Is your workplace helping or hindering company culture?

First published on COMUNiTI, August 2024

How workplace strategy helps teams 'live the values'

Is your workplace helping or hindering company culture?

When I engage with new clients, I am quickly curious about their company values. Whether they are written in a strategy document, printed and hung on the walls, or just shared as a general feeling of what's important - it's crucial to for us understand whether the physical workspace drives values-aligned behaviours. 

So often we find that the office layout and design is really misaligned.

What do I mean?

When creating a new workplace we can influence people to act in a way that aligns with the organisation’s desired outcomes. I do this by introducing different types of work spaces and zoning areas to consolidate similar types of activities and environmental cues like texture and colour. This thinking is based on nudge theory, which is a behavioural science  concept that proposes we can influence the behaviours and decision-making of groups and individuals through indirect suggestions and positive reinforcement — in the world of workplace strategy, that means purposeful to changes in the work environment.

Example #1: health and wellbeing ✨

What would you expect to see if your organisation values the health and wellbeing of its employees? 

• You might see people wearing gym clothes at lunch or arriving in their cycling gear in the morning. 
• You might see people engaging in conversation in the breakout space, which builds connection and supports emotional wellbeing.
• You might see people standing at their workstations or having standing meetings, which means active movement throughout the day.

Each of these behaviours can be influenced by how the work environment is designed. For instance, going to the gym at lunch or before work means providing adequate showers and change facilities for employees. Conversations in the breakout space means that space needs to be positioned and provisioned to encourage employees to interact, communicate, and build relationships with colleagues. Employees standing at their workstations or in meetings means providing stand-up workstations and high meeting tables.

Example #2: one team ✨

Work is far less individual and a lot more collaborative and multidisciplinary these days, and we work with many organisations who espouse a ‘one team’ value. As these organisations transition to new ways of working they need to increase communication both within and across  teams and ensure that silos are dissolved. 

The challenge is that many of these silos are a product of the office environment and the construction of barriers — think dividing walls, bookcases, high-partitions, and teams across multiple floors or separated by a centre lift-core. These features contribute to the division and separation of departments, teams, and people, and definitely get in the way of ‘one team’ behaviours.

That said, we understand that some of these things are unavoidable, like team sizes requiring multi-floor buildings. However, a great workplace strategist thinks creatively and strategically about the measures that can be taken to limit the impact that the environment has on values-aligned behaviours. 

To overcome this, we might create a large, singular communal space, like a working café to  draw people off their individual floors and encourage them to engage with people from other departments. Or, we might look to incorporate a stair between levels. While it provides the same technical function as a lift — moving people from one floor to another — the visual connection with our colleagues  gets lost when we  step into that rectangular box. Introducing voids, atriums, and internal staircases creates visibility and connectivity through a building, enabling people to move between spaces and improve their awareness of teams on other floors.

Values drive behaviours - and that should drive your workplace strategy

We have some truly transformational conversations with our clients about values and behaviours, and these conversations lead to all sorts of innovative and out-of-the-box workplace designs that help improve company cultures.

If you’re keen to learn more about workplaces and their impact on culture, turn to Chapter 3 of my book The Next Workplace or get in touch with me directly.

Mel

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