Open plan is here to stay - how to cope

Open plan offices seem to be here to stay – they’ve been dominating workspace architecture for over a century. So maybe it’s time to stop moaning about the side effects of a shared open plan space and start embracing ways to make this concept work? Organisations continue to implement open office spaces aiming to encourage collaboration, enhance exposure to different types of expertise, and hoping to accelerate innovation.

Are millennials really the moaners they're made out to be?

When researching open plan offices and shared or collaborative spaces, articles abound about how difficult it is to work in a noisy workplace. Millennials, they would have us believe, find it especially difficult to cope, spending their work life managing stress levels and listening to recordings of white noise.

However if everyone in your office is wearing noise cancelling headphones, doesn’t this negate the benefits of the workplace designed for collaboration?

There are solutions

Like most things in life, there are positives and negatives to working in an open plan office. However there has to be a way to achieve the productivity benefits associated with working collaboratively without sacrificing our eardrums and our privacy.

The great news is that some smart businesses are already designing solutions for collaborative spaces that don’t sacrifice the productivity and wellbeing of those using them. Companies that have embraced these include Pixar, Facebook, and Microsoft. They enable workers to have choice and control of where they work by providing a range of settings to support multiple work modes: focused, social, learning, and collaborative.

Solutions are within our reach

And for those of us who don’t have the budget of Google, there are still affordable options. A huge floor plan isn’t essential. You can exist in smaller spaces without massive amounts of breakout rooms or fancy timeout zones full of foosball tables and yoga mats. Good quality solutions are available that are flexible and can scale to meet your changing needs. There’s also no need for an expensive retrofit of an existing space.

As some companies have learned the hard way, it’s clearly not enough just to provide a seating area in a random space and expect people to use it for collaboration. What is important is that any spaces provided are carefully considered and fit for purpose.

Four areas to consider

Following are four essential and complementary areas to consider when creating a successful collaborative environment in your workspace:

Keeping everyone happy

Although there may be some negative side effects relating to the open plan office, there are an increasing range of options available to help avoid or manage these downsides. There are plenty of examples of companies who have it right and are achieving the productivity and benefits of collaboration without any associated loss of engagement among employees. However this requires a commitment to understanding the theory behind the concept of activity based working – not just paying lip service. It also means ensuring that the acoustics in the workplace support a healthy and productive working environment. The overall office design must be fit for purpose, including all furniture and fittings.

If you can get the formula right everyone will be happy – even the Millennials.