That’s a Wrap

Another year draws to a close and it’s time for a festive break. This year I have mostly focused on research, writing and presenting with a flourish of activity in the last month.

Why the Resistance to RTO Mandates?

 

The return to office (RTO) battle continues with large corporates mandating their employees work at the office for three, four or even five days a week. Despite the mandates, the resistance to RTO continues and office space remains underutilised. The reason is quite straight forward – a mandate is an official order or command and humans simply do not like being told what to do. As such, a mandate challenges fundamental psychological processes and our very being.

Being told what to do is perceived as a direct threat to the core psychological need for autonomy and our sense of agency – the hardwired desire for being instigators of our own actions and destiny. According to motivational theories, such as Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs and self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), having the ability to make our own choices and a sense of freedom increases intrinsic (self) motivation which is essential for maximising our growth and potential, resulting in enhanced mental wellbeing and happiness.

ADHD Everywhere

I attended Ideas Fest last week, a fantastic outdoor festival bringing together entrepreneurs and investors. There was quite a lot of discussion around supporting entrepreneurs and employees with ADHD and quite a lot of the delegates were openly celebrating their ADHD. As someone who shares most of the symptoms of AHD, but not formally diagnosed, I am curious about the subject. Consequently, I am continuously bombarded on my social media timelines with ADHD related posts. Furthermore, designing for neurodiversity is widely discussed in workplace circles supported by relatively recent published guidelines, standards and books.

Understanding occupancy levels – a core metric for business success

The BCO’s Review of Post-Pandemic UK Office Utilisation was published mid-July. I authored the review with data provided by three different sources of utilisation dataⁱ and input from a host of workplace industry expertsⁱⁱ. A key objective was to advise developers, architects and engineers on how lower occupancy levels and utilisation reduces occupant density such that a building’s infrastructure, based on an assumed higher density, may be over-specified and energy inefficient.

As a workplace strategist I am more interested in how utilisation studies can be used to determine the optimum number of desks and meeting spaces etc., informing the required building size, for occupiers moving to a new office. Since the COVID pandemic, office workers have literally voted with their feet with many not returning to the office full time. Not understanding future occupancy levels can lead to wasted space which both incurs unnecessarily higher property costs and is not sustainable, due to building, heating, servicing empty space. In contrast, it may lead to underestimating the required space, as recently experienced by HSBC with their 7,700 desks shortfall, which clearly impacts the success of any business.

I went to a land down under

I spent the month of March in Australia, and it took me over 45 years to get there. Just before leaving school in 1979, I wrote that I planned to become an electrician and emigrate to Australia (but ended up a psychologist in the UK after a short spell of medical electronics). My trip to Oz was long overdue, and my biggest regret is leaving it so long. Lessoned learned, carpe diem.

Isn’t biophilic design just good design?

I was at the first Biophilic Design Conference, hosted by the Journal of Biophilic Design, last week, an excellent conference and a question frequently raised by both the speakers and the delegates was “isn’t biophilic design just good design?”. I would say yes in general but, as I discussed with Chris Moriarty and Ian Ellison of Audiem, for biophilic design to stand alone there must be examples of biophilic design that is poor design and cases of good design that is not biophilic design. I believe such scenarios exist.

Alfresco Breaks Boost Productivity: Lessons from the Workplace Trends Conference

At yesterday’s Workplace Trends conference, NicolaMillard reminded us that the brain can only cope with four hours of intense work each day – see Pang for more details. It reminded me of Tony Schwartz’s Energy Project, which proposes we can work intensely for 90-minute periods, so long as we take a proper 20-minute break between them, and three such periods of intense work per day is more than most will achieve. Also, let’s not forget the Display Screen Equipment Regulations which recommends a 10-minute break every hour or so. Counterintuitively, it seems the key to productivity is to take regular breaks. 

Why is your office empty?

Various reports indicate that while office space utilisation has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic it is much lower than previously. For example, Remit Consulting’s ReTurn project, comprising of security access (swipe-card) data from 13 UK companies with 155 office buildings and circa 200,000 occupants, shows the current utilisation rate to be around 32%. Having two-thirds of office space empty is neither good for sustainability or creating a vibrant and enticing workspace. 

My recent research, with Dr Gary Raw, conducted in partnership with MillerKnoll, explores approaches to enticing the workforce back to the office (see the summary or full report). The research findings were presented to industry experts and their thoughts subsequently captured in an IN Magazine supplement. 

Are you or your clients planning an office relocation or refurbishment? Or do you need to review an existing workspace to ensure it still supports the organisation?

Unlike other sectors, architecture and the real estate industry do not automatically collate customer feedback to improve their current and future products and services. However, BREEAM, WELL and BIM all require a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) to be conducted to achieve certification, and RIBA and BSI recommend them as best practice.

Back to Research

I recently completed a workplace strategy for a major investment bank and I’m now conducting some independent research, which I will share later this year. 

I genuinely enjoy carrying out research, it was my first career, but more importantly research informs my core services of workplace strategy and design briefing. My academic colleagues may disagree, but research must be applied rather than blue sky or theoretical. It should also be conducted in a reasonable time scale, at an affordable price, with a practical approach so that the results can be quickly adopted rather than wait years for complicated research to be completed, and out of date when eventually published. 

Standing up to stand out

I recently finished a stand-up comedy course and have now performed at a couple of gigs.

Why did I do it?

Well, to start it’s another of those itches that I needed to scratch, and get out of my system, just like the radio presenting and singing. I get bored of routine and I’m always looking for the next challenge in my work and my personal life.

To POE or not to POE, that is the question

It’s always exciting to finish a book. I am not quite there but I have recently approved the draft layout of “A Practical Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation and Researching Building User Experience”. The book is based on my 25 years’ experience of conducting POEs and I have completed over 100 evaluations during that time. The book will be out in September but is available to pre-order from Amazon.

Without conducting an independent evaluation of newly built or refurbished workplaces, we cannot be confident that they meet the needs of the occupying organisation and its people. 

The return to ROWI

Last month my paper on “developing the return on workplace investment (ROWI) tool”, co-authored with Matt Tucker and Hannah Wilson of Liverpool John Moores University, was published in the CREJ. The paper has been long in the making ...

It started back in 2012 when Adrian Burton of the AWE asked me to develop a means of estimating the productivity benefits gained from good workplace design. I responded to the challenge by reviewing 75 solid papers that reported a change in occupant performance due to improved environmental conditions, such acoustics, temperature, lighting etc. Initially the results of the different studies were so varied that they lacked any credibility. However, I worked with Paul Bartlett and the Office Productivity Network to weight the results according to the research environment, performance metric and type of activity so that they better represented a real office. The weighted results were more believable, were accepted by the AWE to use in their cost-benefit analysis of new workplace projects and we were accepted for publication by the JBSAV.

The Write Stuff

 

It's good to be back to workplace consulting after I spent most of the tail end of 2022 writing – papers, blogs and my third book.

I managed to submit my draft of A Practical Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation before taking a well-earned break. The new book is a revision of the British Council Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation that I wrote back in 2007. It’s an under-statement to say the world has moved on since then – we’ve had austerity measures, agile/hybrid working, advances in sensor technology and AI to name a few workplace related initiatives. What hasn’t changed is the importance of POE, it’s more relevant than ever especially with Net Zero Carbon targets. 

Workplace Capability

I have been a mountain biker for thirty years, but last year I purchased a gravel bike. The gravel bike is more all-terrain, hybrid if you like, allowing me to cover longer distances using trails avoiding busy roads. I recently rode along the Upper Lea Valley trail and paused to admire three sculptures of people significant to the area: Eric Morecambe, Capability Brown and a Sea Scout.

Design for the Range, Not the Average: The Prejudice and Inadequacies of Indoor Environment Standards

I recently presented at the Comfort at the Extremes (CATE) conference in Edinburgh. The delegates were a mix of researchers and medics in the fields of indoor air quality and thermal comfort in offices, homes, schools and hospitals. I recognised many from my days as a thermal comfort research back in the 1990s - it was good to catch up after some 25 years. It was also an opportunity for me to have another jibe at the prejudice and inadequacies of current indoor environment standards. This is what I said …

A World of Music and Workplace

In my time out from workplace consulting I prepare and present a weekly show on my local community radio station. It got me thinking about the similarities between music and the workplace.

Firstly, I like different music depending on my activity, my mood and the time of day. Music of a higher beats per minute undoubtedly suits me better when I’m on my spin bike or flagging, but I prefer slower-paced instrumentals when I am focussing or writing. Different work-settings are better suited to different activities and mood.

Beyond the Workplace Zoo

I can’t believe my last blog post was around Xmas time last year, where has the time gone? But it doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing, just through a different media. My own lockdown baby came in the form of a new book: Beyond the Workplace Zoo: Humanising the Office. It was published two weeks ago with a cosy book launch last week and its official airing at Workplace Trends yesterday.

It has been over 20 years since my last “proper” book, Improving Office Productivity. A book I co-authored with Paul Bartlett, who sadly passed away last year. Paul’s views on office economics and productivity paved the way for much of my thinking in the new book – his humour and candour are deeply missed.

Seasons Greetings 2020

 

I have been quite fortunate, but Covid-19 is undeniably terrible and this year has been devastating for some with loss of loved ones and income. Apparently our fight and flight response means we dwell on the negative rather than the positive and five pieces of good news are needed to balance one negative.

Post Covid-19 Workplace: Recollection not Revolution

Boris made his rather ambiguous announcement yesterday on his Covid-19 exit strategy and there have been plenty of previous posts from the workplace industry anticipating the announcement and how redesigning the office is the solution. But I firmly believe that we already have the answers, and have had them for some time, but have repeatedly chosen to ignore them. I recommend we start by recollecting and (re)introducing tried and tested best practice in the workplace before we push a design revolution.