is passed between people to better support its 800 workers. individual workstations, and an initial cost more easily and people have the feeling FROM: TO: savings of 10-15%. But there’s a risk as well: that there’s more information sharing going • 3 floors • 1 floor cramming more desks into less space to on, that they’re on the inside rather than • 66,000 sq. ft. • 25,000 sq. ft. save money can affect the performance of struggling to keep up with what’s going on.” • private offices • unassigned the workplace and staff. Benching should be The flow of information and ideas is critical & dedicated workspaces & tailored to the work being done. For example, workstations collaboration to collaboration, the de facto protocol for project team members might use a bench for spaces knowledge work today. It’s also the standard individual work or as a place for collabora- embraced in the new offices of the Housing, 4 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 7. j u n e 2010 A benching workspace at the new Accenture Houston office. Workers move from bench areas for focused work to a variety of group work spaces, cafés, and lounge areas. 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 5
  • 8. j u n e 2010 The Coca-Cola Supply workplace encourages and supports information sharing, teamwork, and collaboration in a variety of workspaces. Dining, and Hospitality (HDH) department working in the field and are not in the office display and flexible storage. Storage doubles at the university of California, San Diego, every day, 40% of the workspaces are unas- as guest seating and work surface, and opened earlier this year. Workers from 11 signed. The essential nature of the space even offers embedded technology that helps different locations were brought together is open and collegial. O’Sullivan planned people share information on monitors with in a workplace designed to break down different types of collaboration spaces - large another person or a group. Forget struggling internal silos and improve communication and small, open and enclosed - and all offer to see a computer screen tucked back on and information sharing. Down came the plenty of technology support for displaying the credenza. panels, in came impromptu meeting and and sharing information. One space, dubbed The notion of “private” itself is being team spaces along with technology for easier the data-presence room, features four large redefined. An enclosed office remains sharing of information – all to encourage the monitors in a group and media:scape ® a private refuge, but it also must support ongoing conversations vital to collaboration. technology that allows four people to display the increasingly collaborative nature of work, what’s on their laptops in real time, side “It’s been just three months and information even for those who occupy private spaces. by side. flows faster now, and that’s a huge benefit. The office must be able to make a quick We’ve brought people together and given Alongside shared workspaces and collabora- transition from supporting focused individual them an environment they can work in more tive work areas stands a traditional office work to group collaboration. Designers are effectively. We had no idea it could work icon: the private office. At Coca-Cola Supply, planning these new private offices in work this well, but it seems so apparent now. Accenture, uC San Diego, and countless zones: one for conversation by the entry, It’s amazing the way you can construct a other companies, private offices endure – another zone for collaboration farther inside, community with a building and furniture,” with good reason. They offer the highest level and one for concentrated work farthest from says Mark P. Cunningham, executive of privacy, they’re ideal for concentrative the door. The collaboration zone should director of HDH. work, and they’re part of the organizational include a work surface for use by one person culture of many companies. In the past, or a small group, mobile seating, the means GREATER ExpECTATiONS organizations often allocated private offices to display work in progress, and technology Building a new organizational culture was based on hierarchy. now many organizations support that is simple and ubiquitous. the main goal for a space designed for the are making those decisions based on job Hotelling works in the open plan, so why not newly formed supply chain logistics team, function and worker needs. The private office in the private office? At some companies, Coca-Cola Supply, an LLC of Coca-Cola isn’t going away; it’s being re-imagined an employee may be assigned a private office Enterprises, and the Coca-Cola Company and redesigned to support the type of that is made available to others when that in Atlanta. Deirdre O’Sullivan, designer and work being done, which often requires person is away for some time. The private principal at idea|span, says the combined quick shifts between focused individual office worker simply isolates confidential group “wanted to let go of the entrenched work and collaboration. materials in a file or other storage, and just ways of doing things and figure out how Footprints for all spaces are getting smaller, that easily the office becomes available as they could work together better,” and they so every private office surface needs to a meeting room, huddle space. In some used their workplace to help define the new perform at higher levels. Walls support visual companies, two people share a private era. Since many of the workers typically are 6 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 9. j u n e 2010 knowledge workers’ biggest beef: not having a workplace that helps attract and retain good talent. Steelcase Workplace Satisfaction Survey office full-time, often by workers who are being adopted by their older Gen X and project leader – build and share knowledge regularly work together, such as financial Boomer colleagues, creating a whole new set that in turn drives creativity and innovation, auditors and legal associates. of requirements for any company that wants using these four modes: to compete for talent.” • Focusing – every worker needs some time Rethinking the workplace takes planning, vision, and a commitment from leadership Creating a space that attracts all generations that’s uninterrupted to concentrate and and staff. At Coca-Cola Supply, “the and helps to engage them in their work is attend to specific tasks such as thinking, president formed a leadership steering no longer optional. The vast majority of studying, contemplating, strategizing, committee of corporate real estate, team workers say having an office that helps processing, and other “heads-down” work. leaders from both organizations, and other attract and retain knowledge workers is • Collaborating – Fundamentally, workers to help define this new workplace,” important, according to the Steelcase collaboration is about working with says O’Sullivan. This multigenerational team Workplace Satisfaction Survey, an ongoing one or more people to achieve a goal, participated in a day-long education process global survey of attitudes on work issues that such as collectively creating content about new trends in the workplace and has engaged nearly 23,000 respondents at or brainstorming. Ideally, all perspectives realized the opportunity they had to embrace 133 companies. It’s the single biggest issue are equally respected, brought together new ideas for increasing collaboration. not being met – and it’s been that way every to leverage the group’s shared mind. Stepping away from the paradigm of each year since the survey began in 2004. person owning their own space, the team • Learning – Learning is about building recognized that by allowing some workers knowledge. Whether in a classroom to shift to a free address system, it would or a conversation with peers, learning open up space that could be reallocated for happens best by building on each collaboration areas. other’s knowledge. When thinking is made visible and shared with others, Figuring out how to attract and engage learning is accelerated. the multigenerational workforce is a sticky problem for many organizations. experts • Socializing – Knowledge becomes often suggest the needs of different genera- ingrained in the organization through tions are diametrically opposed, but in fact socialization. As people socialize and work their diverse needs are more aligned than with others in formal and informal ways, dissimilar, according to primary research learning and trust are nurtured. And those conducted by Steelcase. A nine-month are necessary ingredients for innovation. study of u.S. companies shows that Gen Y’s Across the four work modes, workers create new behaviors and work styles are driving and use two types of knowledge: explicit ENGAGiNG WORkERS eight dramatic shifts in knowledge work and and tacit. explicit knowledge is the formal, To better engage all workers regardless of the workplace. Moreover, these workplace systematic information typically found generation, high-performing spaces effec- shifts are being embraced rapidly by in documents, procedures, and manuals. tively support the four modes of knowledge workers of all generations. “Gen Y workers In contrast, tacit knowledge is deeply work (as described by nonaka and Takeuchi are transforming the rules of engagement personal, harder to formalize, and learned in the seminal book, The Knowledge Creating between employers and employees,” says by experience. It’s communicated indirectly Company) common to all knowledge workers: Sudhakar Lahade, senior design researcher through metaphor, analogy, mentoring, and focused work, collaboration, learning, and with Steelcase’s WorkSpace Futures group, working side by side. It’s how knowledge socializing. All knowledge workers – whether which conducted the research. “Younger gets shared, ideas are explored and tested, consultant or scientist, product manager or knowledge workers’ attitudes and behaviors and the value of experience is passed from 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 7
  • 10. j u n e 2010 No cubes, no silos, no worries. new offices for the Housing, Dining and Hospitality department at the university of California, San Diego were meant to improve communication and nurture collaboration, so the number of private offices was cut in half, workstations were placed adjacent to group meeting spots, and technology tools were added to help people share information. In an organization where “it was considered better to have a broom closet than an open workspace,” the new space has changed everything, says Mark P. Cunningham, the department’s executive director. “The interaction now is amazing, at all levels. We have no issues with noise or privacy, yet people are talking and sharing more. The office has become a destination.” worker to worker. Both explicit and tacit where workers build on each other’s ideas knowledge are essential to the process and together create something new. “That’s of building knowledge and fueling really what a lot of companies are looking creativity and innovation, a process to achieve,” says Mark Adams, principal, of that requires collaboration. Phoenix-based architecture and design firm, SmithGroup. “It’s all about helping people But not just any kind of collaboration. The work together more effectively by creating simple coordination of tasks (“here’s some visual connectivity, interaction, and a sense info for you...”) or communication (“wanted of community.” to let you know...”) is important to running it’s all about visual connectivity, interaction, and a sense of community. a company. But genuine collaboration, the Organizations whose offices exemplify kind that leads to breakthrough ideas, comes their culture and brand, attract and engage from people working together specifically workers, provide a highly collaborative to gain new insights. As Accenture’s johnson atmosphere, and do it all in less space are says, “We wanted to make sure that (coming getting their spaces to work harder than to the office) was a very engaging experi- ever. They also tend to be among today’s ence, and people learned something by leaders in business. “They let people be as being here that they wouldn’t by not being absolutely productive and as strong as they here. It made the office a destination. can be, providing them a support backbone People are actually coming into the office that allows them to do their job better than now more for face-to-face collaboration and anywhere else, and allows them to be interaction with people, and much less for creative, collaborative thinkers. When you individual work.” really, truly look at the ones that do these Organizations can mistake low-intensity interactions, things and have this philosophy, they tend to such as coordination of tasks (“tossing it over to you”) In the past, most work was individually be off-the-charts successful,” says Adams. or communication (“keeping you up to speed”) for true focused, but today the reverse has become collaboration, which is about people working together true: 82% of white-collar workers feel they for a common purpose and gaining new insights. need to partner with others throughout their day to get work done. Knowledge work has become fundamentally a social activity, 8 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 11. j u n e 2010 NExT GENERATiON WORkSpACES “Innovation cannot be isolated from col- sharing between and among employees,” FOR iNNOVATiON laboration,” notes Steelcase’s Lahade, who as one writer dubbed it, to help keep Google Space that’s harder working supports a recently led a team studying innovation and acting like a creative start-up organization. company that wants to be lean, effective, space. “While all collaborative work is not Mayo Clinic is another serial innovator. Their and, especially important today, more necessarily geared toward innovation, all SPARC Innovation Program, a first-of-its-kind innovative. Companies are seeing signs that innovations require some level of collabora- operation for designing and developing the economy is turning around. Business tion.” And effective collaboration requires health care innovations that opened in 2004, confidence is returning and the focus is the right space. leverages the organization’s deep expertise shifting to growth, which according to most Consider Google. The global search in health care, and makes the innovation experts depends on what Harvard Business engine giant has worked to build a culture process and facility an integral part of the Review calls the “secret sauce” of business of innovation at every level of the company. larger culture. In its first year alone, SPARC success: innovation. The ingredients include They operate as a marketplace for ideas, generated more new ideas than the program the right organizational culture, collaboration, heavily cross-pollinating internally through could handle, while the new approach and space. a tightly integrated culture where contribu- proved its ability to take a wealth of ideas, Author and innovation expert john Seely tions from everyone on staff are encouraged. conceptualize them, and demonstrate their Brown says all innovation requires an accom- It’s a natural approach for many companies value to patient care. modating company culture and workplace. to look to their internal staff, not just R&D, Innovation can't be mandated. A culture that “The cultures that constantly produce for innovations. An iBM study found that the reveres and pursues creative ideas must be innovation have visionary leadership, an most common source of innovative ideas carefully nurtured. In fact, the quantitative organizational commitment to breakthrough for companies is its employees, relied on by skills that most companies develop for thinking, and a place that supports the work 41% of CeOs with only 17% relying on R&D. analysis, production, processing, etc., are of innovation.” jan-Peter Kastelein, a partner at YNNO often anathema to a culture of innovation, There are two types of innovation: sustaining consultants in utrecht, the netherlands, according to Roger Martin, author and dean and disruptive. The former is an improvement worked with Google on their new R&D center of the university of Toronto Rotman School to an existing thing – say, release 2.0 of a in Zurich. He notes that “Google workers of Management. “Most companies are utterly software program. Disruptive innovation is have to be innovative every day, whether ill-equipped to innovate. Leaders have to a true breakthrough, often creating a new it’s through new solutions, new ways of be willing to accept an argument that product category or market – think iPod. doing things, or innovative products. The says, ‘We can’t be certain, because this is Sustaining innovation satisfies customer space enables people to be innovative.” something new. But here are the reasons needs, sells for higher margins, and may To generate novel solutions for information we think it might work.’ Many executives offer a competitive edge. Disruptive in- retrieval, user interfaces, and new search would say ‘That doesn’t seem like a strong novation ensures competitive advantage, features, this Google space, like the offices of case. It looks different, it feels different, often for a longer period of time, and builds Accenture and Vodafone, includes wide open it doesn’t make me as confident. Why can’t momentum inside the organization and in workspaces, communal cafes, and plenty you prove this? Come back when you have the marketplace. Companies need both of ways to share information. At its core, the proof.’ Another year or two goes by, some kinds of innovation. space reflects an organizational attitude of competitor does it and you’re behind the “obsessive communication and information- leader. You’re not an innovator.” To innovate, collaborate. The Mayo Clinic workspace reflects key principles of innovation: space for collaboration and displaying work in progress, and furniture that groups can move around and reconfigure to the needs of the project. 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 9
  • 12. j u n e 2010 No one’s ever built a start-up business over a telephone line. Ryan Armbruster, unitedHealth Group HElp iNNOVATiON FlOuRiSH care company. Technology can support ability to innovate,” says Lahade. After all, Space is a key element that nurtures collaboration – cell phones and video- rethinking how space can help innovation the process of innovation. Martin says conferencing help separated co-workers flourish is one of the best ways to make “Innovation-oriented organizations are communicate – but there’s no substitute space work harder than ever. inherently going to be more project-based: for rubbing shoulders. “The analogy we use A full report on Steelcase’s innovation research is: no one’s ever built a start-up business will run in the December issue of Threesixty Magazine. most creative things in life are projects. Teams have to be able to work together over a telephone line,” says Armbruster. “It’s White papers on innovation and benching are available now at steelcase.com. and collaborate, so spaces that are usually a bunch of people getting together, reconfigurable and more about the team working nonstop, right? It’s intense collabo- than about long-term stability reinforce ration, because you have to talk and work a culture of innovation.” things out and solve problems on the fly.” YnnO’s Kastelein says “Place is incredibly Teams collaborate differently and for different important, especially for collaboration, purposes. Furniture, tools, technology, knowledge sharing and learning. People and space will vary by innovation model, have to have awareness of what colleagues company culture or other factors. “Collabora- are doing, they have to have access to tion has been a big topic for the last 10 or 15 each other, and that’s why you’re seeing years, but people are realizing the different more open planning in europe, for example, types of collaboration we need to support. and people have to engage with others More emphasis on more informal, casual in conversation. Space can help you with spaces for informal get-togethers and cross all of those.” fertilization, and less about planned, formal meetings,” says Lauri Lampson of PDR. “Space provides places for people to get together, interact, and that’s so important “As organizations struggle to remain relevant when it comes to innovating around big and meaningful, we are rethinking how space challenges,” says Ryan Armbruster, can support, inspire, and enable innovation former director of the Mayo Clinic SPARC business practices. We’re continuing to work program, and vice president of innovation on how the design and use of innovation for unitedHealth Group, a managed health spaces can reinforce the other organizational components that contribute to a company’s 10 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 13. j u n e 2010 ideas for creating harder working spaces: iNTEGRATE STRATEGiES TO CREATE MAkE SpACES TECH-SAVVY REViTAlizE pRiVATE OFFiCES HARDER WORkiNG SpACE The busiest group spaces in any They usually house a company’s highest- Maximize real estate performance workplace are well equipped. Don’t paid workers; how effectively those by considering its relationship with plan a project team or working group workers are supported is an important and impact on work processes (col- space without tools for accessing, business issue. Maximize private office laboration), HR (attracting and retaining sharing, and showing information. real estate, provide flexible tech support, talent), technology (information sharing), and make the office collaboration-ready: and organizational brand and culture uSE SpACE TO NuRTuRE SOCiAl a zone for conversation by the door, CApiTAl AND TRuST (communication, socialization). collaboration farther inside, and concen- A workplace strategy must consider Formal and informal social interaction is trated work farthest from the door. all of these factors. key, so encourage ad-hoc conversations with casual places for thinking and brain- uSE SpACE TO FOSTER CHANGE MAkE EVERY SQuARE FOOT COuNT storming. Benching applications help Ryan Armbruster, vice president of “Every seat must be a good seat,” span boundaries that keep communica- innovation for UnitedHealth Group, says says Lauri Lampson of Planning Design tion and collaboration free and easy. And “space can help push the organization Research (PDR). “You don’t want any never underestimate the power of food into change. There’s a line that you ‘low-rent districts.’ Access to natural and beverage to attract people and get have to brush up against, where you’re light, separation from traffic, creating them talking. PDR’s Lampson recalls a changing enough that it’s making people neighborhoods, different spaces with scientist at an energy company explain- a little uncomfortable, yet not so uncom- different functions and features.” Every ing why galley-like mini-kitchens in the fortable that they completely disengage square foot of real estate must perform. corridor were so important. “She said, or work against what you’re trying to ‘That’s where we run into each other and accomplish.” Space where people can FOR MORE iNTERACTiON, THiNk DENSiTY where science talks happen. The best try new ideas, make a mess, and fail New research finds that people in work- ideas come out of those science talks.’” safely behind the scenes nurtures the stations along main circulation routes process of innovation and lets workers have almost 60% more face-to-face CREATE A DESTiNATiON know that risk taking is encouraged. communication with team members than Knowledge professionals can work those in low-visibility spots. (Harvard practically anywhere, but the right space YOu CAN’T ENCOuRAGE Business Review, March, 2010, citing makes the organization work. Genuine COllABORATiON ENOuGH work by James Stryker, Saint Mary’s collaboration relies on face-to-face It’s not only the way more knowledge College of California) High-density interaction. Insights and experience are work gets done, it’s the fuel for innova- workstation applications produced shared among colleagues in intimate, tion. Space saved by creating smaller 84% more team-member communica- supportive surroundings. Innovation individual workspaces can be used for tions than low-density layouts. It’s a needs places where people can share spaces everyone will use: impromptu huge upside to higher density. More knowledge and build on each other’s meeting areas, project rooms, huddle interactions lead to more collaboration, ideas. And company culture is nurtured rooms. Tools for information sharing, knowledge sharing, and idea generation in the office, not at the coffee shop. Build work surfaces where groups can spread – the horsepower that drives innovation. a workplace that’s a destination where out the work, and vertical surfaces for all of this important work can happen. making work visible are essential to collaboration. Hot coffee and cold drinks are drawing cards, and they support learning, socializing, and collaborating. 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 11
  • 14. j u n e 2010 Before After A harder working health care space The health care industry Sixty-three pairs of patients and doctors took Futures (WSF) observations in 2005 that part in the study. The pairs were assigned by traditional exam/consultation rooms allowed is highly regulated, chance to either a conventional consultation the provider primary access to information subject to strict laws, room (in the left photo) or to an experimental on the computer, while patients and family and circumscribed by one (right). The experimental space placed members struggled to see the information carefully developed the patient, care partner, and the clinician from seats at the side. Sometimes physi- side by side, facing the computer screen cians would give up their seats to allow the standards of practice. while seated at a semicircular desk. patient and family to better see the screen. Yet even health care This prompted nurture to redesign the In post-visit follow-up surveys, researchers space needs to work found that patient and clinician satisfaction space to better support the behaviors they harder. A recent study with the conventional room was very high. observed. The design included a half-round table that put the information in the center by Nurture, Steelcase’s In the experimental room, however, clinicians on a movable arm with an accompanying could share more information with patients health care division, and wireless keyboard and mouse. “It’s a more while both viewed the screen. Patients the Mayo Clinic sought felt they had more and better access to egalitarian setting for the consultation and to understand the extent information, including their own records, better supports new, best practices in clinical communication,” says WSF health care to which a consultation test results, images, and education materials. researcher Caroline Kelly. room designed to support “This study supports the notion that the present-day clinical space in which people meet can influence how they work together,” says Victor encounters could affect Montori, M.D., the lead Mayo researcher. the quality of the The consultation room design improved the consultation between quality of a patient visit, although Dr. Montori patients and clinicians. says more studies in other health care systems are needed to confirm the findings. This study grew out of Steelcase WorkSpace 12 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 16. j u n e 2010 Photo by jeff Dykehouse with Roger Martin On innovation, and why companies struggle with it. Roger Martin leads a busy life. He’s dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, a professor at the school, and a successful author. His most recent book, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Press, 2009) is a best-seller among business books at Amazon. He serves on several corporate boards, consults with corporations, writes extensively on design, and is a regular writer for BusinessWeek.com, The Washington Post’s On Leadership blog, and The Financial Times. Dubbed an “Innovation Guru” by Business Week, Martin has a multifaceted perspective on business and innovation. The following is an excerpt from a 90-minute conversation during a recent visit Martin made to Steelcase Global Headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich. 14 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 17. j u n e 2010 Why do so many companies fail at being innovators? They’ve gotten really good at what I call reliability functions: production processing, cost cutting, efficiency, etc., which is the business of exploiting the ideas of the past. Innovation is about exploring new ideas that haven’t been proven and can’t yet be measured. Some companies are dreaming in Technicolor that they’re going to be turned on a dime just because they want innovation. To succeed at innovation, you have to be willing to accept an idea even though you really can’t be certain it will work. So, how do you become change. We are going to be more the CFO and not feel that more innovative? collaborative, more creative.” they are hearing incomprehen- Company culture is critical. When you go into that space sible bafflegab – for example If someone tries something now, it’s a beehive of activity. financial ratios they don’t brand new and it doesn’t work, People are wandering around, understand. They come to learn and the next day her career’s they can work together, stop by a language system that enables lying on the floor with a bullet one another’s offices. There’s a them to communicate with hole in it, word gets around lot of stuff happening. That all business people. fast that risk taking should be represents the transformation of P&G, and you’ve seen the You’re an advocate for more avoided. Management has to results they’ve posted over the broad-based education. make sure that things like that don’t happen. What did she bet past decade. I just don’t think that we’re on that turned out to not be the being sensible about the level What other things do of specialization that people case? As long as she’s learning, innovative companies do? are seeking these days. There that behavior should be encour- aged and rewarded. They have a lot of ideas, and is a dogma out there that the they don’t converge on one very most important thing to do is to How can space help? quickly. They look for real get good at one thing. “Don’t be Corporations could take on variety up front. Everybody’s a jack of all trades and master some of the personalities of asked to contribute. That’s of none,” and all that. I despair design shops. If you go into something that I see all at how specialized so many IDEO or Frog Design or Design innovative companies do. The of our students are. Instead, Continuum, they’ve got movable front end of the funnel is a really you should, for example, take walls and reconfigurable work- wide one and they’re willing to history as an undergrad and spaces – places that are flexible consider very disparate ideas, design at a master’s level, so and support experimentation. versus us business types who try you can pull from those two Collaboration is another thing. to converge on what’s the best bodies of knowledge. It makes Project teams have to be able to idea quickly so we can push it sense to have a certain level of feel like they can work together the farthest and fastest. Real specialization, but you have to and collaborate. Another need innovators just don’t do that. have cross-cutting knowledge is transparency. When A. G. and skills. Why are you getting Lafley became CEO of Procter designers coming to & Gamble, he had the executive business school? space ripped back to the girders. He converted half of it into One of the reasons is to learn the a corporate learning center, vocabulary. Many non-financial and the rest is open plan for business people want to learn the executives. He was sending marketing and finance terminol- a big signal: “We are going to ogy, so that they can go to talk to 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 15
  • 18. j u n e 2010 THE NExT COMpETiTiVE ADVANTAGE: DESiGN THiNkiNG Martin says businesses can’t succeed solely on the basis of either analysis (quantitative thinking) or intuition (qualita- tive thinking). Both are needed in a dynamic balance he calls design thinking. It’s a form of thought that, once mastered, gives businesses a “nearly inexhaustible, long-term advantage.” Roger Martin will discuss concepts from his latest book, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage, at neoCon on Monday, june 14, 3-4 PM, in the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza Sauganash Ballroom, 14th Floor. Sponsored in part by Steelcase, the program is free for neoCon attendees. “If someone tries something new and it doesn’t work, and the next day her career’s lying on the floor with a bullet hole in From The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage it, word gets around fast that risk taking should be avoided.” Design thinking enables the organization to move along the knowledge funnel. What’s your next so forth. The theory was that to change the entire doctrine Mysteries are business book about? shareholder maximization by which you are supposed to challenges: A scientist might I’m doing two books. One is should be the clear goal of assure Wall Street that: “Yes, explore how to cure a disease; kind of an antidote to books companies. And to make sure shareholders, you are absolutely a salesman might wonder on execution that say business that’s the case, companies number one. You’re all we care what food products people on strategy doesn’t really matter, gave senior management stock- about, that’s what we live for.” the go want to buy. A heuristic that performance is all about based compensation, options, But really, how motivational is is a rule of thumb that helps execution. I think those books and the like to align their that? Who goes to work in the narrow the inquiry down to are wrong. They have an implicit interests with shareholders. morning to increase shareholder I argue that you cannot value? But would you go to work manageable size. The disease premise that, if you’ve got a good maximize shareholder value to try and make a better-suited may have certain genetic strategy, then you just have to perpetually, because shareholder environment so people could be properties, for example. focus on execution. But they don’t ask the question: What if value is about expectations more comfortable, more healthy, Or the salesman notes that you don’t have a good strategy, of the future, and you cannot more productive, to help grow customers like quick service will execution get you anywhere? keep on beating expectations. this economy? and easy access. It’s a way You could execute the wrong of thinking about the mystery What’s the alternative? thing. So this book is about how that helps simplify it and Procter & Gamble got turned I mapped out the 30 years allows more focus on the around through strategy. before 1976, before we had this issue. As an organization puts theory. How did shareholders a heuristic into operation, And the other? do versus 30 years after? The it converts it from a rule of How capitalism is being answer is shareholders did better when we weren’t trying thumb to a fixed formula, made ineffective by a crazy to maximize shareholder value. or algorithm. Thus, a rule of over-emphasis on maximizing My position is you should seek thumb that customers want shareholder value. About 30 years ago there was a movement to earn the shareholders a fair a quick, convenient, simple to get managers to focus on return, and you do that by meal might be converted to shareholder value, with little putting customers number one, a fixed formula for the fast regard for other stakeholders employees number two, and food restaurant with a 24/7 such as customers, employees, the communities in which you drive-through. suppliers, society at large, and work number three. We need 16 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 19. j u n e 2010 R&D VS. RECESSiON, AND THE WiNNER iS… It’s here that Swiffer was born, along Capital investment: down. Payroll: down. with other breakthrough products that Marketing: down. Research and develop- make up P&G’s billion-dollar brands. ment spending: up. According to findings At GlaxoSmithKline, “Innovation Hubs” of an annual survey conducted by Booz co-locate work teams around brands in & Co. released in early May, 70% of a flexible, non-hierarchical workplace. companies planned to hold or increase It’s proven so successful that eight GSK their R&D outlays in 2009. “Innovation Hubs have been constructed since 2005 SMART COMpANiES ARE iNVESTiNG in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. is a fundamental strategy for these AGAiN iN THEiR REAl ESTATE companies to hold onto their markets Good news on the real estate horizon: and gain an edge on their competitors,” Organizations are using their real estate says Barry Jaruzelski, a Booz partner. to rebrand, reinvent and reposition themselves, according to a recent study by Jones Lang LaSalle. “It appears that the global economy and real estate market fundamentals are past their worst,” says the study. Whew. In 2010, Jones Lang LaSalle expects to see a 30 – 40% increase in commercial real estate investment globally, with North DOllARS TO DEuTSCHE MARkS – THE u.S. OuTSpENDS ON R&D and South America at a faster 50 – 60%. Asia Pacific will expand by 30 – 50% and Overall, the U.S. spends more on Europe at 20 – 30%. Where’s the real research and development than estate money flowing fastest? In the U.S, DESiGN THiNkiNG, ESpECiAllY NOW any other country, according to a it’s the federal government, health care, The essence of design thinking — new report from the National Science energy, and clean technology. trying to experience a product or Foundation. And private industry service from the perspective of the has been spending more on it than user — has reached movement status the government since 1982. within business today. CROWDSOuRCiNG TRANSFORMS Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of iNNOVATiON Change by Design, says the imperative Big corporate R&D labs used to hold for design thinking is even greater in a innovation close to their massive chests. sluggish economy. “The opportunity to Today a more open model — a.k.a. capture more market share is greater “crowdsourcing” — is taking hold because many of your competitors have in large companies. Crowdsourcing MEETiNGS WiTHOuT MEETiNG taken their eye off the ball,” he says. leverages the work of people outside With airplane ticket prices sky high, It’s all about creating an optimistic, the organization — at universities and more companies are opting instead for experimental culture throughout the start-ups, with business partners and online meetings, webinars, and video- whole organization. government labs. By opening itself to the conferences, according to Workplace outside world, the corporation becomes Management. As the costs and hassles lEFT BRAiN, MEET THE RiGHT BRAiN the coordinator and integrator. IBM, for of travel escalate, the ease and speed Bringing together interdisciplinary teams example, is now a major underwriter of of technology just keeps getting better, in one space is like putting seedlings research at universities. At the same so why not? As just one recent indicator, in a hothouse: You’ll get results faster. time, as a connoisseur of innovation it 42% of 610 respondents to a survey For example, Procter & Gamble built consistently collects more patents than from Business Traveler magazine gave an “Innovation Gym” as a resource for any other company. a thumbs-up to videoconferencing longer-term thinking by people from instead of packing a bag. different parts of the organization. 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 17
  • 21. j u n e 2010 David Berger is intent on lighting up the world. but to embrace it and enthusias- jars, tin cans, old plastic tically address it,” says Berger. bottles – even gourds. “It is our work as designers Developed in cooperation that will affect the lives of with team members from people today, and future genera- Wa Polytechnic in Ghana and tions. Given that responsibility, universite nationale du Rwanda, we have no choice but to the project has already attracted design smart.” interest from 26 countries and SociaLite replaces kerosene- been featured by media outlets if a breeder in remote Africa The goal? To light up the world based lighting that’s known including Discovery Channel, can’t find his goats that for the 1.8 billion poor people to pollute and cause respira- The Washington Times, Voice have wandered off at night, living in off-the-grid parts of tory problems. In addition, the of America, Business Week, is it a design problem? the world. SociaLite venture is designed and The New Times of Rwanda. David Berger, a 2009 Their innovation, SociaLite, to inspire local entrepreneurship Berger won one of three Greener Cooper union graduate is an inexpensive and durable by providing simple kits and by Design Steelcase Scholarship turned social entrepreneur, self-assembled solar-powered training so that enterprising awards offered in partnership says it absolutely is. lantern. It provides interior villagers can easily assemble, with net Impact. lighting and can also be used sell, maintain, and repair the Millions of people around the SociaLite kits are sold just above as a portable lantern. The lanterns for neighbors. world stand to benefit from cost to ensure that the venture initial target market is Ghana, well-designed solutions to The design consists of a can be sustained. A website Rwanda, and other parts of basic, fundamental problems, solar panel connected to an is launching soon. More info is sub-Saharan Africa, eventually he contends, and smart design integrated circuit and a car immediately available at the blog remote areas of Asia and South is integral to the effort. Berger is battery, which becomes a http://solarlightingmicroenter- America, too. now part of a small group that’s shared, central charging station prise.wordpress.com, including turning a 2006 freshman-year “While the sheer scale of that can power up to 80 lanterns. how to make tax-deductable engineering project into a responsibility may be over- The housings are recycled local donations. sustainable business venture. whelming, we have no choice materials, including ceramic 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 19
  • 22. Welcome to NeoCon 2010 COME SEE uS Make sure to visit the Steelcase showrooms while you’re at neoCon. When: june 14-16, 9–5 p.m. Where: Steelcase, Suite 300 Turnstone, Suite 3-100 nurture, Suite 3-101 Details, Suite 3-107 Coalesse, Suite 1032 Designtex, Suite 1032A
  • 23. Don’t Miss This There’s so much to see and do at NeoCon it’s tough to fit it all in. Make sure to save some time for these events you won’t want to miss: THE DESiGN OF BuSiNESS: WHY DESiGN ECOCRADlE™ SuSTAiNABlE pACkAGiNG CREATiNG 21ST CENTuRY liBRARiES THiNkiNG iS THE NExT COMpETiTiVE BY ECOVATiVEDESiGN llC Come see the most recent Steelcase ADVANTAGE Eben Bayer is co-founder and CEO of research on education libraries identifying Roger Martin is everywhere these days: Ecovative Design, a Green Island, N.Y., a shift from information-centered libraries Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, biomaterials company; and co-inventor of to social-centered ones. This new research Business Week and Threesixty Magazine. MycoBond, a patent-pending technology will be shared by Elise Valoe, a human- Renowned author and dean of the Rotman that uses a growing organism to transform centered design researcher for Steelcase, School of Management at the University agricultural waste products into strong and Tod Stevens, principal designer for of Toronto, Martin will speak at NeoCon composite materials. These materials can SHW Group. In this session, learn about about his new book exploring questions be home composted and require a 10th the key issues driving how libraries are like: If so many companies want to of the energy to create compared to being designed and what activities must innovate, why are we so poor at it? Why is environmentally-damaging synthetics, be supported in the 21st century. They will breakthrough innovation so inconsistently like foam. Eben will be in the Steelcase also share their experiences on developing achieved and hard to replicate? How can showroom for informal conversations about and using human-centered design methods we get better at bringing innovation into this innovative approach to packaging and to develop solutions. neocon.com/register/ the heart of our organizations? In some exciting new projects he is working answering the questions, Roger suggests When: Monday, June 14, 4–5 p.m. on with Steelcase. how to move knowledge forward, connect Where: Check Registration or NeoCon When: Monday, June 14, 2–3 p.m. Directory for room location theory to business reality, and prescribes Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300 a solution to the innovation dilemma: design thinking. When: Monday, June 14, 3–4 p.m. Where: Holiday Inn Mart Plaza, Sauganash Ballroom, 14th Floor You can also meet Roger and talk with HARDER WORkiNG COCkTAilS DASH BEFORE YOu DiNE him about design thinking, innovation, shareholder value and other topics before After a long day at NeoCon you deserve Before hitting the Chicago dining scene, his presentation: a Harder Working Cocktail! Join us in the stop by and relax with a dash cocktail. showroom for beverages and conversation We’re celebrating the introduction of When: Monday, June 14, 1–2 p.m. with friends. dash™, the sleek new LED task light by Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300 Details co-developed with London-based When: Monday, June 14, 4–5 p.m. Foster + Partners. Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300 When: Tuesday, June 15, 4–5 p.m. Where: Steelcase Showroom, Suite 300 ENJOY THE CAMpFiRE When it’s time wind down after a busy day, join us for a beverage around the Campfire. When: Monday, June 14, 4–6 p.m. Where: Turnstone Showroom, Suite 3-100
  • 24. n eO C O n 2010 STeelCaSe 20 21 Welcome to our showroom This year at neoCon the Steelcase showroom is all about spaces that work harder by working smarter. This map and the application drawings on the following pages are designed to inspire ideas for spaces supporting a broad range of work – whether it’s for “heads-down” concentration or boisterous collaboration sessions, our aim is to help you explore ways your space can work harder. 22 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 25. STeelCaSe n eO C O n 2010 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 8 9 10 11 4 7 6 5 1 2 3 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 23
  • 26. n eO C O n 2010 STeelCaSe NeoCon 2010: a Harder Working Space There’s a new reality today: Organizations are working harder than ever. They need to balance demands to be both lean and creative. To innovate. Be agile. That means workplaces have to work harder too. Spaces have to be smart about the way real estate is used. They need to foster collaboration. Attract the best and brightest talent and help keep those employees engaged. And help build the organization’s brand and culture. Organizations know they must support the different ways people really work. Research shows four individual and collective states of work* help employees realize their full innovative and creative potential: Focusing Concentrating and attending to a specific task; thinking, close study, contemplation, reflection, analysis, and other “heads-down” work best performed without interruption. Collaborating Working with one or more people to achieve a goal, listening, discussing, presenting information and ideas, brainstorming, etc. Ideally, it’s a democratic process, with all perspectives shared equally to maximize the group’s collective experience and knowledge. learning Building knowledge through education or experience. Learning happens best by doing, building on what’s already known. When people make their thinking visible to each another, learning is accelerated and becomes an integrated part of an organization’s culture. Socializing Talking, interacting, networking, mentoring, celebrating, sharing connections that lead to common bonds and building trust. More work is accomplished through these informal social networks than through organizational hierarchies and form a true competitive advantage because of their ability to produce new ideas and innovation. Harder working spaces are also sustainable, promoting environmental health and the health and productivity of the people who work and live in it. That’s why all of the products you’ll see on the following pages has been designed, produced, and delivered with lifecycle thinking, materials chemistry, and recyclability in mind. Welcome to the Steelcase NeoCon 2010 showroom! * The Knowledge-Creating Company, by Ikujiro nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. 24 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °
  • 27. STeelCaSe n eO C O n 2010 it’s about: nomads products featured 1 • frameone Highly-mobile nomads need a place to set up camp for a few hours, • soto II worktools focus, catch-up on work and with colleagues. They need quick and easy access to technology, so they can plug in fast and get solution supports to work. Screens provide moderate visual privacy, but still allow focusing workers to see and be seen so they can network and learn from collaborating learning others. Simple storage elements help people on the move pack and socializing unpack quickly. lOW HiGH it’s about: functional groups products featured 2 • frameone every day they work together, shifting between individual work • amia and collaboration. They need visual access to each other, their • soto II worktools information and even remote teammates. This space fosters spontaneous interactions among the team, promotes side-by- solution supports side collaboration. Convenient storage areas allow easy access focusing collaborating to materials, provide piling surfaces and become casual seating learning for collaboration. socializing lOW HiGH 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces ° 25
  • 28. n eO C O n 2010 STeelCaSe it’s about: casual collaboration products featured 3 • media:scape lounge and This spot helps small groups touch base, provide updates or share hd videoconferencing ideas. It’s open and relaxed, but equipped with technology that • i2i • montage gives everyone equal access to information. Collaborative seating • ee6 lets people move and change positions so it’s easier to stay engaged • post and beam with duo and connected with the team. Café tables allow people to prepare before joining the meeting, or make notes afterward. Workers of all solution supports generations will migrate to this spot for casual collaboration. focusing collaborating learning socializing lOW HiGH 26 360steelcase.com Harder Working Spaces °