Herman Miller Living Office Provocations Primer

hermanmiller.com 2014 Herman Miller, Inc.

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April 2014

2014 Herman Miller, Inc.

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Provocations PrimerLiving Office



Herman Miller Daniel Carlsten

MAKE A BEAUTIFUL MESS

Without the expectation of perfection, give people the tools, space, and freedom to pursue their work as it suits them best.

Once guideposts and purpose are set, enabling individuals to do their best work means relinquishing controlof the work process, the work environment, and sometimes of the work itself. There is no such thing as a perfect office, so dont try to create one. Rather, a managerial and physical environment that anticipates, enables, embraces, and to some extent contains this chaos is one which people will naturally occupyand succeed in.

Make a Beautiful MessLiving Office



Embrace disorder, which can enhance creativity.

In The New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds describes a recent study that substantiates the correlation between creativity and disorder: In this [study], college students were placed in a messy or a neat office and asked to dream up new uses for Ping Pong balls. Those in messy spaces generated ideas that were significantly more creative, according to two independent judges, than those plugging away in offices where stacks of papers and other objects were neatly aligned.

Penelope Green made a similar case in the New York Times: Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat office landscapes) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts.




Respect the stages of creativity and their requirements.

Simon Hill, CEO and founder of idea software company Wazoku, writes about the importance of both structure and flexibility during the creative process:

In order for ideas to develop properly, they need two things which seem almost contradictory: structure and flexibility. Structure allows you to manage the process that the idea goes through and come to an understanding of when you must review the idea or approve it. But flexibility allows you to develop the idea freely and gives you the space to let other ideas work off of it or take the idea through another stage, if necessary. A platform that allows you both structure and flexibility has the best chance of getting great ideas and making them even better.




Recognize the benefits of chaos.

In Forbes, writer and marketing expert Ekaterina Walter describes the relationship between chaos and creativity:

Chaos creates urgency, and, with it, an invaluable opportunity for us to redefine success and question our current structures; it forces us to seek an unusual and diverse perspective, and it pushes us out of the comfort zone and creates white spaces to imagine something potentially breathtaking.




Workers Are Shoppers

Create an office that draws people in with a compelling selection of work settings and proficient customer service.

Treat your employee as you would a customer by offering unprecedented value and compelling choices that meet the demands of their work, and help them achieve something greater. Workers should be empowered to shop for the space that best suits them in the moment, and freely and intuitively cycle through these spaces over the course of their day. Workspaces and settings must stay attuned to the market demands of the workers using them. For an office to thrive, the customer must always be satisfied.


WORKERS ARE SHOPPERS

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Your people are your best investment. Treat them accordingly.

In Fast Company, Marc C. Crowly writes of Googles approach to creating a workplace where people can thrive:

What few in business know is that Google has devoted the same level of intellectual firepower it used to create self-driving cars to discovering, refining, and implementing leadership practices that optimize human performance in the workplace.

Crowly goes on to explain, [A Google team] validated their understanding that people truly thrive in their jobsand remain loyal to themwhen they feel fully supported and authentically valued. This led to the launch of plentiful perks and a culture intentionally anchored by trust, transparency, and inclusion.Prasad Setty, VP of people analytics and compensation, told me: No one has ever asked us why we should invest in our people. Our leaders just assume its the right thing to do.

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Appeal to the whole person at work, not just the worker.

In his I Just Work Here column in the Chicago Tribune, Rex Huppke shares his impressions after a visit to Assurance, an insurance company that ranked No. 2 among mid-sized companies on the Tribunes 2013 Top Workplaces list:

The employees I spoke with there, in keeping with what the Top Workplaces survey found, said that at the end of the day, the work is what matters most. But the perks, the team-building and educational opportunities, the focus on volunteerism and good health, those are the things that fortify their contentment.

And company officials say theyre getting a strong return on their investment. Along with improved employee retention, an Assurance study of the implementation of its health care and wellness plans found that the company saved nearly $1.7 million over a five-year period while spending only about $180,000.

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Support work/life balance. Its the one thing everyone wants.

A recent study by PwC, the University of Southern California, and the London Business School found that Millennials as well as people from all generationsvalue quality of life over career success.

the Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and 1995, seek more workplace flexibility, better balance between their work and home life, and opportunity for overseas assignments as keys to greater job satisfaction.

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Having choices makes us feel in control; not having choices creates stress. An academic paper, The Effects of the Physical Environment on Job Performance, explains how this plays out at work: A mismatch between the demands placed on workers and the control they have over the physical environment in which they meet those demands is by definition stress-generating. Environmental empowermentincreases psychological comfort and reduces stress by increasing decision latitude.Research shows that up to 25 percent of the variance in job performance is associated with differences in well-being, and when employees have high levels of psychological well-being and job satisfaction, they perform better and are less likely to leave their jobmaking happiness a valuable tool for maximizing organizational outcomes. Psychologically distressed workers could cost an organization of 100 employees $390,000 per year in lost productivity.

Having choices makes people happy, and happy people make good employees.

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Living Beats Dying

A healthy, prosperous organization thrives on passion, purpose, and growth.

Organizations and management are tools designed by humans, a form of technology that must stay up to date and remain relevant. The maximizing, profit-driven model of business served well in another era, but now requires updating. Aligning the fundamentals of human lifeour natural modes of interaction, motivation, and creationto methods of enterprise will harness the power of individual passion and shared purpose to foster enduring prosperity.


LIVING BEATS DYINGLiving Office



Living Beats Dying

Organizations, management, and workplaces that foster a more human experience of work require continuous maintenance and renewal.

In his I Just Work Here column in the Chicago Tribune, Rex Huppke cites Brenda Ellington Booth, a clinical professor of management and organizations at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management:

Companies that have these people-first philosophies, they have a high degree of trust among employees, Booth said. Numerous studies show that people-first models deliver above-average returns. But it requires a discipline from the organization, the discipline to stick to it.

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Living Beats Dying

Authors Berrin Erdogan, Talya N. Bauer, Donald M. Truxillo, and Layla R. Mansfield of Portland State University explore the importance of happiness in the Journal of Management:

Happiness of the individual has been a key concern for individuals and societies across the ages. Over 2,300 years ago, in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discussed happiness as the ultimate goal in human existence, as it is important for its own sake, rather than being a means to an end. This idea is still valid, with survey results from 41 nations showing that happiness is a very important goal for almost everyone surveyed.

Profit should not be the only measure of your organizations success.

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Living Beats Dying

Build your business strategy around the needs of your people and both individuals and the organization will prosper.

Jay Deragon, digital strategist and author, writes of a recent study on corporate culture management in his The Relationship Economy blog:

An 11-year study by John P. Kotter and James L. Haskett included 207 companies in 22 industries. The results showed that companies that managed their corporate culture significantly outperformed similar companies that did not. Between managed and unmanaged corporate cultures, the research found:

1. Revenue growth of 682 percent (managed) compared to 166 percent (unmanaged)

2. Stock price increase of 901 percent compared to 74 percent

3. Job growth of 282 percent compared to 36 percent

4. Net income growth of 756 percent compared to just 1 percent

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You Plus Me Equals Three

Us isnt just you and me; every relationship creates a third entity of shared character and purpose.

A successful office plays a role in facilitating and maintaining a symbiotic balance between individuals and their groups. It connects people to their work and to each other. Workplaces must emphasize that which cant be accomplished on a screen or through a device. They must proliferate an atmosphere of trust and fellowship. For workers to reach their potential, the office must always feel like a community worth belonging to.


YOU AND ME EQUALS THREE

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The most effective offices foster an environment where people can easily connect with one another and their work.

In a post on her Future of Work blog, Lynda Gratton, professor of Management Practice at London Business School, notes the increasing relevance of personal connections in the workplace:

There is a distinct trend across the world of work becoming more virtual, as workers flee to their homes for peace and quiet, while corporations are only too happy to turf them out of expensive and carbon-hungry offices. However, what we found fascinating wasthe re-emergence of co-located work in neighborhood hubs and local coffee shops. It seems that sitting in our pajamas all day does not always trump the cut and thrust of face-to-face office work.

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NKD, a corporate learning and development company, posted an article exploring a humans natural instinct to collaborate:

[Professor Alice] Roberts research provides a powerful message that for us humans, collaboration is woven into our DNA. We can be confident that when we come together, to create something new or solve a problem, our team members will happily share the success of the outcome with us. I guess you could say that we know weve got each others backs.

Draw people in with an atmosphere that proliferates interaction, confidence, and creativity.

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For people to do their best, they need to feel like they are important members of the workplace community.

In an October 2013 article in the Bradenton Herald, Jerry Osteryoung, Professor Emeritus of Finance at Florida State University, writes about team-focused organizations:

Many companies report that employee morale and production increase after adopting a team concept. This collaborative atmosphere goes a long way to make the point that each employee is important to the mission of the firm and holds a stake in its success.

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The Next Big Thing Isnt for You

Each Living Office is unique, designed specifically for the work of unique individuals and organizations.

The design and management of the office has to begin with a careful consideration of people and their work. There is no one-size-fits-all, off-the-shelf solution for an optimal workplace. The solution for each organization must necessarily be different based on the aspirations and needs of the organization and the organizations workers. Achieving a Living Office requires perpetual inquiry, solid intuition, and decisive action.


THE NEXT BIG THING ISNT FOR YOU

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Focus on what wont change.

Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, a Chicago-based software firm, and co-author of the book Rework, instructs readers to focus on what wont change.

A lot of companies focus on the next big thing. They latch on to whats hot and new. They follow the latest trends and technology.

Thats a fools path. You start focusing on fashion instead of substance. You start paying attention to things that are constantly changing instead of things that last.

The core of your business should be built around things that wont change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should invest in.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework, Vermillion, London, 2010, p 87.

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In a post on Forbes.com, contributor Glenn Llopis writes about how companies like Nike, Apple, and Target dont excel by following the latest trend. They excel by embracing the promise of their unique culture:

Cultural intelligence means being intelligent enough to create a workplace culture that gives positive direction for your organization and its people. In fact, a strong workplace culture makes it easier for an organization to stay focused, define its goals, and deliver on those goals.

The strength of an organizations cultural promise is rooted in its business model, decision-making and strategies. Like in life, there are temptations to sway from your core beliefs. The ones that stay true to their cultural promise will succeed, and endure.

Embrace the promise of your companys unique culture.

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Your workplace should authentically represent your culture.

Oliver Burkeman, author of the book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Cant Stand Positive Thinking, has spent years studying what makes people happy. In a post on FastCompanys blog, he writes about the need for a workplace to authentically represent a companys culture.

Inauthentically fun workplaces can be deeply alienating environments: if the famous ping-pong tables and meditation pods of Silicon Valley do keep workers happy, thats probably because they reflect a commitment to letting people relax when they need tonot because anyone feels forced to use them.

In fact, any environment that doesnt fit the culture is alienating or at least disingenuous. Employees know that having a coffee bar doesnt necessarily mean its acceptable to linger at it.

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Continuous change is part of organizational life, but humans are wired to resist the unknown. Good change management lowers that resistance by building trust. More importantly, it builds change adaptation skills so that the next change is easier.

While change itself has become business as usual for many companies, however, managing it has not. Seventy percent of all change initiatives fail.1 Reasons include a lack of a clear vision, strategy, or commitment. They also fail because the company doesnt manage the change.

Sometimes resistance in a change management effort can offer important clues about what adjustments a company needs to make in order for the change to move forward.

Read more in Herman Millers How Change Management Makes You Good at Change.

Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria, Cracking the Code of Change, in On Change Management, Harvard Business

Review Press, Boston, 2011, p.139.

Set a pace for change that your organization can manage.

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We Feel Before We Think

Instincts are powerful. They color our every thought and are the root of our actions.

The human brain is constantly reacting to and processing a bandwidth of inputs and information far beyond conscious perception. Cues from the environment and each other powerfully drive how we feel and what we do.

Purposeful designs can accommodate and harness this human operating system. In such an environment people will immediately grasp what they can do, where they can go, what things are for, and why they are the way they are. Productivity and pleasure will come naturally. It will just feel right.


WE FEEL BEFORE WE THINKLiving Office




Winston Churchill said, We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. Design affects not just behavior but also brain activity, according to a neurophysiology study (commissioned by Herman Miller) that assessed how different office settings affect physiology.

The quantitative findings show that our bodies do react to settingswe do feel before we think. Baseline happiness of participants varied with the setting and was highest in the Plaza, an open, moderately noisy public space with lots of natural light.

Individual performance was correlated with positive mood before and after completing tasks that were part of the research. Because setting affects mood and mood affects performance, its reasonable to conclude that design of a space affects individual work performance.

Herman Miller, The Neurophysiology of Office Design Study: The Objective Findings, February 2014.

The design of your space can affect your mood and work.

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The research also found that office plans that have more noise, natural light, openness, and foot traffic (buzz) increase creativity. Participants showed greater ability to solve a unique problem as members of a group in settings with more buzz. Although the task was technical in nature, the results held true even when researchers controlled for the technical background of group members. People need quiet spaces sometimes, but sometimes they need a space that energizes them.

Spaces with buzz also help us relax. Researchers gathered information on participants stress levels by measuring adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), palmar sweat, and heart rate. Participants stress level was lower in high-buzz spaces, both at the outset when entering a high-buzz space and over time.

Herman Miller, The Neurophysiology of Office Design Study: The Objective Findings, February 2014.

Dont assume that quieter is always better or less stressful.

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ProvocationsMake a Beautiful MessWorkers are ShoppersLiving Beats DyingYou Plus Me Equals ThreeThe Next Big Thing Isn't for YouWe Feel Before We Think

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Herman Miller Living Office Provocations Primer

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