How ‘Go to Offices!’ became ‘Go to Guys!’
Traditionally within an industry work spaces shared styles and designs! That was a message sent through their choice of furniture and colors. This was prevalent when offices and factories were more closely connected so offices needed to stand up to the grime their team trailed into their offices. Today most offices exist in a sea of other offices and the workers would be hard pressed to name a factory nearby. If their business is factory dependent that plant is probably on another continent. But it continues to be important to have a signature work space design related to your primary industry and your core income because it helps your team keep their priorities clear.
When workers get busy with the busy work and forget about the central purpose less time is devoted to the important tasks that yield significant benefits.
These days the main place that we see signature designs are on websites and stationary; ‘build it yourself’ websites and publishing programs designate designs by their industry. If you run a plant nursery there is a host of website and stationary designs for that. While work space designs within the professions have a distinct signature, we all know what a doctor or lawyer’s office should look like; business spaces have become increasing androgynous. That makes it difficult to instill a sense of shared purpose and unique value in the team. Even the lowest level worker benefits from feeling connected to something significant and unique, to be able to say ‘I’m part of the company that makes that product that you use’. The correct work environment reminds them of that connection and keeps them on track.
Before computers took over the workplace information was managed in low tech ways, paper and files, rolodexes and directories, mail rooms and messengers. Of course these tools still exist, but more information goes through email and websites, servers and thumb drives, social media and smart phones. At that time companies didn’t have ‘go to guys’; they had 'go to offices'. Every job was based on its location because the sheer weight and volume of the paper files meant that it had to be kept someplace. When you needed that information you went there.
When you got the job and the title, you got the place, the desk and the office. Normally it was the office of the person who had held the job before you. It was a practical arrangement based on having access to those files and it produced stability and continuity. When you needed to find something you knew where to get it using your feet, not the World Wide Web.
|
