Someday, the picture on the right of a typical cubicle farm will look just as obsolete as the rows of desks with the boss watching from behind on the left. For some workers, someday is today. And the good news is that the solutions for today are actually less expensive, more flexible, better for effective work, sustainable and to most employees…really cool. It is rare to find this type of business solution.
This week we had an opportunity to meet an amazing group of people at Sun Microsystems. They have developed what is by far the best, most cost effective, most efficient, and cool workplaces that I’ve seen in years. In my work, I have the opportunity to see a lot of different work environments and use a lot of different collaboration platforms…some of which I’ve written about on the blog. However, this one was different….
The Sun Open Work Solutions group has set out to solve a problem and opportunity that has multiple constraints and is complex, but they’ve done a great job and there is a lot that others can learn from them. Almost every company of any size shares one thing in common, unfortunately, and that’s cubicles. These inventions worked well for creating some level of privacy, the feeling of “a place of my own” at the office, and efficient use of space. In static work environments where everyone comes to the office every day, works primarily alone on tasks, and work teams don’t change too often the cubicles work fine.
Today, it is much more common for people to be working at multiple geographic locations with employees spread across the globe, working in project teams that may flex throughout the year, and consider “home base” more their laptop than their physical desk at the office. I could go on about the Rolodex on the desk, hard-wired phone number extensions at the desk, and file drawers full of mainla folders, but we all know those reasons for being tethered to your physical desk are completely obsolete concepts at this point.
In addition, people have become much more productive by being able to work anywhere they have their laptop and a place to sit. Starbucks, airport lounges and home offices have become fully functioning offices for many workers as long as they have their cell phone and a WiFi connected laptop. They’ve learned how to work that way out of need and convenience and technology solutions have created that flexilibity.
We were not able to photograph the work environment, but they’ve described it to others and I’ll do my best to give you the picture. Imagine walking into your office building. As you exit the elevators on the inner core of the floor, you have meeting rooms, video conference room and breakaway individual work areas with walls to use for private 1:1 meetins or calls. In each case, these are more effective without the glare of direct sunlight and require more privacy. As you walk past these to your desk you, you enter an area that is much more wide open with individual work desks.
These desks are grouped in pods of team. Instead of upholstered panels to create some privacy to work, the desks are outfitted with multiple large displays. One has three panels, a 27″ monitor in the middle to work and two 21″ monitors on angles on the side that may have a video conferencing bridge with a co-worker on one and a shared “whiteboard” collaboration space on the other. Rather than just pinning the latest Dilbert cartoon to the panel, these provide high-value work space. Not only that, but monitors have come down so far in price that one of these desks with the monitors costs less than a typical cubicle setup. And for many workers, they prefer the high-tech version and even view it as a perq. Online tools, inexpensive web cams and video conferencing tie together individuals and groups with the plethora of video screens that have everyone virtually “working in the same room together.” Add to that some drop-in bars with rows of seats and places to connect your laptop, a brainstorming area with a huge digital whiteboard for local and remote workers to collaborate and comfortable seating throughout and it all creates a great solution that is cost-effective, highly efficient and appreciated by employees.
I may not have gotten these notes perfect on the real savings, but clearly there are real business profitability drivers.
- Reduce physical building space, which costs less for real estate and utilities - 15% cost savings.
- Reduce communiting and overall demands on the workspace which has had huge impact on the carbon footprint of the company.
- Improve employee time and cost by avoiding commuting - more than half of that time savings is given back to the business.
Below is a link to an interview with Anne Bamesberger, the leader of the group at Sun behind the innovative workspace that we toured.
It is clear that the workforce environment has changed and we are still working in a 30-40 year old configuration of cubicles. It may take some time for the infrastructure to truly turn over, but pay attention to these new forms of work. If you want to hire and retain innovative and high value employees, they expect an innovative and high value work environments. For once, there is a solution that truly is better, faster, and cheapers…and it just so happens to be really cool as well.
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Michael Kanazawa shares recent insights and tips about the no-nonsense, results-driven approach to driving business breakthroughs found in his new book Big Ideas to Big Results.