A place for individual workspace

When Frank Lloyd Wright designed the open-plan office, he didn’t know it would lead to hot-desking and ‘agile’ management.

Psychology plays an important role in designing a workplace.

When you come across a great idea, you want to use it yourself. You want to build on it, try it out and make it even better.

We see trends and gimmicks, and we want to try them out. Some are successful, others we wish to forget. (If I hear the phrase “best practice” one more time I am likely to scream profanities.)

But sometimes there are great ideas that go bad.

Take the open-plan office. Love it or hate it, the idea has taken hold and is used by many companies, large and small. When famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the first open-plan office as we know it now, he didn’t know it would lead to trends such as hot-desking, flexible working and “agile” management.

Wright took issue with the rigidity he saw in workplaces. He said he wanted to “democratise” workplaces, to foster collaboration and energise people. His original designs saw high ceilings, natural light, tall thin columns and space between every desk that could fit two people. The designs were powerful and enabling, like rainforests but for work.

If he were around today he would see remnants of his genius applied in a perverted way. We’ve forgotten about the important role workplace design plays in performance.

In one of my first management roles I saw this up close. We were moving office, just down the road, but we were promised more space and a better workplace. Maybe it was my naivety, but I sold it hard to my colleagues.

Our 1970s building was tired but, as we learned, there was nothing wrong with it. We ended up finding out that our new office was less than desirable. Where before there were plentiful private spaces and meeting rooms, varying sized desks and dedicated areas for teamwork, here we had ill-considered, open-plan offices. Everyone had the same sized desk, we were crammed together tightly and the barriers between each other were low. I looked up and directly into someone’s eyes.

It didn’t work well. I felt tired and drained at the end of every day.

Designing a workplace is more than about architecture. Psychology plays an important role, too. Research from the University of Sydney found that noise distractions and a loss of privacy were the main sources of workplace dissatisfaction. The authors emphasised the need for an element of privacy and ownership of space. If we don’t have ownership over where we work then we can’t have ownership over our work itself.

Design firm Gensler finds that well-designed workplaces balance collaboration and individual focus. Modern workplaces have organised their collaboration spaces well, but we’ve forgotten about the need for individual spaces to work.

Where we work affects how we work. Many of us find open-plan offices uncomfortable, and we aren’t doing our best work. We’re starting on the wrong foot.

Some scrutiny of the ideas that drive the way we work can go a long way — and hopefully make them better.

Conrad Liveris is a corporate adviser on workplaces and risk.