ImaginativePRO Blog

HOW BKBS IS REDEFINING THE CO-WORKING OFFICE SPACE WITH 'ACTIVE COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES', THAT INCLUDE A GYM AND CLIMBING WALL

The Brooklyn Boulders Somerville workspace, planted in the middle of a 40,000-square-foot climbing facility, is located on top of a 120-foot long and 22-foot high climbing wall. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Brooklyn Boulders Somerville is redefining the open office concept. Wouldn't the workday be more fun if it occurred on top of a 22-foot-high climbing wall?

The Brooklyn Boulders Somerville co-working space has free Wi-Fi, a lounge area with couches, a communal table, a smattering of standing desks with built-in pull-up bars, seated desks with balance ball chairs, and a few quiet spaces. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Most people hate open offices. They're loud, people sneeze every minute, and there's barely any privacy. But what if your open office was a climbing gym and your coworkers constantly cheered in admiration at people scaling the walls in the background?

At the Brooklyn Boulders Somerville co-working space no special membership is necessary--any member of the climbing facility can work there for free.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

At Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, a combination climbing gym and collaborative workspace in Somerville, Massachusetts, people do their work in the middle of utter chaos--and according to Jesse Levin, the facility's "Senior Cultural Chameleon" (he deals with everything that isn't related to rock-climbing), they love it.

Brooklyn Boulders Somerville gives us a whole new definition of open offices including this incredible climbing wall.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

He says.  

"When you're really in touch with your body physically, it affects every facet of your life.  I never quite understood why there was such a segregation between your career and working and going to the gym and community interaction. It made a lot of sense to me to bring it all together."

Brooklyn Boulders Somerville's co-working space offers a combination climbing gym and collaborative workspace in Massachusetts. (Click Image To Enlarge)

This belief in the mind-boosting power of physicality touches other areas of Levin's life as well--when he's not working at Brooklyn Boulders, he runs Tactivate, a program aimed at turning military special operations veterans into entrepreneurs (the general manager of the gym is a reserve officer in the Navy).

At Brooklyn Boulders Somerville's co-working space, people do their work in the middle of utter chaos--and according to Jesse Levin, the facility's "Senior Cultural Chameleon," they love it. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Brooklyn Boulders Somerville just opened four months ago, but it's the sister facility to the original four-year-old Brooklyn Boulders gym (located in Brooklyn, obviously), which doesn't have a collaborative work component.

At Brooklyn Boulders Somerville's co-working space, "When you're really in touch with your body physically, it affects every facet of your life."  (Click Image To Enlarge)

The workspace, planted in the middle of a 40,000-square-foot climbing facility, is located on top of a 120-foot-long and 22-foot-high climbing wall. There's free Wi-Fi, a lounge area with couches, a communal table, a smattering of standing desks with built-in pull-up bars, seated desks with balance ball chairs, and a few quiet spaces. No special membership is necessary--any member of the climbing facility can work there for free.  

Brooklyn Boulders Somerville's co-working space is planted in the middle of a 40,000-square-foot climbing facility that is located on top of a 120-foot long and 22-foot high climbing wall. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Levin says.  

"It's like the sauna. It's a perk of the facility."

He believes that one of the main benefits to using the co-working space is the proximity it gives to the kinds of people who would want to work in a climbing gym.  Levin says.  

"Climbing inherently attracts venture capitalists, artists, programmers.  It's a very cerebral sport, and they mix naturally. We're giving them a space where they can embody and live this lifestyle."

The collaborative workspace has proven to be popular, in spite of the recent backlash against open workspaces. In addition to accommodating individual workers, the space has also played host to corporate meetings (companies like Puma and Vita-Coco) and a hackathon to develop fitness-related applications, which saw participants doing push-ups and taking turns on the climbing wall in between coding sessions. In 2014, the gym will host a TEDx event.

It's hard to imagine using the gym as a primary workspace, but it's a worthy experiment at the very least.   Levin says.  

"In no way shape or form is this your traditional sterile, polished workspace." 

COMMENTARY:   Now that's what I call a truly fantastic co-working office space.  It is definitely a cut above other co-working or virtual office spaces in the way it is designed to enhance the physical well-being, not just the financial (lower costs), productivity and intellectual well-being.   It's a very big space, with a lot of open, non-revenue generating space, with high startup costs and high monthly fixed operating costs, so my biggest concern is whether the operators can make money off of such a facility.  Having said this, it is my belief that in order to be competitive in the collaborative office space market, you must truly standout from the crowd, offer a lot more than just office space, and enhance the workspace experience beyond just a comfortable and productive place to work. Brooklyn Boulder Somerville has succeeded in doing all three. 

Courtesy of an article dated January 9, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Exist  

 

PINTEREST'S NEW SAN FRANCISCO HEADQUARTERS REVEALS CLEAN AND UNFINSHED SPACES THAT FOSTER CREATIVE COLLABORATIVE

Located in San Francisco's SoMA neighborhood, Pinterest's new 45,000-square-foot headquarters feature four "houses," architectural volumes where employees can collaborate in groups. (Click Image To Enlarge)

TO MATCH THE UNCERTAIN NATURE OF STARTUPS, COMPANY FOUNDER EVAN SHARP STEERED AWAY OF SLEEK DECADENCE IN FAVOR OF CLEAN SPACES THAT FOSTER CREATIVE COLLABORATION.

When talking about workplace design, the buzzword “collaboration” flies around the tech world faster than a speeding foosball. From startups working out of garages to sprawling corporate campuses, everyone is looking to harness the creative energy of people working together. Pinterest is no exception. The design-driven company is using its new 45,000-square-foot headquarters in San Francisco’s SoMA neighborhood as a test site for collaboration.

The hubs within the office are meant to foster community. But perhaps, in the spirit of Pinterest, they are more like fun houses, with something a little strange or unique in each one to bond people together. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The “war room” is designed for power-working sessions on deadline. Desks allow designers and engineers to work shoulder-to-shoulder on their laptops and then feverishly cover the whiteboard and glass walls with their brainstorming notes. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Employees moved into the space in April, filling a brick warehouse on 7th Street that had been stripped down to basics: large industrial windows, wood beams, steel structure. But into that raw space, concept designers Janette Kim, of All of the Above, and Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood, from First Office, along with executive architect Neal Schwartz, inserted a grid of four white volumes. Each 20-by-20-foot cube-like “house” functions as a different kind of meeting, working, or gathering area. Almost totemic, these architectural interventions answer the challenge of how to have 150+ people working in an open-floor plan and still have places for quiet, creative intensity--and yes, collaboration.

Another meeting area. (Click Image To Enlarge)

 
 The office is left intentionally unfinished. Says Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp: “The one certain thing about a startup is that the future is highly uncertain, and so like an information system, we wanted the design of the office to be flexible enough that the design would be able to adapt as the company changes over time. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp explained. 

“The one certain thing about a startup is that the future is highly uncertain, and so like an information system, we wanted the design of the office to be flexible enough that the design would be able to adapt as the company changes over time.  Like Pinterest (the service), we wanted our space to accommodate the most heterogeneous set of occupations possible. That's architect speak for, the space should enable you to work in many different ways. Whether you're comfortable working at a dedicated desk, on your laptop at a communal table, or in a dark corner in the basement, it's likely that you'll find a place that works for the way you like to work.”

“Like Pinterest (the service)," Sharp continues, "we wanted our space to accommodate the most heterogeneous set of occupations possible. That's architect speak for, the space should enable you to work in many different ways. Whether you're comfortable working at a dedicated desk, on your laptop at a communal table, or in a dark corner in the basement, it's likely that you'll find a place that works for the way you like to work.”  (Click Image To Enlarge)

“We didn't want the space to give the impression of success or complacency or decadence, the way a lot of studio and agency spaces feel to me," Sharp says. (Click Image To Enlarge)

That doesn’t mean that emphasis is placed solely on efficiency or productivity. Like literal houses, the hubs within the office are meant to foster community. But perhaps, in the spirit of Pinterest, they are more like fun houses, with something a little strange or unique in each one to bond people together. For instance, an oversized circular table is intentionally too big for a single meeting or group lunch.  Kim explains.  

“We wanted to design a table that would be so large it would welcome anyone to work on it.  If your table holds 20 people and five people are sitting at it, anyone can feel invited.”

By contrast, the “war room” is designed for power-working sessions on deadline.  Desks allow designers and engineers to work shoulder-to-shoulder on their laptops and then feverishly cover the whiteboard and glass walls with their brainstorming notes.

Still, there's an element of fun, with vintage signs and tchotchkes brought in by employees. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The office is housed in a renovated brick warehouse on 7th Street. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The conversation of how to work collaboratively began for Kim long before she sketched a plan. Sharp was her student in 2008, when he was a graduate student studying architecture at Columbia University in New York City. Kim and Sharp remained in touch after he founded Pinterest in a garage and would discuss the connections between architecture, startup culture, and information design, contemplating how meaning is generated for spaces, objects, and photographs. Recalls Kim.  

“We talked about a square, a circle, a cross--really basic things--but it was also a way to talk about the collaborative culture of the office, of relationships between people.”

The four "houses." (Click Image To Enlarge)

That dynamic culture expresses itself in the architecture and in the ever-changing displays of vintage signage and funky objects brought in by the staff. DIY art projects made by crafty “Pinployees” hang from the rafters, evidence of after-hours creativity.

Sharp explains.  

“The office feels intentionally unfinished.  We didn't want the space to give the impression of success or complacency or decadence, the way a lot of studio and agency spaces feel to me. We wanted it to feel like one stepping stone on a larger journey. This helps remind us how far we are from our ultimate aspirations for what Pinterest will become.”

COMMENTARY:    I have always preferred the simplicity of open space plans over the confinement of office cubicles.  Pinterest's new headquarters are quite typical of today's high technology startups:  fast growing, team-oriented, highly social, creative and innovative.  You almost have to do away with the cubicles in favor of just a few private places where peope can gather for collaborative brainstorming and private meetings.  It means less investment in office furniture and sacrificing some privacy, in favor of clear lines of communication and social interaction and collaboration.   When done properly, the architecture and interior space plan can, as in the case of Pinterest, appear very impressive and appealing to the eye.  

I love the interior space plan concept of the "four houses," because the office spaces are purposely designed to foster a sense of community and belonging.  Pinterest's HQ is probably a very noisey place, especially the lunch room area.  It gives one the feeling of a community, a corporate family, if you will.  Everything is out in the "open."  Even the conference rooms have glass walls, so there is no attempt to hide anything.  I didn't see any curtains, so I wonder how they handle confidential information.  Just the same, Pinterest's new HQ came out quite impressive.

Courtesy of an article dated October 22, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design    

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3020285/inside-pinterests-intentionally-unfinished-new-headquarters?partner=newsletter#1

HOW TO DESIGN A BETTER OFFICE FOR BOTH INTROVERTS AND EXTROVERTS

Colleagues can easily collaborate in small groups in this quiet location in Vodafone’s Amsterdam office. (Click Image To Enlarge)

COULD A “PALETTE OF PLACE” GIVE WORKERS CONTROL AND CHOICE OVER WHERE AND HOW THEY WORK? ONE COMPANY GOES DEEP INTO WORK SPACE.

Ask workers what bugs them most about the office, and chances are they’ll tell you they can’t concentrate or focus on their work.

At Steelcase, we regularly survey workers from diverse industries, job types, locations and age groups about their workplace satisfaction, and for years the number one issue has stayed the same: 95.3% of workers say having “access to quiet, private places for concentrated work” is important, but over 41% say they don’t have them. That’s a big problem for all workers, but especially for introverts (estimated at one-third to half of the population), who recharge their batteries by being alone. It’s an even bigger issue for organizations that employ both introverts and extroverts and who need to leverage the strengths of all workers as they strive to be more innovative and nimble in a competitive climate.

Steelcase workers take advantage of quiet spots for focused work. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Several factors contribute to this lack of quiet and privacy, regardless of whether we’re wired more toward intro- or extroversion. The shift toward mobile work has left tribes of nomads with limited options for concentrated work. Sometimes the local coffee shop is a great option, at least for anonymity, but even the best ear buds can’t tune out those toddlers at the next table. And our technology devices are a constant source of interruption, constantly tugging at us for attention. Places that used to be our last refuge for privacy, like our homes, and even our bedrooms, have become extensions of our workplaces, where interruptions can barge in with a single alert or silly ringtone. Perhaps the biggest culprit is actually our quest for interaction and collaboration--both of which are critical components of innovation and essential to high-performance companies. The pitfall for some organizations is the assumption that group work is the exclusive means to an innovative end. Design some cool-looking collaboration areas in the middle of an open office plan, with lots of traffic from nearby workers, throw in some beanbag chairs or fake grass floor covering and brilliant ideas will spontaneously erupt . . . right?

Steelcase’s new Innovation Center at its Grand Rapids, Michigan, headquarters offers plenty of collaborative zones, but there are also spaces like these for quiet, focused work to let ideas develop. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Sometimes. For some people. Take my colleague Katie, for instance, who draws energy and motivation from groups of people and lots of stimuli. Testing as an extrovert on quizzes from both authors Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking) and Daniel Pink (To Sell is Human), she is happiest among a big group of boisterous creative types, with lots of sensory stimulation. You’ll often find her working in the café, interacting with a variety of people as she works on a new idea. But even Katie has moments when she needs to get away and focus, either alone or with a small group.

Conversely, another colleague, Uli, thrives when she has access to areas where she can control the sensory stimulation, eliminate noise disruptions, and engage in deep, focused work. When it’s time for the team to come together, she’s ready to contribute new ideas and participate in a group session to iterate and create. As for me, I’m a confirmed ambivert. It depends on a variety of factors: the type of work I’m doing, the tools I need, or the mood I’m in. Some days, I get my best thinking done when surrounded by people and activity. Other times, I need walls with full acoustical seals that shield me from disruptions (plus ear buds, for good measure).

Check out Drake Baer’s recent look at how organizations can benefit from embracing qualities of both introverts and extroverts. And recall that Cain struck a nerve within the corporate world by drawing attention to the needs of introverts and challenging the notion that creativity and innovation come exclusively from boisterous socialization. Cain makes the case that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption and notes that even extroverts need time for contemplation and focused, individual work. Our research at Steelcase corroborates this point--we all need time to ourselves. To read. To think. To reflect.

Some workers choose to retreat from the structure of their day and relocate for a few hours to these comfortable spaces in Steelcase’s WorkCafé that create a “palette of place” throughout their workday. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The point is, whether you’re an extrovert or introvert, we can’t expect workplaces designed with a cookie-cutter approach to help us do our best work. We need a range of spaces that are created for both group and individual work, some that are assigned and others shared. Some in the middle of activity, and others tucked out of the way. At Steelcase, we call it a “palette of place” that offers workers control and choice over where and how they work. It is organized in zones for different kinds of work that allow people to amp up or down the degree of sensory stimulation they want, and to signal their level of availability for interaction. It doesn’t require any more space than a conventional office and can actually use real estate more efficiently.

Providing sensory control is critical to employee well-being, especially for introverts who are more sensitive to stimuli. It’s important to integrate spaces that encourage people to retreat from the structure of the day, to renew and rest or gain fresh perspective. Employees should be able to control lighting, sound, and temperature, work in relaxed lounge or resting postures, and be free of interruptions. It’s equally important to provide spaces that allow workers to feel a physical connection with others, even when working alone.

One of our clients, Vodafone, created a space called Club 11 in their Amsterdam office that offers food, an outdoor terrace, and upbeat music. It’s fun and functional, but you wouldn’t mistake it for a library or choose it when you need quiet focus. The space for that is actually called the library, located in another zone, and one of the few places with rules about how people work: talking and phone calls are not allowed.

At Vodafone in Amsterdam, workers can quickly move into small rooms such as this one for solo, focused work or small group collaboration at Vodafone. (Click Image To Enlarge)

At Skype’s Palo Alto offices, collaboration is nurtured, and workers sit at benches that allow for an easy exchange of ideas. Yet, headphones are the respected way of signaling “leave me alone, I’m thinking,” and the company also offers a variety of small, private places for individuals who need quiet and less stimulation.

Steelcase’s WorkCafé at the company’s Grand Rapids, MI HQ is a space designed with a coffee shop vibe that’s a popular spot for both collaboration and solo, focused work, in addition to eating and socializing. (Click Image To Enlarge)

We recently opened a new WorkCafé in our Grand Rapids, Michigan, headquarters, a space designed with a coffee shop vibe that is a great spot not only for eating but for all kinds of work--social, learning, collaboration, as well as focused. We found that 80% of our employees choose it for individual work at least some of the time. They know they might be interrupted, but they prefer to be near others.

Extroverts and introverts have plenty in common: They both need to feel like they’re connected to other people and to the organization. They also need quiet places where they can focus, reflect or recharge--it just might be in different degrees. Ultimately, they need workplaces with a range of spaces that allow them to choose what works best for them.

--Chris Congdon is director of global research communications for Steelcase Inc.. Follow her on Twitter at @cscongdon.

COMMENTARY:   I have posted a number of articles about trends in the workplace and office furniture.  Checkout my posts dated April 3, 2013 about Knoll's "Activity Spaces" office furniture line, my post dated September 26, 2011 about Steelcase's "cafe-like" Media:Space office furniture designed for social collaboration, my post dated March 30, 2012 about Herman Miller's Aeron chairs and the plant where they are manufactured, my post dated February 10, 2012 about Lego PMD's (Lego toys) corporate offices in Billud Denmark and how Lego toys are incorporated into their workplace, my post dated December 17, 2011 about how Plantronics, the famous headset maker, has designed offices for their telecommuting staffers, my post dated December 7, 2011 about the new office digs for the IT department of Switzerland's ATG, my post dated November 2, 2011 about the interior design of Twister's Restaurant that incorporates the look of tornados and rain in Kiev, Ukraine, and my post dated September 30, 2011 about Herman Miller's ergonomic "Envelop Desk."

Courtesy of an article dated August 30, 2013 appearing in Fast Company

KNOLL'S 'ACTIVITY SPACES,' FURNITURE FOR TODAY'S MOBILE WORKFORCE WHO ARE NOT TIED TO A DESKTOP, BUT RELY ON MOBILE DEVICES

ANTENNA’S NEW LINE FOR KNOLL IS PURPOSE-BUILT FOR THE SPONTANEOUS WORK ENCOUNTERS THAT OFTEN SPARK INNOVATION.

By now, the concept of “spontaneous collaboration space” in the office is starting to fray around the edges. Despite the proliferation of zany themed meeting rooms, sofas, and bars in the workplace, there’s still no recipe for engineering the random encounters and unplanned work that can lead to breakthroughs. Sigi Moeslinger, one half of Antenna Design, says.

“Architects will often specify residential furniture like coffee tables and couches.  But spontaneous work still requires work space.”

Moeslinger and her partner, Masamichi Udagawa, have designed Bloomberg terminals,  MTA New York City subway cars, and JetBlue check-in kiosks. But for their latest project, the Japanese-Austrian duo bypassed screens and addressed the people who use them.

Activity Spaces, a line of furniture Antenna designed for Knoll, is designed for mobile employees who are no longer tied to a desktop, relying on tablets or phones instead.   Udagawa says.

“Many people don’t have a main computer anymore.  But generally, we still need a place to sit and put something.”

A desk or chair hybrid named Toboggan, designed for use with tablets or laptops, is the centerpiece of a new line of Knoll furniture by Antenna Design (Click Image To Enlarge)

The steel tube and bent plywood of the Toboggan looks like a mutated public school desk--it supports a variety of sitting positions plus a place to rest a tablet or notebook (Click Image To Enlarge)

Activity Spaces is built around a desk/chair hybrid named Toboggan. The steel tube and bent plywood contraption looks like a mutated public school desk--its legs wrap in a C from the desk to the ground up to the integrated stool, creating a lightweight structure that supports a variety of sitting positions plus a place to rest a tablet or notebook.  Moeslinger says. 

“It’s a kind of strange object, and we weren’t sure how people would interact with it.”

But an introduction at NeoCon last year left Antenna pleasantly surprised:  

“People would just intuitively take breaks to check their phones.”

She remembers.

“They got into it right away.”

Knoll Activity Spaces include a number of casual workspaces, including semi-secluded seating for open office plans. This image shows other pieces from the collection, which weren’t designed by Antenna (Click Image To Enlarge)

To assuage the constant lack of power outlets, they designed a stainless steel power block that supplies a charge (Click Image To Enlarge)

The lightweight Toboggans are designed to be moved and rearranged throughout the office, which introduced another problem: the inevitable lack of power outlets. So they designed a stainless steel pole dotted with outlets that supplies a charge wherever it’s wheeled.

Here's, the charging pole (Click Image To Enlarge)

There are also small tables and objects that provide a charge for laptops and tablets (Click Imaage To Enlarge)

Other pieces, like a rolling whiteboard and small tables that also provide a charge for laptops, also promote mobility within the office. The idea is to create a spectrum of spaces within the office, rather than the conventional binary of being at your desk or in a meeting.

A whiteboard on wheels is another lo-fi accessory (Click Image To Enlarge)

A view of the toboggan chair with the power pole

In an unexpected way, Antenna’s expertise in interaction design is what makes these plywood-and-plastic objects so intelligent. It’s not so much about the screen, but rather how and where it’s being used.  Udagawa told me.

“We approach furniture as an interface.  It can modify behavior, and help people make the transition into more open space.”

COMMENTARY:    Office workers no longer lay claim to just a small square of real estate but share ownership of all the spaces that support the multiple tasks they are called upon to perform. In the emerging workplace the whole office is my office. 

Today’s office contains individual assigned workspaces that Knoll calls primary workspaces, and non-assigned spaces that are held in common and occupied with others as needed, called activity spaces. Primary and activity spaces may be individual or shared, open or enclosed, depending on their intended function. Both primary and activity spaces require broad connectivity with ready access to power and data, and wifi capability.

Primary spaces, which are typically assigned open plan workstations or private offices, are
“home base” spaces.  Often configured to support heads-down, focus work as well as short interactions with others, primary spaces may be designed explicitly to support shared work as in a two-person workstation with a table between; or to support team work, as in a large table configuration.

Activity spaces are “go to” spaces, that is, destinations for temporary group and individual work. They include:

• Refuge for focus work among one or two.  dddddddddddddddddddd  
  
• Enclave for small group interactions among three or four   
  
• Team Meeting for teams of five to eight dddddddddddddddddd
  
• Assembly spaces for conferences, lectures or training
  
• Community areas for informal socializing, eating or collaborating.
  

While layout, furnishings and technology will differ depending on the intended function of a given space, the sizes of activity spaces by type are relatively constant. Whether spaces support individual work, collaboration or more structured group activities, all must have qualities that make them places where people want to go.

Successful activity spaces attract, adapt and engage. They are appealing and comfortable, offer appropriate furnishings and technology, and provide multiple communication tools.  Activity spaces permit individuals and group members to shape their work experience by adjusting and reconfiguring elements in the space, and provide opportunities to express organizational culture.

Activity Spaces Defined (Click Image To Enlarge)

If you would like to learn more about Knoll's Activity Spaces line of communual and collaborative furniture designed for today's mobile workforce, you can download Knoll's Activity Spaces whitepaper by clicking HERE.

Courtesy of an article dated April 1, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design 

7 GREAT REASONS TO ENCOURAGE WORKING REMOTELY AND THE DISADVANTAGES OF WORKING REMOTELY

Young mother telecommutes so she can spend more time with her children

Yahoo may want to wrangle the herd, but plenty of companies still encourage remote work. StackExchange lead developer David Fullerton explains why his company does, and how it makes this work.

It’s 2013, almost three years after we first raised money and started growing beyond the first four employees. At the time, cofounder Jeff Atwood wrote a great blog post about working remotely, basically laying out our plan for how we were going to make it work. Now we’re a few years in and it’s time to update it with, well, what actually happened.

 

First, where are we now? Stack Exchange now employs 75 people, roughly evenly split between sales (and sales ops and marketing) and product (development, ops, design, community management). The product side is where our remote working happens: We have 16 full-time remote and 18 in-office developers, sysadmins, designers, and community managers. So we are very much a hybrid team, which I’ve come to believe is the best of both worlds. I’m the lead of engineering, so I’m mostly going to talk about developers, but a lot of this applies to other positions as well.

Why we believe in letting people work full-time from home.

#1: It lets you hire good people who can’t move. Hiring remotely opens you up to an enormous pool of people who can’t move. I can’t stress this enough: For every one person who is in your location or is happy to move there, there are 100 more who are not. They’re tied down by a spouse with a job, a kid in school, a visa they can’t get, or a mortgage they can’t get out of. If you’re hiring for technical positions, hiring remotely is the best-kept, blindingly obvious secret for finding people. By hiring remotely, we have been able to fill our team with awesome people with lots of experience, who were stuck happily living in places like Corvallis, Oregon, or Forest of Dean in the U.K. (Seriously, look it up. It’s basically The Shire.)

#1a: You don’t lose people to silly things like their significant other going to medical school. Before I worked at Stack Exchange, I worked at Fog Creek. I watched at least five great people leave because their family situation made it necessary to move, and Fog Creek had (at the time) a strict no-remote-workers policy. This drove me crazy. These were amazing employees, in whom the company had already invested deeply, who were now walking out the door because they couldn’t live in New York any more. At Stack Exchange, we’ve already had two people move away from New York; they are still happily employed doing the same job they were always doing. If we didn’t allow working remotely, we’d be down at least two great developers.

#2: When done right, it makes people extremely productive. Private office? Check. Flexible hours? Check. Short commute? Check. I’ll let you in on a secret: Most of our remote developers work longer hours than our in-office devs. It’s not required, and probably won’t always be the case, but when going to work is as simple as walking upstairs (pants optional, but recommended), people just tend to put in more hours and work more productively.

#3: It makes you focus on more than butts in chairs. As a manager, I can’t easily know how many hours each person on my team is working. This is actually good for me because it forces me to look at what they’ve done. It’s good for the remote person as well: They can’t fool themselves into thinking that, just because they’re in an office, surfing Reddit for an hour is work. In a perfect world, we’d both already have this perspective, but it’s amazing how easy it is to delude yourself into thinking that “going to the office" = work.

What we’ve learned.

#1: Remote working isn’t for everyone. There’s a tendency to think that working from home is all sunshine and rainbows and working in your PJs. It’s not. You miss out on being around people (which wears even on introverts), doing fun stuff like playing ping-pong or having lunch together, and (sometimes hardest of all) you lose a clear distinction between work and the rest of your life. Some people thrive when working from home, while others wither or just…drift. We’ve had people move both ways: Remote people deciding to come in to the office, and people in the office deciding to go remote. The key, for us, is offering both and helping people decide which is best for them.

#2: Working remotely is a skill you need to hire for. If remote working isn’t for everyone, you'd better be sure that the person you’re hiring to work remotely is going to be good at it. The most important thing that we look for is that they must be self-motivating and proactive: self-motivating in finding things to do, proactive in communicating with the rest of the team. Our remote developers are some of the most argumentative people in the whole company because we hired them to be that way. We like opinionated people. Opinionated people find things they care about to work on and make sure you know what they think, which is essential if you’re not sharing an office together.

#3: You have to commit to it as a team (and a company). There are no halfsies in a distributed team. If even one person on the team is remote, every single person has to start communicating online. The locus of control and decision making must be outside of the office: no more dropping in to someone’s office to chat, no more rounding people up to make a decision. All of that has to be done online even if the remote person isn’t around. Otherwise you’ll slowly choke off the remote person from any real input on decisions.

#4: Communication is hard (but it was always hard). I am far from the first to point it out, but the hardest problem in growing a company from 4 to 75 people (and, presumably, to 200) is communication. When there were four people, everyone knew everything. When there are 75 people, that no longer scales. So you have to work out your channels of communication, and that’s doubly true with remote workers because you can’t rely on overheard conversations or gossip to spread the word. You have to force yourself to be explicit in communication.

How we do it.

#1: Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts are the lifeblood of our organization. If you haven’t tried them for video chat, you’re living in the Stone Age. We have persistent hangouts for every team available at URLs that everyone knows. We spin up one-off hangouts for quick video chats. We use them for meetings, for hanging out (no, seriously), for demos, for teaching… for everything. There really is no substitute for face-to-face conversations, and when you get to the point where people in the office are actually preferring hangouts to talking in-person because it’s easier, you know you’re on to something.

#2: Persistent Chat. Chat is good for shorter conversations or quick pings to ask someone a question. It has two big benefits: (1) It’s asynchronous enough that people can get back to you when they have a second, and (2) it’s persistent, so other people can skim it and catch up on what they missed (vital when you’re in different time zones). Every company should have a chat system, whether they have a distributed team or not. It’s better than interrupting someone at their desk or dragging someone into a hangout for a quick question. We built our own chat system, but there are good alternatives like Campfire and HipChat out there.

#3: Email. As flawed as email is, it’s still alive and kicking. Email is for fully asynchronous communication (don’t use email if you need a response today), and for communicating status updates and decisions. We have a standing rule that all decisions must be typed up and shared with the rest of the team via email, basically what Jeff described at the beginning. Each team sends out a weekly status update to the whole company, giving a high-level overview of what’s going on so teams don’t get isolated from one another.

#4: Trello + Google Docs. We use Trello for keeping track of who is working on what, and Google Docs for notes, specs, designs, etc. Both are excellent tools that you should use, even if you’re not working remotely.

Distributed teams aren’t for everyone, but they are working extremely well for us. Yes, they are more work, but for us it's easily worth it because of the quality of people we get and the quality of life we’re able to offer them. For us, it’s been a part of our DNA from the beginning and something we’re committed to making work long-term. Will it still work when we hit 500 employees? I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out.

Sound like the kind of place you’d like to work? We’re hiring, especially  developers  and designers. We’re still figuring it all out, but we’ve got a great team and some really interesting problems to work on. Come be a part of figuring out what the future of remote working looks like.

Republished with permission from the Stack Exchange blog.

COMMENTARY:   The disadvantages of telecommuting are tied to the main advantage -- you don't have to go into an office every day. But while it sounds great to avoid rush hour, consider the downsides.

• Becoming isolated. Loneliness is the number one disadvantage of telecommuting. If you're working from home full-time, you may start to time your coffee break to the arrival of the mail man. That's how desperate you can become for human contact!
• Missing out on shop talk. You're so much more productive when you telecommute because you don't waste time chit-chatting with co-workers. But the gossip serves an important purpose -- building relationships and allowing for casual brainstorming and information sharing.  If you telecommute, make sure to regularly call colleagues and stop by the office to keep your network strong. Identify the important meetings and events to attend in person. You want to avoid being blindsided by layoffs, being unaware of a new corporate strategy or missing an opportunity to participate in high-profile projects.
• Becoming the fallback child care provider. When you're working from home, people sometimes forget the "working" part. You run the risk of neighbors, teachers and even your spouse taking for granted that you will be in the home during work hours. While it may be simple to let a repair person in the house now and then, you don't want to be called on for multiple errands and child care when you're supposed to be doing your job.
• Feeling work-family conflict. If you have young children at home, it can be hard for them to understand that you're physically present but unable to care for them. They may refuse consolation from their babysitter if they know you're only a few feet away. Some work-at-home moms even pretend to leave for work and sneak back into their home office! Older children and even spouses may fail to respect your work time or space and interrupt for just a "quick question."

Courtesy of an article dated March 1, 2013 appearing in Fast Company and an article appearing in About.com

THE FUTURE OF COWORKING, A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS, AND WHY IT WILL GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A HUGE EDGE

San Francico's Mission Social -- A Unique Coworking Space in San Francisco for Social Enterprises, Small Businesses, and Entrepreneurs (Click Image To Enlarge)

Here are the numbers that support the case for coworking--and why it's not just for startups or freelancers anymore.

Fun. Friendly. Inspiring. Collaborative. Productive. If you wouldn't define your workplace with any or all of those terms, you may have to ditch your own desk and take a seat at a coworking space near you. Even if you aren’t an entrepreneur or freelancer, the benefits of coworking, according to Deskmag’s annual Global Coworking Survey, are pretty hard to ignore: 71 percent of participants reported a boost in creativity since joining a coworking space, while 62 percent said their standard of work had improved.

The study also found that half of all coworkers access their work space around the clock--with only 30 percent preferring to work during normal business hours.  Regus CEO Mark Dixon tells Fast Company.

“The future of work should not be dictated by space or place, but by the individual and the tasks that he or she has to deliver.  Many employees are now measured by output and productivity, and not just 40 hours spent sitting at a desk. Workers and the companies for which they work are increasingly realizing that they need to provide and utilize a wide range of workplaces to accommodate an increasingly diverse workforce with very different expectations of what work is, and where and when it should happen.”

There are a number of very good reasons why companies should consider coworking facilities besides the potential cost savings:

Click Image To Enlarge

That’s why Dixon says, companies such as Google, Amazon, Twitter, and half of the Fortune 500 offer their staff temporary spaces at Regus to hold meetings or to get work done on the road. Regus offers flex space to more than a million people a day worldwide.

Regus's new street-level business lounge, set to open at 747 3rd Avenue in New York in April 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Dixon notes that coworking allows for businesses to test new markets relatively risk-free.  Dixon explains. 

“Our research tells us that today anywhere between a third and half of all workers are flexible and mobile. Four years ago flexible working was the reserve of quirky marketing agencies and IT shops. Today, it’s a way of life influenced by the growth of the freelance economy and the need to expand the top-line by market expansion.”

Regus's business lounge in New York (Click Image To Enlarge)

For example, Regus plays host to real estate agencies that ironically don’t have their own real estate. Instead, they give all the agents cards to check into a nearby coworking center when they need to print materials or get paperwork done.

Another look at the New York office of Regus, which offers flex space to more than a million people a day worldwide (Click Image To Enlarge)

Compared to a traditional office, Deskmag found that an overwhelming majority (90 percent) of coworkers said they got a self-confidence boost, likely due to the fact that many spaces are filled with supportive communities that enable creative collaboration.

Dodd Caldwell, founder of Loft Resumes and MoonClerk, has been coworking for two and a half years in Greenville, S.C. Most recently, he’s sharing space with other startups at Iron Yard.  Caldwell say. 

“We're a pretty curated coworking space, so even though we're made up of different companies, we're all fairly kindred spirits.  By running his small businesses in a curated coworking space.  I get the advantages of the culture of a medium-size business without having to deal with most of the downsides that come with it, like bureaucracy.”

One of the main advantages to coworking, Caldwell says, is the ease of collaborating with other companies sharing the space, many of which don’t have more than three people.

“Sometimes that's just tapping someone outside of your team on the shoulder and asking their opinion. Other times, it may be a 15-minute whiteboarding session with a developer on another startup.”

The ability to approach problems from a variety of angles is the undercurrent running through coworking spaces like Secret Clubhouse. Originally established by Rick Webb (cofounder of The Barbarian Group) in September, the Secret Clubhouse addresses a simple, but critical, need for entrepreneurs in the already crowded coworking scene in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn: it gives them a place to sit every day and take advantage of being elbow-to-elbow with other startup impresarios.

Inside Brooklyn's Secret Clubhouse, which hosted staff from Gawker, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Vimeo, whose offices were without power post-Hurricane Sandy (Click Image To Enlarge)

In the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, those seats were filled with staff from Gawker, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Vimeo, whose offices didn’t have power. Now that things have settled down, manager Alison Vingiano says Secret Clubhouse isn’t quite filled to capacity of 35 desks, but those who are working from there can work alone or plug into the local tech community through hosted events or just from hanging out in the basement lounge, which is appointed with a pool table, musical instruments for impromptu jam sessions, as well as food, drinks, and cushy seating.

Another look at Secret Clubhouse (Click Image To Enlarge)

Vingiano says that while collaboration is now a main focus of Secret Clubhouse, “a lot of it happens naturally.” Between hosted meetups and skill-sharing events, Vingiano says Secret Clubhouse members are encouraged to announce positions for hire or talk about what they are working on.

Contrary to popular opinion that an open environment like the Secret Clubhouse is just as distracting as a coffee shop, 68 percent of those polled by Deskmag said they were able to focus better, and almost as many (64 percent) reported they were better able to complete tasks on time. 

Scott Hinson, lab director at Pecan Street Inc.’s new Pike Powers Commercialization Lab, is going to be in the unique position of fostering collaboration in the space, while also helping the companies working there to stay focused and retain privacy.

The Pecan Street Inc. Lab, opening in May 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The $1.5 million lab, located in northeast Austin, will be officially opening in May to promote research, commercialization, and education tied to smart energy grids, advanced information technology, clean energy, and health care applications. As the nation’s first nonprofit smart-grid research lab, it’s going to give smaller businesses the ability to use equipment like a spectrum analyzer that would cost roughly an engineer’s annual salary, without the huge investment.

Chicago's Onward Coworking space, in the West Loop (Click Image To Enlarge)

The challenge, according to Hinson, will be to keep proprietary projects a secret. But he’s not overly concerned. he says.

“We just have to be conscious of who can’t be around whom [when scheduling work].”  

In addition, the facility has security controls such as thumbprint readers and secure Internet access. If need be, says Hinson, they can wipe all data from computer terminals every time someone new sits down to use it.

The 20,000-square foot CoCo in Minneapolis-St. Paul operates out of the historic trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (Click Image To Enlarge)

Hinson says.

“As long as we set the right expectation we can minimize challenges.  If you set the expectation you get a place to do really cool stuff and there might be some other folks that are doing that too, so we can avoid it from the get-go.”

Dixon believes that the flexibility to “work your way” is leading to greater productivity and job satisfaction. He points out a recent survey conducted by MindMetre in which 64 percent of U.S. employees are happier with their jobs today than they were two years ago because of the increased flexibility and shift towards a clearer work/life balance.  Dixon adds.   

“In addition, there is a plethora of research that shows flexible workers experience lower levels of work-related stress and higher levels of work satisfaction.  The healthiest option for employers and employees is to continue to work together to redefine the parameters of work, and how it is conducted and rewarded.”  

COMMENTARY:   Coworking or shared office facilities really began to take root during the Great Reession which began in 2007, when many companies were forced to downsize by laying-off workers and reducing office space in order to reduce their operating expenses.  As a result, millions of square feet of office, retail and manufacturing space became available, and rents dropped dramatically.  Many commercial real estate brokers and developers were forced to rent out their surplus space to individuals and companies on an as needed basis.  The effects of the Great Recession, the internet, social media and need for collaboration has created a huge pool of mobile workers who either work out of their home or work in coworking or shared office facilities as the need arises.  Today hundreds of coworking or shared office faclities rent out office, retail and even manufacturing space on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis to meet the needs of corporations and the mobile workforce.  

There are several advantages for renting coworking or shared office space:

1. Elimination of fixed monthly lease rent. 
2. Ability to pay for space on an as needed and affordable basis.
3. Shared office facilities are available just about everywhere now, even at airports, convention facilities and hotels.
4. Elimination of facilities costs (utilities, janitorial, insurance, security, maintennce and repairs, phone, fax, copier and miscellaneous supplies).
5. A professional facility for conducting staff and client meetings and collaborative efforts.
6. Provides a place for direct social interaction between broadly dispersed workers.

If you believe your company could benefit from coworking or shared office space, conduct a feasibility study comparing the pro's ad con's and differences in costs between a shared office space and a lease.  If you are a startup, I highly recommend that you maintain a mobile workforce and only rent space on an as needed basis.  If you have a longterm lease, it may often be advantageous to sublease the space to a third party (if the lease allows subleasing), and rent coworking or shared office space on an as neede basis, thus eliminating a lot of needless overhead in the process.  This gives workers an opportunity to interact directly, collaborate and share ideas.

Courtesy of an article dated Jauary 15, 2013 appearing in Fast Company 

 

 

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/3004788/future-coworking-and-why-it-will-give-your-business-huge-edge?partner=newsletter

THE MOBILE LIFESTYLE, MOBILE WORKFORCE, DOWNSIZING, AND COLLABORATION HAS STARTED A BOOM IN SHARED WORKSPACES

Long Popular With Tech Start-Ups, Shared Workspaces Grow in Popularity as Workers Seek Affordable Facilities

Forget privacy. Shared workspaces are the latest trend in office space.

The offices, set up in a variety of ways but emphasizing open space and the ability to rent a single desk, are also known as co-working spaces. Such offices have long been popular with technology start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area looking for cheap space, but as the latest tech wave rises, shared workspaces are popping up in cities around the country.

Besides the cost advantages, entrepreneurs in technology and other fields say they like co-working spaces because their open floor plans boost collaboration, offer more flexibility on leases and can even help land investors.

Workers share deskspace at General Assembly, a New York co-working space that opened in January.

Saeed Amidi, founder and chief executive of Plug and Play Tech Center, a co-working space in Sunnyvale, Calif., with about 1,000 workers says. 

"Nowadays with the shared workspaces you don't need to buy furniture, you don't need to set up Internet, you don't need to sign a long-term lease.  You can just get started... within two hours of walking in."

Plug and Play is exploring expansion to Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Diego, Denver and Vancouver, said Mr. Amidi.

Meanwhile, reserved desks at General Assembly, a new 20,000 square foot co-working space and educational center that opened this past January in New York, are filled, according to the company.

Investors are also showing some interest. General Assembly said last month it raised $4.25 million from Yuri Milner of investment firm DST Global, and venture firms affiliated with Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Starbucks Corp. founder Howard Schultz.

Loosecubes, a start-up that has created an online marketplace for office sharing, lists more than 2,300 spaces across almost 500 cities and 60 countries, and claims 7,000 registered users. Last year, it raised $1.23 million led by prominent venture capital firms Accel Partners and Battery Ventures.

Office spaces amenable to co-sharing are proving to be more popular and lucrative than traditional Dilbert-like offices both for established companies looking to change their atmospheres and companies hosting the spaces for start-ups. The total vacancy for a "creative" space with open floor plans ideal for co-working was 2.54% in San Francisco in July, and the asking rent ranged from $32 to $53 per square foot per year. Meanwhile, more "historical" spaces with closed-door offices that lack open space had a total vacancy of 10.55%, while the asking rent ranged from $21 to $36 per square foot per year, according to commercial listing broker The CAC Group.

Owners of stodgier office spaces are tearing up their floor plans to chase the market. Earlier this year, a building at 115 Sansome St., in downtown San Francisco, started remodeling for a more flexible layout to appeal to high-tech start-ups.

John Winther, founder and managing partner of Emeryville, Calif.-based Harvest Properties, which is leasing the building says.

"We are transforming this project because we think we will achieve greater demand for the space as well as higher rents than could be attained by maintaining the traditional office space." 

Other spaces, like the roughly 12,000 square-foot Launchpad in New Orleans, help entrepreneurs by housing service providers that can help expand their business. Launchpad, which is popular with "techies" and creative types such as filmmakers, has expanded twice since its June 2009 opening.

Workers pay $650 to $1,600 per month for a closed-door office, $450 per month for a permanent desk, file cabinet and personal landline and $275 per month for any available desk. The space can handle 70 companies and up to 170 people.

Co-founder Barre Tanguis says.

"If you need your LLC started, there's a lawyer upstairs; if you want to get your books down, there's an accountant right there; if you want a commercial start on the Web, there's a filmmaker in house. We've done a lot to nurture that and deliberately curate so we have the right people around and the right dynamic."

Collaboration is another part of the appeal of sharing space. Software firm Atlassian lets start-up Odiago use its space for free. In return, Odiago engineers offer Atlassian their expertise in open source software.  Jay Simons, Atlassian's president says.

"It's a full on win-win. We take our people and basically embed them in [Odiago's] team.... the best way to learn is to sit next to each other."

 

Common workspaces are spurring innovation and providing start-ups with the collaborative atmosphere one might find in academic settings, but with more opportunity for venture capital. WSJ's Andy Jordan reports from New York's "General Assembly".

The emphasis on learning has been such a draw at some workspaces that they organize workshops or demonstrations of the latest technologies. General Assembly hosts lectures regularly in addition to events such as a recent start-up demo night. Its layout includes a communal area with large, cushioned couches and industrial wooden tables in addition to breakout rooms, small phone booths or even cocoon-type seating for privacy.

Since the action is growing at co-working spaces, investors are also hanging out there more. At Plug and Play, angel investors, including Sand Hill Angels, Band of Angels and The Angels' Forum, typically visit every Monday afternoon to review the business plans of start-ups. More established venture capitalists including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, typically drop by every other month for deal reviews, Plug And Play's Mr. Amidi said.

COMMENTARY:   There are three key forces at work that are responsible for the popularity of shared workspaces today:

• The Mobile Lifestyle - The revolution and variety of mobile devices and connectivity software that are available today: laptops, smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, digicams, mobile apps, the internet, teleconferencing and cloud computing, etc. 
• Collaboration and Social Networking - Social networking has become mainstream.  Social networking site like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter now allow us to connect, engage, share and collaborate with others like never before.  Social networking sites also allow us to play games, watch videos, listen to music, and watch out favorite TV programs and films. 
• Corporate Downsizing and the Mobile Workforce - The Great Recession has changed everything. Businesses have downsized, reduced or even eliminated office space, preferring employees to telecommute or come into the office less frequently.  This trend has created a growing mobile workforce. Social networking and the Mobile Lifestyle have redefined the workspace.  Temporary offices, virtual offices and shared office spaces are now more popular than ever.  The advent of WIFI and 3G/4G connectivity allow us to work virtually from anywhere, even the local Starbucks, fast food restaurant or public library.  

Renting a desk for $275 per month in a shared workspace facility like General Facility makes a lot more sense than renting a private office space and incurring all the related expenses associated with it: hosted services, computers, network servers, telephones, office furniture, office supplies, utilities, insurance, janitorial, maintenance, security, etc.

Some workspace experts have predicted that as many as 40% of workers will work outside the office or have no need for an office.  Instead, workers will meet infrequently at shared workspace facilities, rent a conference room and conduct their face-to-face business, and you will see more of this, as more companies, seek ways to reduce their corporate overhead.

Courtesy of an article dated October 4, 2011 appearing in The Wall Street Journal