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Rethinking Design Brief
- 1. #1 Rethinking the Design Brief: Creative Solutions for the Dynamic Environment Moderator: Susan Wagner, Microsoft Speakers: Brian Szpakowski, Broadway Malyan Neil Usher, Rio Tinto Nigel Oseland, Workplace Unlimited #rethinkbrief
- 2. Session programme #rethinkbrief • Introductions (5 mins) • Pecha kucha x 3 (20 mins) • Q&A – points of clarification (10 mins) • Workshop task (20 mins) • Workshop presentations (20 mins) • Final remarks (15 mins) #rethinkbrief 2
- 3. Designing for happiness Brian Szpakowski b.szpakowski@broadwaymalyan.com @Brian_Szp #rethinkbrief 3
- 23. fin.
- 24. Designing for personal development and growth Neil Usher neil.usher@riotinto.com @theatreacle #rethinkbrief 24
- 25. Designing for psychological & personal factors (fact or fairy tale) Nigel Oseland oseland@workplaceunlimited.com @oseland #rethinkbrief 25
- 26. Workplace evolution Three Little Pigs Psychological & Personal Factors 26
- 27. Psychological theories Alice in Wonderland Psychological & Personal Factors 27
- 28. Personality theory Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Psychological & Personal Factors 28
- 29. Locus of control Rapunzel Psychological & Personal Factors 29
- 30. Arousal theory Sleeping Beauty Psychological & Personal Factors 30
- 31. Arousal, personality and task Jack and Jill Jack and Jill Psychological & Personal Factors 31
- 32. Hierarchy of needs Princess and the Pea Psychological & Personal Factors 32
- 33. Two factor theory PrincessWonderland Alice in and the Pea Psychological & Personal Factors 33
- 34. State of flow Rumpelstiltskin Psychological & Personal Factors 34
- 35. Behavioural settings Cinderella Psychological & Personal Factors 35
- 36. Proxemic framework Goldilocks and the Three Bears Psychological & Personal Factors 36
- 37. Dialectic and dynamic privacy The Emperor's New Clothes Psychological & Personal Factors 37
- 38. Territoriality and personalisation The Emperor's New Clothes Little Red Riding Hood Psychological & Personal Factors 38
- 39. Cognitive maps Hansel and Gretel Psychological & Personal Factors 39
- 40. Evolutionary psychology The Ugly Duckling Psychological & Personal Factors 40
- 41. Biophelia Mary Mary Quite Contrary Psychological & Personal Factors 41
- 42. Social animals Tales of Arabian Nights Psychological & Personal Factors 42
- 43. Dunbar’s number Alice in Wonderland Psychological & Personal Factors 43
- 44. Choice Alice in Wonderland Little Mermaid Psychological & Personal Factors 44
- 45. Nature Alice in Wonderland Babes in the Wood Psychological & Personal Factors 45
- 46. Workshop task (20 mins) • Discuss the briefing points raised in the pecha kucha presentations • Prepare a 3 minute presentation of your response to the PKs • Use the workshop materials to illustrate your response to the presentations • Focus your response on either the building, internal space, furniture, people or role etc #rethinkbrief 46
- 47. #1 Rethinking the Design Brief: Creative Solutions for the Dynamic Environment Moderator: Susan Wagner, Microsoft Speakers: Brian Szpakowski, Broadway Malyan Neil Usher, Rio Tinto Nigel Oseland, Workplace Unlimited #rethinkbrief
Notes de l'éditeur
- In one of Nigel Oseland’s presentations recently he made the point that ‘no child says when they grow up they want to work in an office.’ But most nights when I go home there are mothers and fathers with their little children on the bridge at the station there to watch the trains go by. And these kids would like nothing more than to get on one of those trains, and get whisked away somewhere, or even just go back and forth, not really going anywhere.
- If you took these kids and said ‘would you like to take a train ride every day?’ you can guess what they would say. And what if you added, you can go to a place on the train where you will see a load of your friends, you can play most of the day, you can eat all kinds of food, you can get dressed up, and so on, what do you think they would say?
- A lot of days, I feel the same…work is an adventure…but there are also a lot of days when work is just a grind. And I have a great job that I love.So I have become interested in how and why at some point ‘play’ becomes ‘work’ and what the difference is between the two. It is not a question of being fun, because anyone who has spent a lot of time on a playground knows that play isn’t always fun. It is also competitive and can be painful. It is challenging and there are lots of egos and different personalities at work. So its not ‘fun’, and it is not that you can do whatever you want, because in fact play is usually quite a structured activity with its own rules and logic.
- We usually think of work as scheduled, structured, and linked to time. We think of play as being spontaneous, relatively un-structured, and not necessarily linked to time. In terms of design, if we look at the language of what a typical design brief , we have words like ‘efficiency use of space, space standards, area per person, with goals like support an increase in productivity…and so on.
- Usually when I receive a brief from a client, if they have done some work before I came on board, I am presented with a ‘schedule of areas’, a generic excel spreadsheet specifying 200 of this and 1200 of that, 3 of these per 100 of those etc. I also may get some corporate brand information, maybe some RAL colours, some workplace standards. There is very little that is aspirational in all of this. The language is strictly utilitarian. The brief is a ‘serious’ document’ related to ‘the business case’ and all judged by effect on ‘the bottom line’…
- The world of work is changing so rapidly, with informal networks and loss of hierarchy, and much more self governing of what you do, when and how you do it, and who you do it with, that renders the idea of a static schedule of areas virtually meaningless.We all need to be more open minded about what the workplace is and may possibly become. It has been postulated that the age of the office building will soon be over. As dispersed and flexible working becomes the norm for a lot of us in the knowledge economy, the office that used to be a place of production becomes something else.
- So what if the offices primary goal was no longer to support work? What would it be and what value would it be to the corporation or the system?Instead of trying to find ways of getting the workplace to support various tasks people need to perform to do their job - I propose that the office should become a place where an organisation supports people in the things that make them happy.
- Forget about enabling work processes. At a time when work can and is performed anywhere, a lot of us are questioning seriously what an office is for. But the language of the typical brief needs to change from task and efficiency metrics to one of happiness and play, leading ultimately to increased personal fulfilment. It really should be all about the individuals personal and social needs…
- And maybe that’s the key to the workplace, forget about the word work altogether, don’t even focus on facilitating work…and certainly don’t try and disguise the activity of work as being something fun. Make the office a place for people to go when they are not working, or at least not working part of the time then they are there. The office could be somewhere you go when you want to talk to people, when you want to be inspired, when you want to be invigorated or challenged, when you want to be with friends or be part of a community. When you want to be somewhere you care about and somewhere that cares about you a bit.
- I would argue that the office design brief needs words in it like comfort, beauty, sharing, friendship, community, and most importantly happiness. And these things shouldn’t be tacked on at the end but should be the primary focus…the overarching goal of the entire design team. We need to overcome our fear of talking seriously about happiness and the pleasure we can get beauty.Leys not forget that children loved to play at working, pretending to be running a post office or a grocery store. We like to be busy, we like to be active…people are not lazy and using happiness as a success factor in office design is not as crazy as it sounds.
- Injuries heal faster when people are happy…they are healthier, and experiments show happy people perform task better, more effectively. So surely the design brief should pay attention to trying to influence, even in a small way, the happiness of office occupants.
- Slacking versus IdlenessAnd for work to be a place of happiness does not mean it is a place for doing nothing. It is important to understand the distinction between Idleness and Slacking. Slacking is hiding in the supply cupboard or perusing ebay pretending to be at work. Slacking is avoiding work and there is no joy in it. It is avoidance of work without pleasure.
- Idleness on the other hand, is as described by Aristotle the ‘cultivation of the most divine element in us through the exercise of leisure’…Idleness is in fact a ‘productive’ activity, vigorous and purposeful but not directed solely at achieving some quantifiable goal of production or efficiency. Idleness is all about openness and joy.
- So let the workplace celebrate idleness. Let people get on with their work by all means, but also enable their idle pursuits. It will make them happier and ultimately more productive.Let the design brief have words in it like ‘Adventure’, Integrity, fulfilment’…aspire to a place that enriches us with its beauty, challenges us, surprises us. Create a place that embraces us, a community that is a place of joy and play.
- Then we will be happy to leave our shopping malls and coffee shops, our home offices and lonely on-line existence and come together as the social animals we are, in a shared setting that used to be called the office but maybe will need a new name…Any suggestions?
- Happiness is spiritual, individual, and difficult to even describe.. It is also subjective and ephemeral. Personal happiness is something to aspire to. What about national happiness or even company or organisational happiness? Can well being be measured? The Kingdom of Bhutan has pursued a goal of Gross National Happiness since 1972. Western leaders are now looking beyond traditional indexes of economic well being and turning to ways of measuring happiness.
- David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, and BarackObama all subscribe to the notion that measuring a nations well being by economic output is a dead end, and all three are looking at national policies to measure happiness.The past 30 years have seen a major scientific revolution and we now know much more about what contributes to happiness using results of psychology and neuroscience.
- Well being can be measured by quality of our surroundings, quality of our culture and the strength of our relationships. One of the great but unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment, the quality of the walls, buildings, chairs and streets we are surrounded with. Yet a concern for beauty in office design is perceived as being frivolous and self indulgent.
- But WHERE we are heavily influences WHO we can be. You are a different person at home, in a shop, or in the office.What is a beautiful environment, what kind of place makes you happy? Makes you smile?
- So we should be serious about different ways of creating the brief, consider very carefully the language we use and what outcomes we would like to encourage. Focusing on the myriad of ways people get together to play, to enjoy themselves, to find pleasure…and looking at things we can provide in the workplace to support this. It could be the smell of fresh baked bread, a shared vegetable garden, bringing pets to work with us. So don’t be afraid of looking at familiar things in a new way, or to experiment. It is the only way to evolve and who knows, it might even be fun.
- People are a businesses best asset and if the people don’t perform well then the business won’t survive. Traditionally CRE executivesfocus on space and cost efficiency rather than designing for psychological and personal factors to enhance individual performance. This may mean workplace design is evolving using the wrong success criteria.
- Psychology is the study of mental processes and human behaviour. Environmental psychology explores the interrelationship between people and their environment. Evolutionary psychology are interested in how our innate human behaviour and psychological process have evolved to aid our survival and well being.
- Eysenk’s classification of people as introvert/extrovert is the fundamental personality theoryExtroverts are thrill seekers who require stimulation, prefer to socialise and get easily distracted when working aloneIn contrast introverts prefer the quiet life and solitary activities and get distracted by noise and commotion
- Another personality theory refers to people having an internal or external locus of control. Internals believe their behaviour is governed by their own decisions and are likely to be self-motivated.Externals believe their actions are governed mostly by external influences and require more supervision.
- Arousal theory states there is an inverted U shape relationship between the level of arousal and performancePeople generally perform better if they are stimulated (which increases their level of arousal)Too much stimulation can lead to stress and thus reduce performance.Too little stimulation results in low arousal, boredom and poor performanceNeed optimal level of arousal to perform to maximum capability
- Arousal theory is a meta theory that reoccurs in many psychological theoriesExtroverts have a low level of arousal so need stimulation whereas introverts have a natural high level of arousal so prefer serenityComplex and difficult tasks also increase arousal so are better done in calmer environmentsRepetitive tasks require more stimulating environments (or introverts)
- Maslow’s proposed that people have a tier of needs that have to be met in turn before they can reach their maximum performanceThe lower order needs relate to basic building functions such as safety and comfort whereas the higher order needs relate to organisational factors.In many building the occupants are not satisfied with basic factors such as temperature, noise, privacy and ventilation.
- In his Two Factor Theory, Herzberg postulates that organisational factors (such as recognition, responsibility and reward) motivate people to perform better.In contrast poor hygiene factors or working conditions lead to dissatisfaction and reduced performance.Like with Maslow, if basic comfort conditions (like temperature and noise) aren’t met then superficial changes like layout and colour will have little impact on performance.
- There has been much research linking the impact of noise on arousal and performance.Other research by Demarco and Lister showed that it takes 15 minutes to achieve a state of deep concentration, which they called “flow”.After each distraction it can take 15 minutes to reach maximum concentration.
- Environmental psychologists believe that how we behave in a place is a function of the environment and our personality. Behaviour is affected by our experience and expectations of a place as much as the physical aspects.Behavioural settings is where a pre-conceived notion of a place affects our behaviour in it, eg churches
- In his Proxemic Framework, Hall estimated the preferred distances between people interacting in different social contexts.Personal distance is considered around 1.2 m but social or business distances are higher.Proxemics is affected by culture and personality.
- Altman conceptualised privacy as a dialectic and dynamic process for controlling interaction with others.Not achieving the desired level of privacy leads to discomfort and stress whereas too much privacy results in social isolation.People will use physical and behavioural barriers to control privacy.
- Territoriality is common behaviour in many animals. Personalisation may be considered as marking territory and taking ownership of the space.Environmental Psychologists say territoriality is a coping mechanism for controlling the level of interaction with others. Others argue that personalisation is fundamental to self-identity, partly innate and partly learned behaviour.
- Another theory related to space is that of cognitive maps – the psychological process for recalling the relative location of everyday objects in space.We tend to use boundaries, landmarks, nodes and colour to navigate rather than names.Should be reflected in finding way around large complex buildings.
- Homo sapiens have been around for half a million years but we have only worked in offices for just over 100 years.Evolutionary psychologists would say we our psychological processes have evolved to adapt to living in the African Savannah rather than work in the modern office – gloomy, unstimulating, dense, noisy, air-con.
- Our evolved affinity with nature means that people like daylight, natural ventilation, a connection to the outside world, greenery, and a clear vista.Some evolutionary psychologists argue that people feel refreshed and perform better after sitting in a natural environment because nature provides asetting for “non-taxing involuntary attention”.
- As social animals we have a sense of community and equity, we naturally take care of our the young and ill and we require a sense of belonging.We seek places for social gatherings where we can share stories and food – the hearth mentalityQuite often the social spaces are the first to disappear in an office
- After correlating the neocortex size of primates with their social group size, Robin Dunbar estimated that the social network of humans is limited to 150 people. His estimate has been backed up with the average size of Roman maniples, African Village, Christmas card lists. Amish and Facebook. At Gore (Goretex), once a factory gets to 150 people in size they split it in two.Yet we design large flooplates with 600 or so desks on them.
- In summary, the psychological theories highlight that we require a range of different environments depending on our personality and activity.In the modern office this means offering a choice of places to work with different ambient conditions and facilities – stimulating/busy/social areas and quiet/contemplative/serene areas.
- Another recurring theme is the link to nature - providing workplaces with good daylight, views out, landscaping and planting, natural ventilation, low ambient noise, wayfinding using landmarks, and a floorplate on a human scale.