Designed to Work

The Office as Theater

The tension between the individual and the group -- perhaps the central tension in offices today -- has to do with noise and privacy. But there are issues of identity as well. You may be in a "group," and the office that you work in may be a "system," but does that mean that you must lose your identity the moment you go to work? That's the assumption that Birsel and Duffy wanted to challenge with Resolve.

"Think about your personal computer," says Birsel. "You control what appears on the screen: colors, backgrounds, fonts. You can help design the computer's environment. So I wondered, 'How can an office work more like a computer?' " Duffy offers a different spin on the same idea: "You shouldn't have to give up who you are in order to get your work done."

That's why Resolve is filled with little touches that are meant to help different people work in different ways. Employees can raise or lower a table so that they can work seated or standing. If they use a flat-screen monitor, they can raise or lower the apparatus that holds it. The table isn't just a place to put a keyboard; it has wheels so that employees can roll it around to complete other tasks. Work is mobile, so the office should be too: The Resolve "saddlebag" hooks right onto the table, hanging open like a mini-file cabinet; when employees leave the office, they can take it with them.

Some workstations have a curved screen that extends from the floor over the desk and connects to the center pole, sort of like a giant leaf. The screen's wheels let workers reposition it to reduce glare on their terminal, to block an air-conditioning vent, or simply to cover their backs for privacy -- all solutions to routine complaints. These adjustments may seem minor, Birsel says, but for someone who works all day at a terminal, they represent major control over the environment. And Herman Miller knows that a little more control leads to a lot less stress.

The screens enable employees to control their visual environment even further. With a digital printer, they can print images, such as names, photos, slogans, or inspirational quotes, directly onto the screen's material. "We wanted to create something that people could feel that they owned, because when people have pride of ownership, they tend to treat things better, and they might even look forward to coming to work," says Duffy.

By providing a blank canvas, Resolve offers a culturally transparent environment; instead of imposing a particular style, it allows the culture of an office to be reflected in the surroundings. One of the first companies to try Resolve has offices in Chicago and in Bombay, India. By using different screens, including Indian tapestries, each location can maintain its own distinct identity within the larger organization. Because the screens can be changed, the environment is flexible. The surroundings can change as quickly as the work does -- with new screens for new project teams, new products, or new customers. Instead of being drab or static, the workplace becomes vibrant and dynamic.

Birsel thinks of the screens as backdrops on a stage -- an appropriate metaphor for the office. "Theater has been an inspiration for me, because, like work, the theater is about performance," she says. "In the theater, lights and sets and other ephemeral effects are used to create a certain atmosphere. You can make the same thing happen at work. The question is 'How do you provide the set for performance in the workplace?' " These days, says Duffy, a lot of companies are trying to work in new ways but within the same old environment: "It's as if they're trying to perform 'Rent' on the set of 'The Music Man.'"

The New Geometry of Work

The Resolve studio is located at Herman Miller's Design Yard in Holland, Michigan. Inside, there are several well-appointed Resolve workstations, but the first thing that customers notice is a row of five iMacs, which are lined up near the entrance. The computers display Resolve's different configurations. They also suggest that you're entering the iMac of offices -- an office that's not afraid of color, new materials, or a sense of fun. It's an environment in which people are free to sample things. They can roll up the screens, touch the fabrics, raise and lower the tables, and turn on and off the small lamps that sit atop five-foot-tall poles. What Duffy says of the iMac is equally true of Resolve: "It isn't serious looking, but it does inspire serious work."

"At minimum," says Birsel, "an office should provide you with a place to plug in your equipment and to access cables. From there, you can make the space your own, to meet other needs." So from the beginning of Resolve, Birsel was thinking outside the cubicle. Rather than starting with a line or a wall to divide space, she started with a single point -- a different approach to the geometry of systems planning. That point in space became a pole used to house cables. The best way to get a pole to stand up, she determined, was to buttress it with horizontal "arms" and vertical poles that connect at 120-degree angles. The cables run overhead in troughs, making them more accessible than when they're hidden inside conventional panels.