As well as looking at ways we can work more effectively by changing how we communicate and collaborate via social business software (such as JiveSBS), we also need to look at the physical workplace we inhabit.
I have long been a proponent of co-location, distributed and/or virtual teams, and remote locations when appropriate. I have also long been a proponent of more flexible and “human” workplaces. As a consultant and an executive at various start-ups and growth companies around the world, I have seen various different models and trends come and go. One of the most effective is the idea of the coworking space, that the Business Dojo and others have adopted.
The guys at IndyHall, a coworking space in Philly, have decided to write a manifesto describing and informed by their coworking experience. The’re only up to Chapter 1, but I very much like what I see. In fact, I like it so much that I have reproduced Chapter 1 of the CoWorking Book below (via their Creative Commons license).
1. The Workplace B.C.
Where, of course, “B.C.” is “Before Coworking”.
The history of “the workplace”, if you’re willing to stretch the definition of workplace, continues back far beyond the cube-farms we’ve come to associate with our daily grind. In fact, the earliest workplaces were wide open fields, inhabited by the earliest workers who spent their days tilling soil, planting seeds, and harvesting goods. Wealth was defined as ownership of that land, as the land provided all that society needed to survive. That wealth marked the first socio-economic chapter of human civilization.
The second socio-economic wave experienced by humans was the industrial age, where manufacturing of goods became decoupled from the land, and the focus turned to the creation of “things” that could be owned. Scale became important, and the innovation that enabled scale became directly associated with the wealth it created. The workplace shifted once again, from open fields to factory floors. Like the machines they worked, humans became a part of the production process. But like value was in the end product, not in the process, and humans were as replaceable as the cogs they spent their days working.
Knowledge is Half the Battle
The third socio-economic wave is the most abstract, and that is the wave of the knowledge worker. The “information age” moved the focus away from the production process itself but instead to the people, and their ability to relate information and improve the process. Innovation became highly valued, and innovators flourished in the 1990s and 2000s. Along with them came a bevy of new technologies, many of which changed the face of not only the work force, but once again the work place.
Knowledge workers no longer had “foremen” to answer to, and so “managers” took their place. Hierarchy not only created organization by creating known paths for access to knowledge, but also a sense of progression and potential. Knowledge workers “progressed” by climbing the ladder that allowed them to manage other knowledge workers. Logically, a more experienced knowledge worker made a more efficient switchboard between less experienced knowledge workers. This career progression allowed for financial incentives from the industrial age to be carried over. Things were familiar, they were safe.
Among the fascinating shifts that came along with the age of information and knowledge was the independence from location. The demand for telecommuting grew exponentially in the late 90s with the increasing availability of technology, as well as the push for “greener” business behavior. At the same time, a generation of “stay at home” parents were looking at the knowledge worker field as an opportunity to remain at home with their children but re-enter the workforce.
By the early 2000s, it was not uncommon for jobs to be advertised as “work from home positions”, and the trend only continued to grow. So did the market for, and availability of, knowledge workers.
The workplace didn’t die, but it fragmented. Billions of workers still spend their days in offices organized by departments. They report to managers, who report to managers, who report to executives, who report to VPs.
11 Millions of workers around the world have found something else, though.
They’ve found independence from location.
It’s no shock that knowledge workers have also assumed such monikers as “digital nomads”, “mobile workers”, “workshifters”, and other cute nicknames, all of which identify the unifying theme of an increasing contingent of modern professionals:
They can work from anywhere.
Some are entrepreneurs and self-employed, and many others are gainfully employed with limited to no physical contact with their office of employment. In the latter case, it’s the best of both worlds; stability of a paycheck and benefits without the obnoxious office politics and drama, that boss breathing down your neck every 15 minutes or asking you to “come in on Saturday”.
It sounds spectacular, we quickly learnt that it’s not all rosy.
Homeward Bound
In many cases, the first workplace for a newly nomadic worker will be in their own home. While the luckier have a dedicated home office, many find themselves parked at their own dining room table, or worse, at a desk in their own bedroom. The discipline required to be successful with this kind of work environment isn’t unattainable, but it’s unmet by many.
If you’ve spent any amount of time working from home, you’re guilty of spending the day in your pajamas, not bathing until you need to leave your home and make contact with other humans.
You find yourself beginning your days more casually, and ending them later and later into the evening. The work day and your home life begin to blur. “I’ll finish that e-mail…right after I put away my laundry” and “I’ll start that proposal…right after I do the dishes.”
It is almost hysterical how the daily “chores” we often neglect become our first lines of defense for work procrastination when working from home, but speaking with mobile workers over the last several years I know that it’s more common than most are willing to admit.
In the worst of cases, the mobile worker forgets about their mobility entirely and goes for days without leaving the domicile to experience face to face human contact. Which brings us to our second line of defense in the arsenal of alternative workplaces, brought to you by the ubiquity of public wifi.
The cafe workspace
The availability of broadband and the access to cheap and simple-to-configure wifi routers turned cafes into seemingly ideal workspaces. They are easy to come by in nearly any major city. They have varying policies on squatters…I mean mobile workers…and allotted time per purchase. Cafes provide cozy chairs and work tables with the hopes that you’ll stick around and order another.
The problem comes when you’re on your 7th cup of coffee, you have the caffeine shakes, and you begin to feel guilty for monopolizing workspace for other paying customers.
From a cafe perspective, the primary motivators for providing free (or even cheap) wifi is initiating repeat customers, either in a single sitting or on a daily basis. However the economics of this arrangement cannot hold up for very long, as ideal workspace is not a commodity. Some cafes even post signs that you must be a paying customer to work there (implying that some people are leaching their offerings) and some put bandwidth or access caps on their wireless internet infrastructure.
Cafes come with their own noise, bustle, and distractions. While there can be something calming about the droning noise of public spaces, hearing your baristas barking drink orders back and forth is not ideal for your concentration.
Furthermore, cafe workspaces lack context. Simply put, it’s unlikely that you can turn to the person sitting next to you and strike up a meaningful conversation, let alone sometime that is relevant to your work. And even if you did, the likelihood that you’re met with anything other than a polite, “Sorry, I can’t help you” is slim.
Executive Suites aren’t so sweet.
Seeking refuge from your own living quarters, and looking for something a little more “productivity forward”, some mobile workers find themselves back in an office, though not the office of their employer. Executive suites, hotdesking facilities, office hotels…whatever name they go by, they serve the same purpose: providing whitelabel office amenities for those without them.
Most of these suites focus wholly on the needs of businesses: printers, phone lines, conference rooms. Some even offer shared administrative services and secretaries.
While they’ve regained some context, they still tend to lack “life”. White walls, grey cubes, fluorescent lights. Endless halls of uniformly decorated offices. You’re walking past people (which presumes you put on pants for a change), but are you interacting with them as if they were your coworkers?
Most likely not, since quite simply, they aren’t. The transient population of hotdesking facilities are largely disconnected from one another, so the human element of the workplace is still missing.
Escape the Dark Ages of the Workplace
Knowledge workers, and especially those working in predominantly creative fields, can only operate in the dark for so long. Without the interaction, they lack the inspiration necessary to continue doing their jobs.
From the lessons learned, the perfect world for the digital nomad includes:
- an office that shares the comforts of home without being your home
- people with shared purpose and vision, and a context that encourages interaction
- some structure and alternative activities that help keep days interesting
How can you take the lessons outlined above and apply them to your current workplace? Can you envision a workplace designed around your team’s needs – that is both energy and ergonomically efficient, flexible, and caters for a wide variety of working styles and needs?
What would your ideal workplace look like, and what would it take to bring to life?
