Characteristics Of The Best Collaborative Office Space
For years now, collaborative office spaces have helped in boosting creativity, productivity, and innovation of workers. On the other hand, creating such workspaces takes thorough consideration and proper planning. The best collaborative workspace may be elusive and since no 2 companies are the same, the workforces, cultures, core values, work processes are going to be different.
Even though, there are several studies that have been done regarding physical workspace as well as its effect on increasing productivity and collaboration. There are 2 main ingredients for this, first is to create a corporate culture that accepts collaboration and infuse those values. Second is to create physical space to be able to reinforce the values and culture.
To help you in sorting out physical options, the following are some characteristics that make a collaborative working space the perfect setting for workers.
Number 1. Variety and Flexibility
Having good collaboration isn't just about the groups of people who work side by side as it also requires introspection. This way, there'll be times when people who will come together in varied sized groups and there are instances when people need an alone time. Some people may need more of one than the other in order to be productive.
The ideal collaborative office spaces are either reconfigurable easily by drawing curtains, moving walls, rearranging furniture and the likes or configured to provide all these options in a fixed way like dedicated meeting rooms in various sizes, shared work tables or desks. Many are actually maximizing on the best of two worlds. Check out http://www.ehow.com/how_2165186_rearrange-office-space.html to know more about office space.
Open designs like these are encouraging casual collisions among people who may never typically run into each other. These moments are usually the catalyst for awesome ideas.
Number 2. Cheerful, Well Lit, Open and Comfortable
People are responding best to work in rooms that are well lit and more natural lighting comes in, the better. Actually, color schemes are predominantly energizing and cheerful, balanced with other areas that are more serene and calmer. Furniture is conducive and comfortable to the kind of collaboration expected. To give you an example, brainstorming areas are typically filled with comfortable chairs, sofa, laptop tables, cork boards, plenty of whiteboards and so forth.
Number 3. Brainstorming/Writing Space
The writable surfaces and walls are a source of creativity. Some companies even replaced their desks and walls with glass and/or whiteboards while others have used whiteboard paint on all writable surfaces like tabletops, desks, walls etc. This actually makes it easier to capture ideas and thoughts on nearest surface available. Click here to know more!