CHAPTER 9: THE WORKSPACE REMIX Flashcards
By 2015 approximately ___ percent of offices had converted to open plans.
70 percent
Yes, Google, which is often credited with launching the ________ trend—and the use of scooters to move around that office—designed a workspace to embody its corporate culture and to cater to the job needs of its employees, many of whom are programmers who sit silently at their desks all day writing code.
open office
According to Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, the original design concept of open floor plans and cubicles was created in _______ in the 1950s to enable individualized, autonomous space for workers that was flexible, modular, and easily changed as circumstances in the office changed
Germany
In my experience and observation, whether or not a person likes to work in an open space has far more to do with the work they are doing and their personal _______ than their age or generation.
preference
Personality type—introvert versus extrovert, for example—can often have much more to do with how different individuals ____ to work.
prefer
The workspace remix involves rethinking professional environments from a one-size-fits-all approach to more _____, deliberately designed spaces.
flexible
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
What concerns me most is the way in which employees are criticized for how they adapt to a work environment over which they have little to no control. Leaders should not be surprised when employees find ________ and adaptations to make a work environment better fit their individual preferences and work needs
workarounds
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
If I had to name the question about generational differences I receive more than any other, it would be this:“What do I do about my Millennial employees wearing _______?”
earbuds
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
But a deeper reason is to find a modicum of privacy in a wide-open, ________ space in which everyone can hear everything, which is especially important for employees doing work that requires deep thinking or personal creativity.
boundery-less
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
headphones are the new ____
wall
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
A 2018 Harvard study found that switching to an _______ office space decreased employees’ face-to-face interactions by over 70 percent and increased the use of e-mail and instant messenger by 67 percent and 75 percent, respectively.
open-plan
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
Rather than increasing face-to-face collaborations, open architecture had the exact opposite effect: it was more likely to make people socially _______.
withdraw
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
Some organizations are putting a Band-Aid on the problem by installing “_______” systems, which pump in an almost imperceptible whooshing sound designed to match the frequency of human voices and therefore be less distracting when people talk in an open floor plan.
When simplicity would have sufficed
“pink noise”
“Headphones Are the New Wall”
Once you ________ with the tensions that might be lurking, you can begin to research and advocate for solutions.
empathize
The Remix: “A Diversity of Spaces”
We needed to create an environment to fuel innovation and collaboration that would allow our people to ultimately support our customers, and also to be inclusive of different people’s work styles.”
This is why they made a work space with many different options
The Remix: “A Diversity of Spaces”
Not surprisingly, it can be especially challenging for _______ employees to change the way they have worked, perhaps for decades.
long-tenured
The Remix: “A Diversity of Spaces”
The workspace remix, as exemplified by Capital One, boils down to this: give people a variety of spaces in which to accomplish a variety of types of ____.
work
The Remix: “A Diversity of Spaces”
“Across industries, we found that balanced workplaces—those prioritizing both focus and collaboration—score higher on measures of ______, innovation, effectiveness, and performance.”
satisfaction
The Remix: “A Diversity of Spaces”
As Stefanie says, “Don’t let _____ define your space. We don’t want labels as people, and so we don’t want labels for our workspace, either.”
labels
Your Workspace Remix
For example:
1) OFFER OPTIONS
2) PROVIDE PRIVACY
3) ADD “IN-BETWEEN” SPACES
4) INCREASE TRANSPARENCY
5) ENGINEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR “CASUAL COLLISIONS.”
6) ENCOURAGE SOME PERSONAL EXPRESSION
7)
8) INVITE IDEAS AND FEEDBACK.
9) REMIX YOURSELF
7) BRING THE OUTIDE IN
Your Workspace Remix
OFFER OPTIONS:
Research out of Great Britain has shown that when workers can choose their working conditions, productivity on cognitive tasks increases by ___ percent or more. Organizational psychologists call these environments “empowered offices,” and it’s a concept any organization can implement in some way.
25 percent
Your Workspace Remix
PROVIDE PRIVACY:
While many workplaces now offer private spaces such as lactation rooms for breastfeeding mothers,
There are a wide verity of reasons that a person may need privacy
Your Workspace Remix
PROVIDE PRIVACY:
If you don’t provide such spaces, either these important calls won’t get made at all or you’ll stumble over junior employees camped out in your stairwells trying to find a little slice of _______.
seclusion
Your Workspace Remix
PROVIDE PRIVACY:
If you can’t provide privacy for each individual, team privacy can be effective as well.
team privacy
Your Workspace Remix
Add “IN-BETWEEN SPACES”
Instead, “in-between” areas like alcoves and booths allow for a mix of both the ______ and camaraderie of an open space and the privacy all humans desire.
Proximity
Your Workspace Remix
INCREASE TRANSPARENCY
This not only provided more light to employees working in the middle of the floor but also literally gave workers transparency into their leaders’ domains. Remember Remixer Rule #7: Be more transparent, whatever that “more” may be in your environment.
transparency
Your Workspace Remix
ENGINEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR “CASUAL COLLISIONS”
When Steve Jobs was designing Pixar’s headquarters, he intentionally placed the restrooms in the building’s main atrium, a long walk away from where people worked. This encouraged _______ interactions between people of all departments and levels in the company.
Capital One removed all personal trash cans from peoples desks so people would have to walk to more central locations.
*Consider moving snack dispensers to a further location from where they are now.
Impromptu
Your Workspace Remix
ENGINEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR “CASUAL COLLISIONS”
Chief people officer Katie Burke explains, “Our founders realized that in every office there are good seats and bad seats, so they set up a lottery in which everyone, including them, participated…. The point is to eliminate ________ of power imbalances. The reshuffles also emphasize that change is constant, so you need to be adaptable. And we want people to get out of their entrenched social patterns so that they will collaborate and learn.”
perceptions
Your Workspace Remix
ENCOURAGE SOME PERSONAL EXPRESSION:
This woman, a longtime, loyal employee, wanted more. That cardigan was clearly part of her _____ and she wanted a home for it. And that is a cross-generational human desire: to mark a place of our own in the space where we spend a large part of our lives.
Identity
Your Workspace Remix
ENCOURAGE SOME PERSONAL EXPRESSION:
Maybe the next ______ of workspace personalization is not on our walls or furniture but on the things we carry with us at all times: our devices, our notebooks, and our personal items.
iteration
Your Workspace Remix
BRING THE OUTSIDE IN:
According to Capital One’s Work Environment Survey, when asked what feature employees most desire in a workplace, the number one answer by far is…________.
Fifty-seven percent of employees say that they want more sunshine at work.
Natural light
Your Workspace Remix
INVITES IDEAS AND FEEDBACK:
As with so many suggestions in this book, many of the best workspace remix ideas will come from your own multigenerational _______, who know your business best.
employees
Your Workspace Remix
INVITES IDEAS AND FEEDBACK:
At Capital One, the Workplace Solutions team, as part of its change management process, goes back to those teams whose workspaces have changed after ___ to ___ days to check in about what is and isn’t working.
90 to 120 days
Your Workspace Remix
REMIX YOURSELF:
Make a ____ change and see what happens.
small
Telecommunication Nation: Rise of the Remote Worker
This is not surprising. I was on the early fringe of one of the biggest changes to today’s labor market: the rise of remote work by both entrepreneurs and employed professionals, made possible by the spread of broadband Internet and mobile devices. In 1996 only 20 percent of employers offered telecommuting as a benefit. By 2016 that number had reached ___ percent.
60 percent
Telecommunication Nation: Rise of the Remote Worker
What the author notes that has been lost:
1) Some people miss the camaraderie of seeing their colleagues every day or occasionally working late together and bonding over midnight pizza.
2) Some senior executives have shared with me how they think younger workers today are missing out on the _________ opportunities that took place when more people worked on-site.
3) And more than a few long-tenured professionals have shared with me that they miss having a distinct separation between work and home.
incidental learning
Telecommunication Nation: Rise of the Remote Worker
Advice to anyone resisting to embrace remote work:
1)
2) offering flexibility will help you achieve your goals with a multigenerational workforce.
1) The ship has sailed
Telecommunication Nation: Rise of the Remote Worker
While many organizations and leaders still consider flexibility to be a benefit or perk, I prefer to think of it as a multigenerational management and _________.
retention strategy
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
It is almost a _______ that as a leader today you will have to manage multigenerational workers who are not in the office. Here are some strategies to guide you:
Guarantee
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
1) BE DELIBERATE WITH YOUR TERMINOLOGY.
2) BE CREATIVE AND INCLUSIVE
3) SET GUIDELINES FIR REMOTE WORK
4)
5) KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT
6) WORK IS EVERYWHERE
4) TRACK RESULTS
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
BE DELIBERATE WITH YOUR TERMINOLOGY.
Get in the habit of referring to people as “__________” even when they are in another office or on-site with a client. This removes the perceived hierarchy of one location being more “appropriate” than any other.
“Working remotely”
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
BE CREATIVE AND INCLUSIVE:
They fear that allowing flexibility for ____ employees will make others feel excluded.
some
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
SET GUIDELINES FOR REMOTE WORK:
It is totally ________ to set guardrails and expectations around remote work, whether at the organizational level or among members of an individual team.
appropriate
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
Pick and choose the strategies that are appropriate for your culture and needs:
1) Have a shared calendar on which workers indicate when they will be working remotely so people know where to find one another.
2) Whenever anyone on a team is working remotely, have all meetings by phone or teleconference to ensure a level playing field and no “sidebar” conversations that remote workers miss out on.
3) _____________ or core hours during which all members of the team agree to be on-site for in-person meetings.
4) Set clear expectations for professionalism and work hours. For example, no pet sounds in the background on conference calls, no taking calls at the grocery store or other non-quiet environment, and have a professional background for teleconference calls taken remotely.
Determine core days
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
TRACK RESULTS:
PETER DRUCKER, “That which is measured, _______”
improves
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
TRACK RESULTS:
The most common fear is that people aren’t going to do their job, so decide how you will measure if somebody is _________.
doing their job
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
TRACK RESULTS:
To set up remote workers—and yourself as a leader—for success, decide if and when you will require remote workers to ______ each remote day with you or their teams.
check in
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
TRACK RESULTS:
Also ask remote workers what they _______ as the successes and challenges of working from home.
perceived
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
TRACK RESULTS:
What is most important is to clearly state your ______ as a leader and listen to your remote workers about what support they may or may not need.
expectations
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT:
Remember that remote work really became possible because of the ubiquity of ________ and broadband Internet.
Mobile devices
Remote Control: How Do You Manage a Multigenerational, Multi-located Team?
KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT:
Employees will continue to _____ that the devices they use at home will be available to them in the workplace and that their use will be accepted.
expect
Work Is Everywhere
Limiting workplace options feels counterproductive and unnecessary. As leaders, we will only benefit from increasing the _____ people have of where to complete their daily goals
options
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
The workspace remix involves rethinking professional _______ from a one-size-fits-all approach to more flexible, modular spaces and remote work options.
environments
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
While you as an individual leader may or may not be able to control the physical environment in which you and your team work, you can begin to pay attention to the ways your employees have been _____ to their physical workspace. Once you empathize with the tensions that may be lurking, you can begin to explore potential solutions.
adapting
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
Keep in mind that people’s workspace preferences are often unrelated to their generation and can have more to do with _________, physical abilities, and the kinds of work they need to accomplish.
personality type
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
Open floor plans are actually working against the innovation and collaboration they were meant to enable. This is why younger workers often wear headphones or earbuds to find a modicum of _______ in a wide-open, boundary-less space.
privacy
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
Ideally, give people a variety of spaces in which to accomplish a variety of types of work. When we ask employees to be more ____, innovative, disruptive, and multidimensional, we need to provide spaces that allow for agile, innovative, disruptive, and multidimensional work to take place.
agile
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
When asked what feature employees most desire in a workplace, the number one answer by far is _________. You’ll get the most bang for your employee satisfaction buck if you simply raise the blinds in your office space.
natural light
CHAPTER 9: KEY TAKEAWAYS
We’ll never return to the time when “work” meant going to the same physical space with the same people every day. The ship has sailed and the desire for remote work options is perhaps the only example of one benefit appealing to _________. Think creatively about whether it is possible to offer some degree of flexibility—even 5 percent of a person’s job—to keep up with the times and allow your people some wiggle room in their schedule.
all generations
