A few weeks ago Alice Cuttance (Workplace Strategist at Dow) attended an informative seminar - Making the Workplace a truly successful Workspace - by psychologist Dr Craig Knight.

Based at the University of Exeter in the UK, Dr Craig Knight heads a research unit called Prism (Psychological Research Into Identity and Space Management). http://www.prism-identity.com

Dr Craig Knight is a chartered psychologist with a background in office design. His Prism team has exciting findings linking productivity levels and wellbeing to different types of workspace. Based on simple and cost effective workplace changes, these can result in big benefits for workers and the companies they work for.

The main message from Dr Knight’s seminar was that an ideal workspace allows for ‘identity realisation’  - an opportunity for a people to recognise something of themselves in the workspace.

In a recent study, workspace which rated well as being conductive to productivity and wellbeing, included visual elements such as colour, graphics and plants. These elements give workers an opportunity for ‘identity realisation’. This type of ‘enriched’ workspace worked even more effectively when people had control over the space, choosing how the elements were laid out around them. Dr Knight’s team found workers performing tasks in a visually interesting or ‘enriched’ space, with control over the specific elements around them had a 32% increase in productivity and 40% increase in wellbeing over other types of workspace tested.

During the question and answer time at the seminar Alice asked Dr. Knight how ‘shared desk’ type workspace might rate in his tests. He replied that allowing workers to choose where they want to sit on a daily basis adds to the level of user control (and therefore adding to ‘identity realisation’) so would rate well. Dr Knight’s team is currently doing tests with a leading accountancy firm in London. One of the aspects they are researching is the opportunity for workers to choose where they sit on a daily basis and the impact that has on their productivity. The findings so far are that workers are choosing to work in space with added visual elements – colour, graphics and plants – over impersonal space with no colour, graphics or plants. Their productivity increases as workers choose where they want to work, they have expressed personal preference in their choice (i.e. they choose to sit near a window, plant etc)

Dr Knight also said that in his experience people need to be involved in workplace change process, they need to be taken on a journey to understand and appreciate changes in their work environment. Wherever there is a chance to inform people, to help them understand why decisions are being made, this should be done. Communicating why decisions are being made can mitigate feelings of resentfulness towards the organisation and the powerlessness people sometimes feel during change – if it’s not addressed a ‘why is this being done to me?’ mentality will impact heavily on productivity and well-being in the workpace.
 
Our view of Dr Knight’s research is positive; at Dow we know we are on the right track in supporting our clients to work with their architects to design relevant, vibrant, interesting and healthy work environments, the kind of workspace that Dr Knight’s team has found to be the most conductive for productive work and well-being.

Along the lines of Dr Knight’s latest research, we encourage our clients to include some ‘shared’ workspaces when designing their new offices, a multi-purpose style of workspace which offers flexibility and variety for people to choose where they want to work. Dr Knight’s research is helping to prove that this style of work space can increase productivity and well-being.

We believe the transition and communication work we do with organisations is essential and it is good to know that expert professionals such as Dr Knight advocate this type of approach. Ultimately leaves staff informed and empowered, understanding the change they are going through and the reasons behind the change to benefit the whole organisation as well as the individuals within it.

We’d like to thank Clare Menzies of Ambius http://www.ambius.co.nz for our invite to the seminar. Ambius were principal sponsors of the seminar and Clare has recently provided plantscaping for our client XRB’s new office in Wellington.