Open Space Offices: How to go from Good to Great
People have different feelings about open space offices. Some people love the collaborative atmosphere it provides, while others like to isolate and feel that they work better in a separate space. Since most of the world is fastly adapting to this new trend, let’s look at the positive sides of working in an open space and offer a few tips for making your work experience even better.
Collaboration
In the words of Steve Jobs, “Ideas don’t happen in the boardroom, they happen in corridors”. Spontaneous micro-meetings are a key feature of a productive workplace. The fewer barriers exist, the more natural it is for people to put their heads together and collectively concentrate on the task at hand.
Basically, scooting around in our office chairs and peering over into each other’s spaces from time to time brings more good than harm. Here’s how to take your collabs to the next level.
- Take advantage of common spaces — When you work as a team, it may be helpful to move out of your own individual desk to a more common space that allows you to huddle up
- Be tidy — A cluttered desk means a cluttered mind. Keeping your desk free of crumpled paper and endless knick-knacks will remove distractions and help you concentrate more throughout the day (Instead, use the shelves and drawers around your desk to add a personal touch)
Open-plan offices generally build a team spirit and create a social space as opposed to isolated individual spaces. Many people have been missing this sense of community during Covid. So the next time you have the opportunity to rethink your space, create more communal areas. You’ll find that people are more likely to share ideas by just speaking across the room than by participating in a formal meeting.
At Flux, we have a comfort zone that’s great for informal meetings as well as playing games during lunch. The kitchen is also geared for community meals, but at the same time keeps the balance by offering a sidebar with a view of the city for those who prefer to dine alone.
Happiness
We know from our own experience that a happy team makes for a productive team. When people are in a good mood, things get done faster and with fewer mistakes. An open workspace also goes a long way to breaking down barriers that may be put up through the use of walls that are intended to separate teams. By contrast, open space allows everyone to intermingle, no matter how junior or senior their position.
A few happiness tips:
- Group instead of segment — In many ways, it’s still practical to cluster people who work in the same department or on the same project together. So make sure your desks are grouped accordingly. And when you start a new project or a new group form, don’t be afraid of changing it up and moving to be with your team.
This is exactly how Flux’s office is set up. From our experience, this fosters a lot of comraderies. Also, from a partial standpoint grouping keeps the conversations relatively quiet since people don’t have to shout across the room to hear each other.
- Mingle — Chat with someone you don’t necessarily work with on a daily basis. Most likely you’ll find common ground and something fun to talk about. Happiness often comes in the unexpected conversations of the day.
Channels of Communication
Something we were all reminded of during Covid was setting meetings and calls. And while this is a healthy office practice, there’s nothing wrong with simply turning to each other when you need to chat about something.
It’s not always about work either. Working in close proximity to one another is helpful both in business-related and non-business-related interactions and improves the social atmosphere of an office. This in turn can improve the happiness of the team as they feel more relaxed in their surroundings. For newbies, sitting together helps get you integrated into the team well.
How to improve communication in an open space office:
- Create signals to indicate when you don’t wish to be disturbed — Whether you’re on a call with a client or up against a deadline, sometimes you just need to buckle down. Develop a method for indicating, “Unless it’s urgent, please see me later.”
- Personalize your space — Adorning your desk or cubby is a nice way of adding your personal touch. And for the time when you are available for small talk, this makes for a great conversation starter.
We have all sorts of desk plants and souvenirs scattered around Flux. Many people have a unique collage of family photos whereas others pride themselves on their collection of small smurf figurines.
Capacity to Increase
This is a major point for companies who are in the process of hiring and actively growing their staff. Having an open space format is practical because it’s easier to situate newcomers and shuffle around desks when necessary.
What do you think? If your office were to increase by about 10 people, would you have room to situate them?
Things to watch out for as your team grows:
- Accessibility — As you’re growing make sure you don’t have a movie theatre situation where people have to walk sideways for a long period of time to get to their desks.
At Flux, people have wide isles and seated in rows of no more than two. This makes getting around much easier.
Creating Spaces for the Future
Finally, aside from looking modern and futuristic, open plan offices offer all of us a flexible space as a basis for our office designs. Most modern offices also include break-out spaces that allow different modes of working to suit company needs. There are also break rooms and game zones. When comparing the two, research points to the fact that traditional offices are not the most efficient. Office design must meet the elevated standards of ergonomics in order to contribute to wellbeing and happiness.
How about you? Are you making the best use of your office space? How do you create a fun and productive workspace in your office? Let us know in the comments.
