by Janus Boye
Ulf Gaardsted on stage at the Boye 20 Aarhus conference presenting his reflections on how 2020 has changed the workspace for good
Even before COVID, there was a movement towards a renewed focus on how much the physical workspace matters. Not just software startups in the Bay Area, but also large, complex, global and old organisations were rethinking their office layout, asking for more flexibility and trying to cater to a less hierarchical and more entrepreneurial mindset.
To Ulf Gaardsted which has been offering co-working spaces in Aarhus since the late ’90s, this also meant new customers arriving. Traditionally small firms came to his firm Companyons for the facility sharing, community and at the end of the day the parties. Today it’s much than that and larger firms are also looking for inspiring workspaces outside their own premises.
On the Future Workplace conference track at the Boye 20 Aarhus conference, Ulf shared his take on workplace trends, 2020 learnings and his perspective on creating inspiring workspaces.
How 2020 changed the workspace
As a part of the lockdowns, government regulations and working from home during the pandemic, Ulf summarized these factors that fundamentally change the workspace as we know them:
Physical distancing
Maintaining the company culture away from the office
Zoom fatigue
Ulf also brought this interesting quote from back in June by Chelsea Perino, Managing Director of Global Marketing & Communications at The Executive Centre (TEC):
“On the one hand, people are being forced to work from home and organisations are realising they can still be productive. On the other hand, people who thought working from home would be great are now recognising that the office plays an important role, not only in terms of infrastructure but with regards to relations with co-workers.”
The Boye 20 Aarhus conference was held at Godsbanen and also included remote participation from around Europe
In a world with increased uncertainty, the smart and responsible thing to do according to Ulf is not to sign another 10 year lease on your headquarter, but rather to partner with a flexible workspace. This also brings more financial flexibility.
What’s an inspiring workspace really?
So what does this mean to the interior of offices and workspaces in the years to come? To quote from Ulf
You will to a greater extend come into the office to ‘recharge’ and be inspired, and not just to work 9 to 5
To illustrate an inspiring workspace, Ulf brought a few photos from his most modern and newest workspace - Fellow Workspace - located in the new part of Aarhus called Aarhus Ø. First he showed the lobby and shared space:
One of the meeting rooms also looks bit different than the traditional bland company headquarter meeting rooms.
You might notice on the photos the absence of modern electronics. Ulf assured that the facilities naturally also offers modern equipment to do virtual or hybrid meetings.
Reflections from an international networker
To be honest, I can say that with my focus on digital workplaces for the past 2 decades, I was slow to recognise the impact of the physical surroundings. Travelling around moderating meetings and conferences, I clearly underestimated how much it matters in terms of both energy and productivity.
I’ve done networking events, specifically peer groups and conferences, since 2004, but it’s been in the past years that I’ve seen how much it changes the game to pick unusual venues. Just last year, in 2019, we moved our conferences far away from the traditional international hotel chains and instead picked the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn and the Women’s Museum in Aarhus. This clearly had a positive impact on the learning and networking experience for the participants.
Some venues work better than others based on the task at hand, but in closing, I would remember the old adage of how the day only has 24 hours no matter what you do, but on the other hand energy is replenishable. Look for a workspace that doesn’t drain you.
Learn more about inspiring workplaces
In Scaling Design Thinking from 2017, I covered the promise of combining new ways of collaboration with design thinking to come up with important innovation. To quote from the post:
How does the ideal work environment look and feel like?
The Design at Business community has a created the Work hard – Play hard: The creative space book (free, no registration, PDF download). The book covers creative spaces inside corporate environments and comes with some great examples, including Philips, Siemens and Swisscom.
To cite from the conclusion of the book – as it relates to how creative workspaces help scale design thinking:
...the creativity that is unleashed not only allows people to build better products
and make customers happier but also to build a better company, leading to a sustainable
cycle of innovation, learning, and growth of incredible potential
In 2016, I also wrote a summary post - 10 Learnings From Digital Leaders In 2016 - where #9 was titled: The best are shaping the workplace of the future. In that chapter, you can read how I was impressed after visiting the Hamburg offices of Tesa and Philips. The post also has photos inside Philips, including an unusually charming corporate meeting space.