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Hierarchy of start ups, architects, and furniture

The conversation went something like this: me: We may need to fill in with some furniture from Ikea to hit the budget. Client: Ha!  I am hoping to upgrade to Ikea! I laughed because sometimes, that is just so true!  When you are in start up survival mode as a business, you are at the bottom levels of Maslow’s hierarchy.  You can’t really afford to care about looks and if you hire an architect to help with your space, it is only because you have chosen a business or space where by law you have to have a permit.  Your […]

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And the Survey Says….

Research shows that people are better at conceptual thinking under high ceilings and better at decision making and execution under lower ceilings.  Think furniture stores where you can imagine your entire house with new furniture under high ceilings and then are guided to a counter under dropped lights or lowered ceiling alcove to select the fabric for the sofa and sign the purchase agreement.  What does that mean for office design?  Different job descriptions? Different tasks? Different departments? Research shows that you are significantly more likely to launch a social relationship with a stranger each time that you run into […]

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When a Slide is More than a Slide

I work with a variety of companies, helping them negotiate the changing physical landscape of today’s workspace.  With my more conservative clients, it is almost predictable that at some point in the process someone will bring up the slide at Google’s offices.  It is something that they use to illustrate the excesses of the new “play at work” landscape, something that is a perfect illustration of dumb design trends and definitely something that they do not want.  No slides. This week I had the opportunity to talk to a senior level Googler and asked, ” so, what is with the […]

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More Flies with Honey than Vinegar

I have seen a number of interesting discussions debating employee freedom vs the importance of building an office culture through proximity.  What bothers me about that is the “vs” part….why not both?  The basic assumption of the “vs” argument is that if you want proximity you have to force it and that just isn’t true.  Retail and Hospitality have long used the physical space and programming to draw people to them.  As the freedom of choosing when and where to work moves from employer to employee, the design of offices need to focus on providing the amenities, look, and feel […]

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Darth Vader or Dragons? Leadership in the Networked Age

  This diagram was drawn by Paul Baran and his team at the Rand Corporation in the mid 1960’s.  It was used to illustrate the idea of a  communications system that would survive in the case of damage from a nuclear war.  This diagram and the resultant technology became the architecture of the internet as we know it today. There is more to the story of course but what fascinates me about this image is the number of times I have seen it in business books and articles recently.  The diagram on the left is the old centralized business organization. […]

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Hero’s Quest

There are three main kinds of hero myths found in cultures around the world.  The first has the hero  following something, an animal or light or wisp, and as time goes on, the hero finds themselves in an unfamiliar place.  The wisp that they were following turns into a fairy queen or some other being that then demands some action in exchange for some benefit.  The second hero’s story has the hero choosing to take on a heroic task.  The hero knows that the journey will be long and difficult.  They know that they may not win or even survive […]

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Juicy Conference on Coworking

I am just leaving Austin where I spent the last two days at GCUC the Global Coworking Unconference (pronounced “juicy”).  The first day consisted of a series of panels populated by 45 people from all over the world with representation ranging from researcher to corporate leader to freelancer to real estate.  The audience consisted of bearded hippies, suits and ties, tech geeks, real estate professionals, coworking space owners, with a huge range of ages 16 to 67, all gathered to discuss the coworking phenomenon, and it is a phenomenon! The first coworking space launched in San Francisco in 2005.  It […]

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Creating Community

A couple of years ago Regus began telling the story of how they had actually launched coworking through their worldwide proliferation of executive suite options.  The coworking community rose up and loudly rejected this version of history.  In the mainstream media this played out like a clash of younger and older generations but it runs deeper than that.  Both Regus and coworking spaces rent desks by the day or month. Both can offer the same equipment, facilities, and amenities, but at its heart what great coworking spaces are actually selling is not the desk space, it is community.  This might […]

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Yet another post about The Yahoo Event

Everyone is all a buzz with the news of Yahoo’s HR head Marissa Mayer telling all of their telework employees to return to the office or find another job. The Yahoo Event, as I like to call it after all of the attention it has gotten, is quite likely primarily a management issue and not a commentary on the entire history and future of working remotely.  The pundits are all over the place with their opinions on whether this is the end of an era or a huge mistake, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  In the best performing […]

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Coworking: The New Normal?

You are probably aware of the exponential growth in solo and micropreneurs.  Technology, the economic downturn, and Gen Y philosophies are turning everyone into an entrepreneur of sorts.  We are all running our own businesses or careers, working on “brand you”, building our own networks, and creating our own path forward.  The most extreme example of this is the Blueseed project, a cruise ship that is being retrofitted into offices.  It will float 12 miles off the coast of Silicon Valley in international waters and provide those entrepreneurs without work visas the opportunity to live in San Francisco (on a […]

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Copyright © 2013 Kristine Woolsey. All Rights Reserved.