Comments on: Workplace design and the Roslin experience http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/ building better businesses Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:09:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Ralf Lippold http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-154 Ralf Lippold Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:30:07 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-154 Hi Col, Just scanning through your post I have stumbled over this one about workspace architecture. It strongly reminded my of my own experience coming from a standard door-to-door office environment at my first and second job - not feeling too well. The reason for that was - as I have found much later- that I have the tendency to connect very strongly with people from different departments, floors and educational background on the way to sustainable solutions of challenging and complex problems. Perfectly got around this as I began to love knocking on doors, having a small chat while on the search for solutions (for which one had to find the problem first - sometimes). During the big (for European means) flood in Dresden in 2002 I was working in the help organization where we worked in a callcenter on two floors (one room on each) with about 10-15 people in each room hanging on the phone, pinning down information on oversized flipcharts, talking across the room, exchanging gossip on where help was needed and alike. I loved it:-)) That was exactly where my boundary-spanner tendency could be put to use to full degree. Of course it was just a temporary work place and soon as the problems were over, the water back in the river bed, normal offices took over the left over work. The others -including myself- were off to new work fields. It happened to be that BMW had started building the new plant in Leipzig and I joined them. It was a great time and the main building -where I worked for almost three years- has made the same impression as the little messy rooms during the 2002 flood. It is an openspace office meant to be workspace for about 700 without any closed office. Even the plant manager himself is sitting amongst the other workforce and is reachable by everybody -if wished. Getting the collective knowledge in such workspaces on the table is much easier than in closed offices as you can sense if there are any problems arising as soon as you see people gathering around. And yet it is a long way to make people secure of exchanging knowledge across the formerly existing boundaries and work together collaborately. These are my thoughts that just have come across my mind. Cheers Ralf Hi Col,

Just scanning through your post I have stumbled over this one about workspace architecture. It strongly reminded my of my own experience coming from a standard door-to-door office environment at my first and second job – not feeling too well. The reason for that was – as I have found much later- that I have the tendency to connect very strongly with people from different departments, floors and educational background on the way to sustainable solutions of challenging and complex problems. Perfectly got around this as I began to love knocking on doors, having a small chat while on the search for solutions (for which one had to find the problem first – sometimes).

During the big (for European means) flood in Dresden in 2002 I was working in the help organization where we worked in a callcenter on two floors (one room on each) with about 10-15 people in each room hanging on the phone, pinning down information on oversized flipcharts, talking across the room, exchanging gossip on where help was needed and alike.

I loved it:-)) That was exactly where my boundary-spanner tendency could be put to use to full degree. Of course it was just a temporary work place and soon as the problems were over, the water back in the river bed, normal offices took over the left over work. The others -including myself- were off to new work fields.

It happened to be that BMW had started building the new plant in Leipzig and I joined them. It was a great time and the main building -where I worked for almost three years- has made the same impression as the little messy rooms during the 2002 flood. It is an openspace office meant to be workspace for about 700 without any closed office. Even the plant manager himself is sitting amongst the other workforce and is reachable by everybody -if wished.

Getting the collective knowledge in such workspaces on the table is much easier than in closed offices as you can sense if there are any problems arising as soon as you see people gathering around. And yet it is a long way to make people secure of exchanging knowledge across the formerly existing boundaries and work together collaborately.

These are my thoughts that just have come across my mind.

Cheers

Ralf

]]> By: Work Happy Now! » Put People in a Design-Friendly Atmosphere to Inspire Excellent Work http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-70 Work Happy Now! » Put People in a Design-Friendly Atmosphere to Inspire Excellent Work Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:56:01 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-70 [...] read an article from Egro Consulting blog and it reinforced my [...] [...] read an article from Egro Consulting blog and it reinforced my [...]

]]> By: Mohan http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Mohan Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:28:18 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-46 Having recently joined the Ergo team I can affirm what a good work space does to one's approach, not just to work, but to life. I've worked in many workplaces on four continents. When I walked into Ergo's Roslin, I said "wow". In many ways the awesomely renovated heritage building is so much in keeping with the Ergo heritage of family and openness, of equality and respect. The other thing about Roslin is that no one working there makes a claim to any one space as their own - its first come best dressed. Thus, the whole of Roslin becomes "my space"! I think thats cool. In fact, two of the people I've brought to Roslin recently said, "that office has good energy". I agree. Look forward to more "transformational" experiences and "regeneration" at Roslin! Great move Col! Having recently joined the Ergo team I can affirm what a good work space does to one’s approach, not just to work, but to life. I’ve worked in many workplaces on four continents. When I walked into Ergo’s Roslin, I said “wow”. In many ways the awesomely renovated heritage building is so much in keeping with the Ergo heritage of family and openness, of equality and respect. The other thing about Roslin is that no one working there makes a claim to any one space as their own – its first come best dressed. Thus, the whole of Roslin becomes “my space”! I think thats cool. In fact, two of the people I’ve brought to Roslin recently said, “that office has good energy”. I agree. Look forward to more “transformational” experiences and “regeneration” at Roslin!
Great move Col!

]]> By: Chris http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-45 Chris Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:36:18 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-45 As an Ergo employee I have spent all but 2 weeks of my soon to be 4 years in the company, on site with one of our larger clients. My desk, chair and surrounding space ooze traditional large corporate business environment. To call it dull is an understatement but is it also affecting my performance? Recently I attended a meeting in Roslin as I have regularly done since the office move. This time around my meeting was cut short and after an unexpected phone call my plans for the rest of the afternoon changed. I now found myself with a decent chunk of time to kill before finishing up for the day but it was not enough to make my way back to my boring pod in my traditional office. I claimed some space in the open airy hot desk room, connected my laptop to the awaiting stylish flat screens and got working. An hour later I was surprised to see how well the functional, hot desk concept worked, I had been productive and I had also enjoyed the excellent environment that Roslin has to offer. Was it just the charm of novelty that made the moment, was it just a fluke that I ended up being productive beyond the usual? I don't know but maybe my next meeting will also be cut short and I will find out. As an Ergo employee I have spent all but 2 weeks of my soon to be 4 years in the company, on site with one of our larger clients. My desk, chair and surrounding space ooze traditional large corporate business environment. To call it dull is an understatement but is it also affecting my performance?
Recently I attended a meeting in Roslin as I have regularly done since the office move. This time around my meeting was cut short and after an unexpected phone call my plans for the rest of the afternoon changed. I now found myself with a decent chunk of time to kill before finishing up for the day but it was not enough to make my way back to my boring pod in my traditional office.
I claimed some space in the open airy hot desk room, connected my laptop to the awaiting stylish flat screens and got working. An hour later I was surprised to see how well the functional, hot desk concept worked, I had been productive and I had also enjoyed the excellent environment that Roslin has to offer.
Was it just the charm of novelty that made the moment, was it just a fluke that I ended up being productive beyond the usual?
I don’t know but maybe my next meeting will also be cut short and I will find out.

]]> By: Col http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-42 Col Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:15:40 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-42 Trevor, I think you infer a good point about the office environment including the electronic workspace. Some of us at Ergo would love to move to MacBooks but are struggling to justify it due to our investment and dependance on Exchange Server and MS Portal for our internal collaboration and document management. At the end of the day, we all need to make wise decisions about the investment in the work environement and the point is well made that it will look different for each company. Trevor, I think you infer a good point about the office environment including the electronic workspace. Some of us at Ergo would love to move to MacBooks but are struggling to justify it due to our investment and dependance on Exchange Server and MS Portal for our internal collaboration and document management. At the end of the day, we all need to make wise decisions about the investment in the work environement and the point is well made that it will look different for each company.

]]> By: Trevor Thomas http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-41 Trevor Thomas Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:05:44 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-41 I'm loving the blog. I think the issue of beautiful spaces seems to be more important at the creative/ intangible end of the spectrum and functional spaces help drive good work habits and satisfaction at the more prosaic end – like asset management. We spent quite a bit on functional, purpose built furniture to refit our light but boxy office so that we could accommodate a couple of extra bodies, and upgraded the network to new iMacs for about half again. This saved a lot of moving expense and lifted morale and efficiency – but no-one would mistake our office for Roslin. Keep up the good work. I’m loving the blog.

I think the issue of beautiful spaces seems to be more important at the creative/ intangible end of the spectrum and functional spaces help drive good work habits and satisfaction at the more prosaic end – like asset management.

We spent quite a bit on functional, purpose built furniture to refit our light but boxy office so that we could accommodate a couple of extra bodies, and upgraded the network to new iMacs for about half again. This saved a lot of moving expense and lifted morale and efficiency – but no-one would mistake our office for Roslin.

Keep up the good work.

]]> By: karl Staib - Your Work Happiness Matters http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-40 karl Staib - Your Work Happiness Matters Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:16:19 +0000 http://www.ergoconsulting.com.au/workplace-design-and-the-roslin-experience/#comment-40 My work is filled with beige cubicles. It isn't an environment that induces calm or joy. I don't think companies thought the work environment mattered that much. I'm in the work happy business and things are changing. Albeit things are changing slowly, they are improving. Hopefully articles like this will bring people's awareness to the work environment. Great post! My work is filled with beige cubicles. It isn’t an environment that induces calm or joy. I don’t think companies thought the work environment mattered that much. I’m in the work happy business and things are changing. Albeit things are changing slowly, they are improving. Hopefully articles like this will bring people’s awareness to the work environment.

Great post!

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