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 slides?”   He said he couldn’t speak to the slides in all of the offices but that the one in San Francisco happened because in the planning discussion on connecting teams from multiple floors of their building, an employee called out “let’s have a slide”.  Working through the design process with the various stakeholders, the slide kept its supporters and ended up in the final build out.  Going farther, he said that at Google, build outs are actually never “complete”.  The people who use the spaces are continually updating and upgrading to better support the way they want to work.  The slide could be removed if there was some demand from the people working in the space but years later, the slide is still there.

So now lets step back and consider whether or not we are talking about the object that is the slide, or the process by which any design element might come into being.  Is the Google slide about sliding? Or is it about empowering employees, being responsive to their input, making them relevant, and inviting them to stay engaged?

Well in that case, maybe that particular slide is more than a slide and maybe, it isn’t really all that dumb.