There are three main points discussed in the document:
1. Organizations can better drive cultural transformation by aligning physical workplace changes with organizational changes. This means designing work environments that support new cultural values and behaviors rather than reinforcing old ones.
2. High-performance workplaces provide a diversity of space types to support different work activities and preferences. This enhances collaboration, focus, and mobility. Activity-based workplaces in particular allow employees choice without assigned desks.
3. The document outlines four workplace models on a spectrum from basic to high-performance. It then provides more details on collaborative workplaces and activity-based workplaces as two high-performance options that can better enable cultural change and drive performance
1. ISSUE 23 2016 | PP18302/11/2013 (033704) | ISSN 2462-1226 PUBLISHED BY ASIAN INSTITUTE OF FINANCE | www.aif.org.my
Feature
Talent, Technology &
Tomorrow's Workplace
Personality
Dato' Sulaiman Mohd Tahir
CEO, AmBank
2.
3. Unlocking Cultural
Transformation through the
Work Environment
There is nothing more powerful than
the physical work environment to
represent and drive the culture and
values of an organisation. Nothing. As
Winston Churchill once said“we shape
our buildings and thereafter they
shape us. ”What does your workplace
today say about your culture, expected
behaviours, hierarchy, empowerment,
trust and recognition?This question
was explored by Peter Andrew of
CBRE.
oo often in organisations
those that drive cultural and
behavioural changes are not
aligned with the technology
and real estate functions that
create and maintain the environments where
people work. In the worst cases these functions
inadvertently work against each other’s purpose
and objectives.
Let’s explore how these functions can align
to drive organisational transformation and
generate greater value from investment and
then compare and contrast two new types of
emerging high performance workplaces.
Aligning physical and organisational
change
Asia typically has shorter real estate lease
terms (3-5 years) than the rest of the world.
In theory this gives organisations in Asia
more opportunities to align physical and
organisational change. Too often though the
real estate processes are disconnected from
organisational change and so the significant
sums invested in real estate and new workplace
design goes to waste.
Issue 23 2016 | Asian Link 11
TALKING POINTS
T
Peter Andrew
6. have to enable them to work from more
than one place.
If unassigned desks is the right
strategy for your business, then you
have two further options: hot desking
or activity-based working (ABW). Both
solutions offer the potential to save
space (and real estate costs) through
having more people assigned to the
space than there are desks. Both support
self-organisation of work and teams.
The primary driver of hot desking is the
ability to share desks and save money.
The primary driver of ABW is to provide
a diversity of settings and the mobility
that enables choices; and the potential
to share desks can create the funding
mechanism to create a better workplace.
The capacity to drive space efficiency
through sharing is remarkably high: the
global turn up rate to work in offices sits
just above 60%. Allowing for peaks in
turn up times/days these figures indicate
potential savings in the order of 20-30%.
Sharing ratio’s need to be very carefully
Figure 2: The CBRE Workplace Compass
Source: CBRE Asia Pacific Occupiers’Fit-Out Cost Guide. 2015
calculated to ensure that there is always
a place to work available. In the case
of ABW workplaces it is also important
that the full diversity of different types of
settings are available to choose from at
most times (quiet spaces, team spaces,
collaborative spaces and private rooms.)
Basic traditional and hot desking
workplaces are generally well understood
options (although high performance
collaborative workplaces and activity-
based workplaces are often mistaken
for basic hot desking environments).
It is worth diving deeper into the two
high performance options in more detail
to understand the differences and the
benefits. It is important to understand
that there is more than one choice – and
lots of“grey area”in between.
High performance collaborative
workplace
The collaborative workplace is
characterised by each person having an
assigned workspace. However, compared
to the basic traditional workplaces the
collaborative workplace allocates a higher
proportion of space to shared activities
to support collaboration and focused
work. This option recognises the human
need for personalised space and a sense
of belonging. However, one challenge is
that people get too comfortable within
their individual settings and, while excited
by all of the“cool”alternative spaces to
work, actually often do not use them
as often as might have been intended
(one reason why some tech companies
provide free food – to lure their engineers
to spaces where they have to interact
with others). Depending on design,
some collaborative workplaces can limit
the ability for teams to self-organise
themselves in the workplace.
High performance activity-
based workplace
An activity-based workplace (ABW)
enables people to share a diversity
of different ergonomic work settings
that support a variety of focused and
collaborative work activities. Private
“owned”enclosed offices are less
common; instead there are usually
sufficient small work rooms for all staff,
and not just leaders, to find enclosed
spaces to work for as long as they
need. Activity-based workplaces are
HUB
(assigned space)
CLUB
(unassigned space)
BasicHighperformance
Traditional Solution Hot Desking
Collaborative Workplace Activity-Based Workplace
Group/collaborative space Desk space Mobility enabled options
TALKING POINTS
14 Asian Link | Issue 23 2016
The best workplaces
have the ability to
morph and adapt
over time.
7. very responsive to business change, project needs
and allow staff to self-organise themselves, trading
off flexibility and choice for the ownership of their
own desk. Aside from work preferences these
environments also cater to introvert and extrovert
personality types – each able to choose the type of
setting that best suits their needs. When properly
executed the desire for ownership of a single desk
tends to diminish (although it’s invariably a big point
of concern when initially introducing the concept
to employees). Most organisations building these
workplaces are reporting that 80-90% of employees
would not go back to the old ways of working.
Unlock cultural transformation
Unlock and unblock your cultural and behavioural
change programmes by exploring and embracing
the symbolic and transformational opportunities
inherent in the conception, design and use of high
performance work environments. Build a resilient
organisation, enable your people to perform and
create fulfilment and meaning at work. Empower
your people to be successful by giving them more
choice about how they use space.
Alignment of cultural, behavioural and physical
workplace change is key and the next step is yours.
Peter Andrew is Senior Director, CBREWorkplace Centre of Excellence, Asia Pacific.
High Performance CLUB - Activity-Based Workplace
This illustration above is a representative image of an ABW. Space
types and names are included, but not limited to the below.
Enclosed meeting room
An acoustically insulated room to support
multiple work modes ranging from focused
to collaborative activities.
Enclosed office
An acoustically insulated room to support
focused work or light collaboration.
Work Cafe
Multi-functional space for social
interaction, team gatherings
and individual work.
Open shared table
Space for team
collaboration.
Ergonomic work setting
Unassigned desks to support
both work and light collaboration.
Open meeting space
Space for ad hoc activities and
informal meetings.
High-walled pod
Designed to support
focused work.
Focused touchdown area
An acoustically insulated room to support
focused or confidential work.
CBRE Workplace 360 office in Tokyo – an activity-based work environment built
in Tokyo in 2013.
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