Ted Moudis Associates’ Diana Pisone and Perkins&Will ‘s Kelly McEachern discuss designing for multiple “personas” and how to accommodate different personality types.
This article was originally published by Allwork.Space.
Most conversations around the future of work centre around the “agile working” concept. But what does “agility” mean in relation to today’s workplace environment, particularly in light of the pandemic? And how could it manifest itself 50 years from now?
Workplace design experts at Ted Moudis Associates and Perkins&Will have been evaluating agile workplace solutions that provide people of all personality types with their best chance for success. We asked them to share their insights.
Allwork.Space: Firstly, tell us about your respective firms.
Diana Pisone, LEED AP ID+C, Studio Principal-Chicago, Ted Moudis Associates: At Ted Moudis Associates, our primary goal is to create a space that will result in our clients being happier, healthier, and more productive.
We’re invested in the success of the project, not just from an aesthetic standpoint, but from a truly functional perspective.
My role is “sand”. I’m part of a very strong team and I fill in the blanks between them to round out the team as needed from project to project and client to client.
I challenge them, I encourage them, I am their advocate, I am a mentor, and I am a student. It’s important to remember that we’re always students and are always learning.
It’s that which keeps us humble and inquisitive.
Kelly McEachern, Senior Interior Project Manager/Associate, Perkins&Will, Austin Studio: At Perkins&Will, one of the largest architecture and interior firms in the world, we emphasize research, benchmarking, and data.
These are central tenets of our work, specifically in the delivery of workplace strategies.
Our firm-wide commitment to design excellence, coupled with an emphasis on research and staying informed, puts us in the top tier of the industry.
As a seasoned Corporate Interior Designer, I’ve become focused on workplace strategy consulting and serve as a regional resource for the Southern U.S. region of our practice.
I also work closely and collaborate with our firmwide workplace strategy network and partner with our various Perkins&Will studios on projects across the nation.
Allwork.Space: How have you been working over the last 12 months: moving forward, will you be returning to the office full-time or embracing hybrid work, and why?
Kelly McEachern: We implemented a firm-wide return-to-studio effort early last summer and created protocols for meeting safely in the office. Without mandating any particular quotas, we encouraged our team members to use the office as a resource by making it as accommodating and comfortable as possible during the pandemic.
We did this so as not to limit anyone who wanted or needed to use the office. We surveyed our staff and implemented a staged return based on the results.
We assigned seats to individuals interested and eager to come back to the office and provided hoteling spots for those who would be periodically stepping in, whether for meetings or simply to use office resources.
We increased the number of individuals returning to the office during the second phase, though our occupancy dropped as COVID-19 cases spiked in the fall.
We’re continuing along the same path and taking baby steps to a hybrid model.
Employees are in the office some portion of the week, and they have the flexibility to choose when and how often. We’re working through new workplace solutions and processes to set us up for success for a hybrid work model that lasts into the future.
Diana Pisone: For the past 12 months we’ve had a voluntary return to the office policy. As the vaccine rolls out, we’ve maintained this policy in respect of everyone’s personal situations.
The “agile workspace” is most simply defined by the allowance of staff to individually curate their environmental experience in a way that best promotes their work goals…what has changed post-pandemic is the understanding, acceptance, and trust of this definition.
Diana Pisone
We’ve also noticed an organic increase in staff returning to the office as our communities continue to open up. At this time, we’ve not made any formal policy changes, but we are looking forward to seeing more of our team as time progresses.
Allwork.Space: How would you define an agile workspace, and does this differ to how you would have defined it pre-pandemic?
Diana Pisone: The “agile workspace” is most simply defined by the allowance of staff to individually curate their environmental experience in a way that best promotes their work goals.
This could be sitting in an enclosed room to focus, sitting in an open office area to allow for osmosis of team activities to saturate them, or it could be working from home for whatever reason (focus time, health reasons, etc).
My definition remains the same; what has changed post-pandemic is the understanding, acceptance, and trust of this definition.
…in 50 years, I believe we’ll maintain the same core elements, but we’ll modify them to meet the new technology, the new social requirements, and the new functional requirements of work types that are yet to be created.
Diana Pisone
An important part of the design process is creating a focus group that pulls together a cross-section of the team members and encompasses people of different ages, positions, backgrounds, and experiences.
Kelly McEachern
The post The Future of Agile Workspace and Designing for Different Personality Types appeared first on Work Design Magazine.
