Sometimes building a new headquarters is especially difficult. When my company, a global 1,000-person professional learning platform called GLG, was in the middle of our pivot, we felt our new office could help define our future, but we had two unexciting options.
One option was traditional private offices and cubicles, which are unimaginative and restrictive. The other was an open office plan–the shiny new toy in office design 15 years ago–but a growing body of evidence suggests it decreases productivity and weakens job performance.
Instead we designed our new corporate headquarters across the street from Grand Central Terminal–65,000 square feet over two floors for nearly 300 New York employees–around a new paradigm, neither open nor full of private offices.
Our architect, Clive Wilkinson, introduced us to an idea called activity-based working (ABW). The thesis is that people should work in the type of space that supports the work they’re actually doing, and that might change many times throughout a day.
ABW suits my firm particularly well. We bring together top professionals to learn from each other and in the process make it easier to share the knowledge they need to stay innovative. There are four reasons ABW is just the right layout for our workplace and could be for yours, too.
1. Different Kinds Of Work Demand Different Environments
No one has an assigned desk or office, including me. The idea, again, is that one kind of workspace–more specifically one desk in one location–does not suit all types of work equally.
We have a menu of options that people can use for different projects throughout the day. We have large open space surrounded by private meeting rooms of different sizes. We have “neighborhoods” where people can work with their teams. Each contains team tables with individual workstations, enclosed glass meeting pods, chairs of different shapes and sizes, and adjustable standing desks.