By Gary Miciunas
First published in  W&P Edition 2 – February 2013 Pages 15-18
Tags: work process • workplace strategy • design thinking
Design Thinking
The business world is increasingly turning to design thinking as an innovative way to reconceive products, services and business models. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for designers to expand their scope and influence in the area of workplace strategy. Designers will add more value than ever by applying design thinking beyond workspace design to impact service design. This involves the design of business processes that integrate facilities, technology and work practices. The implications for workplace strategy and business transformation will be significant for both internal and external service providers.
Workplace strategy aligns an organization’s work patterns with the work environment to enable peak performance and reduce costs.1 Absent in this definition is a keen emphasis on the well-being of knowledge workers. Knowledge workers are being offered freedom to alter their work patterns by choosing work environment options for how, when and where to work. Increasingly, this is viewed as a competitive advantage for attracting and retaining talent. Achieving peak performance, reducing costs and lowering levels of work-related human stress through ease of service will require a new approach.
This new approach must equally emphasize two key tenets: 1) improving knowledge workers’ interlinked experience of both “work” and “place” and 2) considering knowledge workers as “consumers” of an organization’s “workplace” offerings. This expanded scope does not fit neatly into current roles and responsibilities of internal management staff nor designers working as consultants to complex organizations.
Ideas expressed in the first issue of Work&Place set the stage, inviting open dialogue about new and exciting possibilities2. What are the implications of thinking of “work as a verb” while promoting a new role of “Director of Work?” Exploring these ideas requires that we keep in mind the dual usage of “work” as both a noun and a verb.
“Design” is also both a noun and a verb. If we emphasize designing work, then the work of design must extend beyond the materiality of physical places to encompass the experience of related services. It needs to create the optimal user experience as seen through the eyes of the knowledge worker. This goes beyond the traditional role of designers toward applying design thinking to broader business problems of integrating services that enable knowledge work.
Workplace-as-a-Service
In the IT industry, “Workplace-as-a-Service” (WaaS) is a third-party service arrangement providing desktop and mobile computing services to employees via cloud computing. WaaS enables virtual desktop capability through a variety of mobile devices including tablets and smartphones. These bundled services are typically provided on a fee-per-usage basis. In the IT domain, the term “workspace” refers to the desktop as opposed to physical workspace. Outside of this IT context, the phrase “Workspace-as-Service” is increasingly being used in reference to smart physical workspaces that are bundled with digital services and shared by a community of users.
Increasingly, “consumer” expectations for on-demand services are impacting information technology policies and, we might expect, real estate portfolio management practices as well. As organizations gradually shift toward policies and practices such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and allowing employees to work off of company premises in third places supported by cloud computing, IT concepts such as “Workplace-as-a-Service” are disrupting infrastructure solutions. According to Booz & Company, “employees expect to be able to use all the innovative new devices and tools at their disposal, both to do their jobs and to maintain their always-connected lifestyles while being able to work whenever and wherever they need to.”3
Should we anticipate that the consumerization of IT will soon trickle over into commercial and corporate real estate? As businesses begin to incorporate third places such as coworking facilities as an extension of their property portfolio strategies, the provision of both space and shared services as a bundled value proposition will become the norm for both internal and external service providers. The Global Workspace Association – representing office business center owners and operators – has already moved in this direction as reflected in its mission statement of “Advancing Workplace-as-a-Service.”
The new world of work is certainly enabled by advanced technologies; however, it still takes people to accomplish work. Both technical and social aspects of knowledge work must be integrated into new service designs. Optimizing this “customer” experience provides organizations with competitive advantage to attract and retain the next generation workforce that increasingly values flexibility. The 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report found that young professionals – who want an open environment that accommodates social media, device freedom, and remote working to accommodate their lifestyle and inspire innovation – will take a lower salary, if necessary.4
Cisco Connected World Technology Report
The second annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report*, based on a survey of more than 2,800 college students and young professionals in 14 countries, cites these findings related to job choice and salary among others:
• The study revealed that one in three college students and young employees under the age of 30 (33%) said that they would prioritize social media freedom, device flexibility, and work mobility over salary in accepting a job offer, indicating that the expectations and priorities of the next generation of the world’s workforce are not solely tied to money.
• Mobile networking, device flexibility, and the blending of personal and work lifestyles are key components of a work environment and culture that are increasingly important in determining which companies will land the next wave of industry talent.
• More than two of five college students (40%) and young employees (45%) said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.
*Cisco News Release dated November 2, 2011…