Background

Open offices emerged when Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects in the early twentieth century dismissed walls and rooms as fascist and confining.³ They wanted to liberate employees. The idea was a rejection of corporate hierarchy that was patterned after the military (put in your time, get your corner office). Companies altered this vision of liberated workers by packing in as many as they could. The open office, with its extended rows of desks, was born.

The open office has come back with a vengeance in the twenty-first century. Perhaps most famously, Facebook in 2015 expanded into a 430,000-square-foot building designed by Frank Gehry. It fits 2,800 employees, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who sits among the ranks.⁴

Egalitarian? Maybe, but the real draw for companies mimicking Silicon Valley is cost savings. Walls, doors, and even cubicles are more expensive than rows of desks. Today, almost 70 percent of U.S. employees work in open offices.⁵

Pros

Open offices can nurture productivity through a shared mission. Consultant Andrew Challenger told Bloomberg that they “cultivate a cohesive and collaborative culture and stymie unproductive behavior. If your coworkers can see your computer screens and hear your phone calls, you'll be less likely to peruse Facebook, online shop, or make personal calls.”⁶ Furthermore, a “self-policing” atmosphere motivates employees to come in on time and stay until close.

Zuckerberg didn't build an empire on stupid decisions. Although Facebook may not be as egalitarian as its open office suggests, the fact that he sits among his employees sends a message: Everyone's contributions matter.

An open floor plan “enables better collaboration, which we think is key to building the best services for our community,” Zuckerberg told Business Insider.⁷

Cons

Noise, noise, and noise. A survey of workers by the University of Sydney found a “lack of sound privacy” to be their number one distraction. And “the loss of productivity due to noise distraction…was doubled in open-plan offices compared to private offices,” the study's authors said, citing prior research.⁸ There's a quick lesson to be learned here: No one likes the loud talker. Sorry not sorry if that's you.

The critiques of the open office are many, including lack of overall privacy; inability to scale, forcing teams with different work processes to share space; and poor accommodation for introverts.⁹

A large Canadian oil-and-gas company shifting from a traditional office to an open design hired University of Calgary psychologists to gauge employee satisfaction 4 weeks and then 6 months in.¹⁰ The researchers asked about stress level, job performance, and relationships.

“The employees suffered according to every measure: The new space was disruptive, stressful, and cumbersome, and, instead of feeling closer, coworkers felt distant, dissatisfied, and resentful,” Maria Konnikova writes in The New Yorker. “Productivity fell.”

A colleague and friend of mine, Mike Maddock, tried switching his creative team to a fully open office floor plan. It seemed like a big win. They were even spotlighted in a Chicago newspaper for the innovation. Unfortunately, that news wasn't fit to print. Within a year, two-thirds of the team had left thanks to the increases in distraction. Here's what he said about the experience:

Is employee unhappiness and the subsequent drop in productivity worth the money saved by having an open office?

Background

Cubicles, partitioned spaces organically grouped, were conceived in the 1950s as an attempt to humanize the white-collar assembly line.¹¹ The U.S. furniture company Herman Miller added larger surfaces and multiple desk heights in the mid-1960s. Their popularity with organizations surged in the 1980s and 1990s amid the frenzy of mergers, buyouts, and layoffs. Besides being cheaper than walls, cubicles have a significant tax benefit: They are furniture that businesses can deduct after 7 years (walls, as permanent structures, require 39 years to depreciate).¹² Accounting departments love this kind of write-off.

Today's cubicles can be assembled, disassembled, and adjusted with little fuss. They're not offices, nor are they the open-desk farms of yore. They're in between, like the middle-management class that emerged with them.

Pros

In the absence of a private office, cubicles fit part of the bill for cultivating mental space. Their surfaces and wall-style barriers can be personalized for a sense of continuity. And though cubicles don't block noise, they can be adjusted to filter out some visual distraction.

Furthermore, Office Space and Dilbert cartoons notwithstanding, cubicles aren't just the province of worker bees. Some leaders, echoing Facebook, occupy cubicles to be closer to their people. This can foster a more egalitarian atmosphere while also providing a firsthand look at areas that might need improvement.

Cons

Back to noise. Like open offices, cubicles leave employees at the mercy of loud neighbors (again, don't be the loud talker), piped-in music, and meetings conducted in the open. Office Space is almost a documentary when it comes to cataloging the distractions of noise.

Cubicles also tend to be deprived of windows and natural light. “Natural lighting,” Jeff Pochepan writes in Inc., “not only affects how well we are able to see, but it can also boost our mood, energy level, and hormonal balance.”¹³ Artificial or poor lighting can raise stress levels and hamper focus.

And don't forget that many employees who work in a cubicle describe their environment as a “cubicle farm.” This isn't an endearing term used because their office space reminds them of simpler times when they were on their grandpappy's farm. People working in this environment are more likely to view themselves as sheep as opposed to productive, and unique, members of your team.

Background

Expanded Internet access allows our people to work around the corner or around the world, providing unprecedented flexibility and potential savings on overhead.

And employees like it too.¹⁴ Sixty-five percent of workers said telecommuting would make them more efficient than going to an office. Among their top reasons:

• Fewer colleague interruptions (76 percent)
• Fewer distractions (75 percent)
• Fewer meetings (69 percent)
• Less office politics (68 percent)
• Reduced commuting stress (67 percent)
• A more comfortable working environment (51 percent)

Interestingly, some of distraction's bugaboos—texting, IM, and phone calls—become lifelines when you can't literally tap an employee on the shoulder.

Pros

Employees who work remotely can more easily create a vault for optimal focus. Noise and other distracting stimuli are neutralized when other people aren't dictating the environment.

Telecommuters also free themselves from the cultural need to waste time while looking productive. Any company monitoring feels more helpful than intrusive from a distance.

Lastly, self-starters can do especially well if their leaders are vigilant about staying connected. A solid relationship with the team, wherever it is, goes a long way toward making telecommuting successful.

Cons

Accountability may be the biggest issue. How can you tell how much someone is working, other than the work she sends and the occasional conference call and meeting? And without the chance of someone walking by and seeing their screen, there is nothing discouraging constant use of social media.

Remote workers can also become socially disconnected from their teams. Without the regular connection of a break room or water cooler, leaders have to work harder to interact with their nonoffice people. One manager I know uses FaceTime with his remote employee in the team's morning meeting. It's a small but significant gesture of connection.

And a vault at home (or the library or coffee shop) isn't always easy to maintain. Personal and professional lines can blur for remote workers. How does anyone focus on a crucial call when his kids are begging him to play? (see Figure 8.1) (Seriously, if you can help me here, please message me.)

Reduce the Noise

All open floor plans are not created equal. The more people you can see and the more sounds you can hear from your workstation, the more likely you are to be interrupted.

Visual. Every object in your field of view is an opportunity to divert your attention or have it diverted. As we discussed in Chapter 6, if you want to eat fewer Girl Scout Cookies, don't set a box on the counter. In much the same way, aim to reduce the field of view. Segment, a data analytics company, suffered from the consequences of an open warehouse. CEO Peter Reinhardt explained the situation like this: “These long lines of sight across the workspace, where you have people you know and recognize moving by and talking to each other. It was incredibly distracting.”¹⁵ They solved this problem by choosing a new location with a more labyrinth-like setup where walls, corners, and even plants limit line of sight.

Even if you have no control over the overall design of the workspace, do what you can to set up your seating arrangement with the goal of keeping people out of your natural line of sight.

Audio. In much the same way, take simple steps to reduce the noise of your space. Glossed concrete and hardwood floors might look great, but they reflect sound. Choose your flooring, furniture, and even office equipment with an ear toward the noise they will create or eliminate. Select space with sound-dampening walls.

Match the Space to the Task

Think of exclusive airline lounges. They're modular, featuring premium chairs, desks, work areas, private rooms, and charging stations for every device. You select where to sit based on your particular focus needs at that moment. And you can change when your needs change. If I have hard work to knock out that requires full focus, I'm finding a private cubicle. If it's been a long day at work, I'm headed to the bar to watch TV, talk with fellow travelers, and occasionally knock out a few medium-focus, basic e-mails.

As leaders, we can do the same thing for our people. We can create a variety of spaces rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all scheme, says Mike McKeown, a workplace design expert at Gensler, the world's largest workplace design firm.

Employees have diverse space needs based on the variety and focus demands of their work. Some are rarely or never in the office and may not require assigned seating. Others need the continuity of their own desk and may rely more heavily on office services or support spaces. And then there are anchors: administrative and support staff who sit in the same spot so colleagues can find them. Most of us have a variety of tasks that demand different levels of focus and can benefit from a variety of spaces throughout the day. When planning space it is important not to make too many assumptions or generalize the nature of focus work. Gaining a deeper understanding of how people work allows us to create more specific work style profiles and design the physical environment more effectively.

Sometimes team members need a place to collaborate, whereas other times solitary focus is required. An isolated space can serve for hunkering down and getting focused work done. Another area can offer subtle distractions amid tedious work. As we discussed in Section 2, we can benefit from inhibitory spillover. Background noise can actually stimulate our focus when the work alone doesn't exactly create the mental challenge necessary to generate what Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi terms flow, or being in the zone. And of course, there's the space designated for Friday afternoon margaritas (team-building without ziplines).

When people move around, retention increases. But our brains don't just respond to new stimuli; they like habits too. Tasks associated with a specific environment become second nature when we enter that environment.

I do my deep thinking on the patio.

I write case studies in this room.

I file reports at this desk.

Although most every company that uses the open-office concept claims to have a multifunctional design, the truth is few actually create the balance, ease of access, and utility to make it useful.

A 2013 Gensler survey revealed that innovative companies are five times more likely to balance group and individual workspaces. The ratio was 44 percent open office and 45 percent private; the least innovative organizations had a 60:30 ratio.¹⁶

I've seen companies design places with portable walls that can be rearranged to meet the needs of a particular day. Variety and flexibility are key, as is functionality.

Tackle the Barriers to Entry

McKeown encourages his clients to recognize practical barriers to usage. Along with providing a variety of spaces, it is also crucial to align proper technology and support services to make the experience as effective as possible. He says, for instance, that employees shunned company-provided spaces because the login and Wi-Fi were cumbersome and not seamless to work flow.

Another challenge with offices that allow their people to rotate through different workspaces is that some people have a need to create a sense of place. Where do the Star Wars action figures go if you don't have your own desk?

There are two ways to adjust for this. First, for those who have a strong desire to make a particular space their own, give it to them. But the better plan is to recognize the deeper need. People long for something that tells them that this location where they spend the majority of their waking hours also physically embodies who they are. It's distinct, personalized, and them. One way you can accomplish this is modeled by my client, Westwood Holdings, a publicly traded financial investment firm based in Dallas. Rather than fill their walls with expensive original works of art, they fill their walls with framed photos of employee vacations and community service projects. They also have a wall in the various break rooms where photos are added frequently.

It all starts with listening to your people. Ask what would help make them most productive. Employee choice is critical for buy-in—even if everyone's wish list isn't fulfilled.

In the next chapter, we'll explore another crucial part of cultivating mental space: the vault. And the buy-in starts with you.