“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” – Sigmund Freud
It’s easy to think that our 2019 selves had it so good. Our children went to school. We flocked to movie theatres to watch the latest blockbusters. We filled stadiums to cheer on our favourite teams while ordering over-priced beers. And we endured airports and crowded flights as we took our families on holiday.
To pay for all this, we dutifully commuted to our places of work where we spent the majority of our waking hours. Few of us knew the term “Zoom,” and our home wifi was for watching Netflix.
..
The onslaught of the pandemic in early 2020 turned life upside down across virtually every dimension. But perhaps the most immediate and pervasive effect – was the impact it had on where, when and how we work.
But in truth, previously, our places of work were far from perfect. We can trace the fundamental basis for the design and environments of most workspaces back to the industrial revolution and the era of assembly line workers governed by a managerial class. Many, if not most of our work environments, have not evolved beyond those industrial origins even though we are clearly in the era of the knowledge worker, where collaboration and creative problem solving are skills required for most roles.
Add to this the reality that in the war for talent, business leaders and HR professionals are keenly aware that environment, location and culture play a crucial role in a company’s ability to attract the most talented employees.
L’Institut Idée, a boutique consultancy with unique discovery tools, formed a collective in April 2020 with progressive architectural firm Red Studio Inc. and interior design firm Kirsh Design. We wanted to answer the question: How can we use this time to reimagine the workplace, not only for a post-Covid world but to be the kind of places in which talented people would choose to spend time?
We began by using our proprietary methodology called the Structural Mapping Process® (SMP) to uncover the emotional drivers that are associated with a desirable workplace. What emerged from the study and our subsequent strategy sessions was that the idea of “work” in its previous incarnation was mechanical, geared primarily for productivity and efficiency. But instead of treating the workplace like a “well-oiled machine”, we have to switch our thinking and see it as a living ecosystem that is dynamic, ever-changing and evolving.
To that end, we discovered that the future workplace must first consider these emotional needs:
To deliver on these emotional needs, we developed core principles for the reimagined workplace across three essential dimensions for life in our era:
Through this prism, what emerged from our work was a comprehensive set of principles for any business leader, HR professional or designer to follow when designing and operationalizing the new workplace. While too numerous to include in this article, the principles ladder up to four overarching imperatives that are the cornerstones of the reimagined workplace:
Our architects and designers then applied these principles to an actual office floor plan, the headquarters of L’Institut in Toronto. They developed sketches and renderings that bring the concepts to life. As a result, a concept paper emerged that provides a new ‘blueprint’ for how to bring to life the reimagined workplace.
While the ultimate impacts of the pandemic are yet to be seen, we do know from history that times like this often see unprecedented evolution and innovation across sectors. We aim to ensure that in 2021 and beyond, we never go back to the workplaces that were, but instead create them as they should be.
Donna Kirsh |
Sue Marenik |