Forward Focus — from Virus Centric to Human Centric

While many believed that the incidents of the year 2020 would follow a mostly forward moving trajectory as the world progressively healed, it soon became apparent that it wouldn’t be that linear. This year — and likely beyond — will be characterised by an ever evolving, unpredictable new normal as we co-exist with a virus that has affected all parts of the world and most industries. When the pandemic first hit, the term ‘new normal’ reflected something that was commonly considered a resting place. This perception has now changed. The global community is starting to acknowledge that we are in for the ‘Covid long haul’ and not just an episode of 12–16 months and therefore, the term ‘new normal’ deserves re-evaluation. This is a time of constant change as we prototype our way through and organisations adjust their lens from a ‘virus’ focus to a ‘human’ one. The ‘new normal’ is here but it is also important to note, there is nothing static about it.

Making it work — Pandemic/Virus focused solutions:

The period of May to September 2020 was a period of rapid prototyping and learning. A time of pandemic/virus focused solutions. I addressed this in my previous articles ‘The Covid Design Effect’ and ‘Where to from here? Prototyping our way to the new post COVID-19 normal’. It was a time when organisations were focused on how they might provide safe workplaces as they responded to the immediate evolving needs and behavioural changes of their organisation. They needed to stay afloat. Transformation was for immediate survival. We found that organisations began to welcome and encourage conversation and greater collaboration with design. This was no surprise as design, with its human centric approach, focuses on the most crucial element of ‘work’… humans.

Designers tend to approach problems or challenges holistically and as the focus begins to become a human centric one during Covid, design starts to matter even more. I have noticed over the most recent years that HR have occupied a more permanent seat at the table when it comes to discussing ‘space’. This has certainly been evident during the pandemic. Space and ‘wellbeing’ has become even more complex as ‘being together’ triggers differing levels of anxiety for talent.

Taking a satellite view:

As designers, I believe we can best do our work by listening to users and their experience and needs. But we need to go beyond this. If we stay in the world of the ‘status quo’ — often brought to life by a plethora of anecdotes, we stay focused on the ‘now’ and think very little about the ‘near’ and ‘far’. It is crucial — especially during times of uncertainty — to effectively utilise the data we receive; from dedicated research reports to daily news insights and the multitude of scientific input out there projecting future possibilities. When we do this, we start to take a satellite view. This distance allows for us to identify and give meaning to early signals of long term trends and dynamics. Taking these current and projected view points allows for us to go from the micro (anecdotes) to the macro (synthesis). Once we have the insights, data and information, it is from the satellite view that we can identify emerging trends, navigate and move forward from an informed, future focused stand point.

Emerging trends — from Virus Centric to Human Centric Solutions

During these times of great uncertainty and unknown, we need to start to ask some questions. It’s easy to design virus centric solutions to get us back to work but, as we continue to co-exist with Covid -19, we need to revert our focus to more human centric solutions. Virus centric solutions allow companies to stay afloat. Human centric solutions will enable them to stay relevant. How might we provide performance workspaces responding to the new emerging transformative themes that become increasingly relevant for the future of businesses, teams and individuals? No one can deny that 2020 has seen a lot of change. During this year, I have seen some emerging trends that organisations will be facing now and into the future. These very much indicate the need for organisations to change their focus from being Virus centric to more Human centric. The promising news is that I see some organisations recognising and acknowledging these trends. They see the need for change and they are taking action. Some of the mentioned trends include:

• Spatial Flexibility: As change continues, the certainty of a long term lease has begun to lack its lustre. I’m sure most people have heard of companies that are contemplating the possibility of ‘giving up’ full floors of office space due to increased adoption of remote working. On the flip side, countries such as India and China are investigating increasing their footprint driven by the rapid need for more space for the future scale of transformation. Not only will the commercial real estate market need to get ready for this, organisations will too. As flexibility in lease contracts becomes important, the hardware (and fit-out) will need to be flexible too. Instead of rows and rows of connected workstations, organisations are now seeing the value in flexible hardware options. Hardware that can easily move around on the floor plan, adapt to different environments and circumstances — eventually enabling organisations to keep their mobile fit-out throughout a multitude of spaces.
• Palette of performing space: While working from home was always in the ‘background’ for many organisations, Covid-19 has certainly moved it to center stage — resulting in more choice and flexibility over time and location. Some workers might be physically present in the office five days a week, and others only a few days depending on tasks and/or roles. We will see greater adoption of ‘flexibility’ as companies start to consider a more diverse palette of ‘high performing space’ options. With this increased flexibility comes a great deal of complexity. How do teams and the organisation as a whole stay connected? Organisations will be faced with the challenge of building culture and maintaining a social fabric amongst all of the flexibility and choice given to the individual. The use of space will need to be intentional. The challenge of finding a balance between collaboration and individual work will be real and ‘space’ can certainly be an enabler.
• Holistic Wellbeing — Wellbeing has always been an organisational consideration but over the last 6 months, it has moved further into the spotlight. When the pandemic first hit, the focus was more about ‘safety’ but now, as we start to take a business continuity focus, ‘wellbeing’ has started to rise to the surface. This will come to life with the adoption of a broader focus from purely physical, to include emotional and cognitive wellbeing. A change for the organisation, the team and the individual and…all within the constraints of space and budget.
• Culture, collaboration and comfort in a digital world: In theory, a great performance space that fosters collaboration and facilitates collective ‘deep dive’ sessions — all while stimulating our cognitive abilities to enable ultimate focus — is the perfect tool to prototype complex matters. However, not everyone and every situation allows for such an environment — not to mention incorporates the unavoidable integration of the ‘digital element’. Becoming fluent with ‘digital elements’ holds another competitive edge for organisations. Over the last year, we have seen significant and impressive improvement in many digital tools with the almost weekly release of easy to use new features. The challenge however, lies in the adoption of these tools. In the learning and unlearning. Eradicating old habits and adopting new ones. I have heard repeatedly from many senior leaders across industries that collaborative sessions centred around complex matters — such as strategy — are harder or impossible when executed remotely or using ‘new digital tools’. While at the same time, we are witness to countless teams across the globe doing the above mentioned ‘impossible’ with great success. For years global teams have effectively connected using tools such as Mural or Miro. It worked well but in its niche. As remote working truly develops, these tools have come out of their niche and entered the mainstream while concurrently new tools are entering the market. The result? A new kind of competition. The winner? Those organisations who embrace the change, adopt, learn and implement the technology in the best way.

The move to a business continuity focus:

As Covid-19 continues to be a challenge, organisations will need to start to shift their focus from how do we make this work in the ‘now’, to how do we stay relevant in the ‘near’ and ‘far’. Organisations will now need to approach the future with a business continuity focus as they face the fact that this pandemic may well be here to stay for some time yet. While these questions obviously infect an organisation’s core business, mission and vision, sooner or later, they will also become a part of spatial planning too.

The future period of rapid, ongoing transformation will require workers to be focused and able perform at their best. It will then be up to organisations to provide the environments and processes to support them. ‘Space’ is a core part of enabling performance for not only existing teams and individuals but for future talent as organisations use space to become an ‘employer of choice’. In all areas, the office space will play a crucial role going forward. Perhaps more than ever before.

Embracing Change — the only way forward:

As the external threat of Covid stabilises and organisations/individuals learn how to deal with it, the internal transformation journey for organisations will continue. Not many periods in history have allowed for such sweeping re-inventions of broken systems at such scale.

From governmental to organisational change, the need for adaptation and reinvention was never so well understood and (depending on the industry), visible. Those that embrace this change may well find that this time of uncomfortable transformation is what sets them ahead in terms of performance and attracting talent. A chance unlike any other time in history for organisations to fix/reinvent broken systems, hardware, processes and procedures (and on a global scale). We see this come to life from a space perspective in several ways. The size of the space that organisations inhibit may reduce and the use of the space transform to one that mostly supports collaboration and (safe) connection. We know that space shapes behaviour and behaviour becomes culture and so can therefore assume that embracing change should start with embracing space.

As the journey continues, organisations that look at the opportunities that compliment embracing and riding change will be the ones that prosper. This is no longer a time to focus solely on solving the problem of the pandemic. Now is the time to stand back, look at what we have learnt and where we now have the opportunity to change.