Workplace Design

If I believed in reincarnation, I think one of the professions I would check out in my next life would be architecture. More specifically, I think it would be pretty cool to design office buildings. That’s probably why articles like "Death to Cubicles!" in June’s issue of Fast Company catch my attention. Here’s an interesting finding from that article:

"Shockingly, there has been no defining Frederick Taylor-esque research on knowledge-worker productivity. But Tom Davenport, professor of management and information technology at Babson College, has tried to crack the code with a yearlong survey of workers, academics, and executives in HR, IT, and facilities planning. He found that three factors determined white-collar performance: management and organization, information technology, and workplace design. The last, he says, has a measurable effect — for good and ill."

The article also points out that Herman Miller, one of my favorite companies to watch, "is rethinking both the cubicle and the office landscape and plans to unveil new designs in the near future." Someone tell the folks at Herman Miller that I know a guy in Indiana that would love to test out their new designs.