Office Design
So John Cleese doesn’t like open
plan offices. According to a report
in
The Times
on October 13, the
Monty Python star cited constant
interruptions from colleagues and
technology as a blight on creativity.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary
Festival, he said: “The Sixties were a
much more relaxed time and you didn’t
have all these interruptions. The absolute
killer of creativity is interruptions. You’ve
got to get rid of those damn iPhones and
those damn open plan offices.”
Are these the prejudices of an old
man with,
Business Info
presumes, little
experience of working in an open plan
office or does Cleese have a point? More
interestingly, are his objections valid for
everyone or does he, as a self-described
introvert, have a particular antipathy to
open plan?
Cleese’s comments on office design
coincide with a call from office furniture
giant Steelcase for businesses to give
more consideration to the needs of
introverts who, it says, make up between
one third and one half of any workforce
and are often the most creative thinkers.
Zoe Humphries, senior workplace
consultant for Steelcase in the UK,
said: “Introverts are wired differently
and are overwhelmed by the clamour
of open-space offices.We have learnt
that the principal difference between
the two personality types (introvert
and extrovert) is the way in which they
recharge their batteries; how they reach
that level of concentration they need for
their cognitive thought processes to be
most productive.”
Steelcase advises organisations to
create quiet rooms with sound insulation
and adjustable lighting where introverts
can clear their heads and achieve
equilibrium. Indeed, in the US it has
launched a collection of workspaces,
Susan Cain Quiet Spaces by Steelcase,
in conjunction with the author of the
international bestseller
Quiet: The Power
of Introverts in aWorld That Can’t Stop
Talking.
The range includes five insulated
working spaces, offering privacy and
quiet with the ability to adjust lighting
and other environmental factors. Each
one is furnished and decorated to
support a particular need or function.
For example, Flow provides a calm,
Monty Python star slams
open plan offices as a
killer of creativity
The clamour
for quiet
business-like environment ideal for
deep concentration, whereas Studio is
optimised for relaxation and rebalancing
with informal seating and floor mats for
stretching and meditation.
Lack of privacy
The availability of quiet spaces such
as these won’t be appreciated only by
introverts. A growing body of evidence
suggests that office workers of every type
are struggling with the lack of privacy
inherent in more collaborative working
spaces, epitomised by open plan.
A Steelcase survey of 10,000 office
workers across 14 countries found that
office workers are losing 86 minutes
every day due to distractions; one in
three has to leave the office to get work
done; and although 95 % of people
consider it important to be able to work
privately, just 41% have the opportunity
to do so.
Bostjan Ljubic, vice president of
Steelcase UK and Ireland, argues that the
focus on group working – even in regions
where cellular offices still hold sway – has
had unintended consequences.
“Too much interaction and not
enough privacy has reached crisis
proportions, taking a heavy toll on
workers’ creativity, productivity,
engagement and well-being. People not
only expect privacy in their private lives,
they want it at the office as well. Our
research has found that for people to
collaborate with their colleagues more
effectively they need less ‘we’ time and
more ‘me’ time than they are getting
today.”
He added: “Over the years we have
seen office preferences shift from more
enclosed spaces to more open. But
in some organisations the pendulum
has swung too far. Many people do
not realise that effective collaboration
actually requires individual private time.”
Ljubic is not advocating a retreat from
open plan. Instead he argues that it must
be modified to give workers more choice
and more control over their working
environment.
“Many offices have limited options
such as individual workstations, private
offices, conference rooms and a café.
However, people at work need spaces for
different types of work and these include
formal and informal work in groups or
alone. Some people find it inspiring and
creative to work in a crowded, noisy
environment whereas others prefer
quieter spaces and quite often they
want a mix of both. The workplace needs
to offer a variety of public and private
spaces, for We and I work,” he said.
Above:
John Cleese – No fan of open
plan. Photo by Paul Boxley
Main picture:
Susan Cain Quiet Spaces
by Steelcase
...give more
consideration to
introverts...
...often the
most creative
thinkers.
magazine
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