The Successful Workspace
by Ralph & Lahni de Amicis
Excerpted from their book Prosperity Lessons
There are so many types of offices and workspaces that we could create a good-sized chapter just listing them. The most important element for creating a design that is going to make the energy run smoothly in a space has to do with the mission that the space is focused on. As helpful as the cash flow that businesses produce can be, it's the mission that provides the spark that keeps the engine of commerce burning.
As much as we might like to provide extremely detailed solutions here, the best solutions we can offer are going to be applicable to a wide variety of environments. Now, in case you're thinking that we've just thrown away any chance of providing something useful, keep in mind that every workspace has two things in common: It has to serve a function or mission and it has to accommodate the human body. Even the most intensely industrial, dangerous and inhospitable situations, someplace along the way have to be manipulated by the human hand, the human eye or some representative of those two powerful tools.
Simply using that as a baseline, there are a multitude of considerations that can improve and personalize a workspace. However, since we want this to be a book and not a tome that you can use as a doorstop, we're not going to provide a multitude, just a double handful of the most powerful techniques.
The best offices are a do-it-yourself project because who is going to understand your needs as clearly as you. While some professional design guidance is helpful, don't be hesitant to speak up and voice your needs or objections. Designers, Feng Shui or otherwise normally don't read minds, although they are pretty good at body language, so they depend upon your input to fit the place to your needs. Your requirements in a workplace are dynamic, even though they depend upon repetitive motions, your need to adjust to the changing demands of clients, materials, markets and whatever else can stick its nose into the gear box. This means that a working environment has to adapt along with you. A good workplace should have the ability to change without giving up the energetic patterns that make it work best. In order to create a successful workplace you need to answer some questions. Then, based upon your answers, create a design that maximizes the results. First: How fast do you and others make the transition from the personal world to the business world when arriving in the space? Second: Are there visual cues in the space to keep people focused upon the mission that the area serves? Third: Is there some flexibility built into the workstations to accommodate individual needs? Fourth: What images are people using at their workstations and are those images programming them in support of the mission? Fifth: Are you facing a direction that makes you feel physically stronger? Sixth: Are the light sources helping your eyes? Seventh: Are the electronics frying your nervous system? Eighth: If the space needs to accommodate visiting clients, is it welcoming? Ninth: Do the colors support the type of work being done in the area? Tenth: Are there environmental conditions that could be making workers sick? Eleventh: Does the scent in the space promote emotional stability and mental clarity? Twelfth: Are the workstations convenient, efficient and adaptable?
These approaches are part of the Motivated Design Presentation
The only problem with a list like this is the tendency for people to look at it and think, "How would I know?" That's why we write these books. To help you understand how environments function in synergy with your body. The concepts behind all of these questions are addressed in our previous book Feng Shui and the Tango, as well as touched on again in various parts of this book. The problem is, many times we have to see a thing numerous times before we easily recognize it for what it is. How many times have you searched all over for some everyday thing that was sitting out in plain sight? We are often oblivious to the environments we use the most. We're going to go through this list of questions and provide some answers. First Issue, making the transition: This is a challenge for many people who have home offices. Even if you can work in your pajamas and slippers, if you want to be successful, don't! We're not saying that you have to put on a three-piece suit to walk down the hall to your spare bedroom/office, but you need to have some ritual that prepares you emotionally and mentally for work. Getting dressed in clothes that you can wear out into the social world is a good one. They can be comfortable clothes, but if you're not accustomed to running out for cappuccino in your bathrobe then don't plan on working in terrycloth and bunny slippers.Amazingly, this same problem arises in businesses that are visited by a stream of workers and customers. There the culprit is a lack of clear business signs that mark out the boundaries of the enterprise. Large, very efficient industrial plants have a series of indicators that tell the employees when they are on company time. First, there is a high fence and gate that clearly marks the boundaries. Next, company signs such as the business name and 'employees entrance' are very prominent. After that is the mainstay of industry, the time clock where the employee has to personally record their presence. Finally, there are the sounds and the smells of industry. Factories are noisy, stinky places and unlike an office, they are not someplace where people would willingly hang out if someone weren't paying them to do just that. The office workers on the other side of the wall in that same plant don't punch a clock and they don't have to wear breathing masks and earplugs to operate their computers or talk on the phone. They don't have to change into work clothes when they arrive. They also have fewer indicators to help them through the transition from personal life to professional world, both first thing in the morning and after lunch and coffee breaks. The result, no matter how many timesaving devices they cram into offices, studies reveal that the blue-collar factory workers are consistently ten to twenty percent more productive than the office workers on the other side of that wall. Find some way to help everyone make that transition quickly. Signs on the outside of the building, the entranceway and the individual office doors are absolutely essential. A three-dimensional rendition or picture symbolizing the mission or product the organization creates or manages is a very effective addition. Having a bell on the door helps to ring this change throughout the space. Maybe you need a pair of shoes that you only wear at work. Everyday, in the television show, Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, Fred Rogers would come in the door, take off his outdoor shoes, put on his comfy shoes and sweater and then face the camera full of good sense and compassion. He was on the job and everyone took him more seriously! Sometimes a workspace is just too comfortable! There seems to be an inverse ratio between the comfort and luxury of the workspace and the profitability of the business. Some of the most profitable businesses are conducted in workspaces that are chaotic, cramped and leave not doubt whatsoever that they are, in fact, a place to get work done. Whenever we see offices that are so nice that you could live there, we often find out, that not much is getting done and the expenditures are exceeding the income. While we're not saying that a space has to be Spartan to be effective, the luxury side of the personality is not the productive side. What you focus upon becomes larger so focus your space in the correct direction. Second: Are there visual cues in the space to keep people focused upon the mission that the business serves? Here we're hammering away at that same challenge, making sure that the space is supporting your mission. Images are very powerful things. Our first books are pictures, then we move on to large words and later smaller words. We still read newspapers and web pages that way. The picture catches our eye, the headline tells us why we might want to read the text and if the picture and headline actually do their jobs well we'll go ahead and read the little words following behind. But first we look at the picture. This is a very simple concept that is a bit harder to carry out. Choose images for your walls that clearly reinforce for both you and everyone else, coming into that room, that all of this energy, expensive hardware, software, lock, stock and barrel are there to serve a specific business or professional mission. Landscape paintings on the walls are fine, if you're in the real estate or construction business. However, if it's a Chiropractors office, a beautiful painting of a barn doesn't tell the patients anything about why they've taken time out of their busy day to come there, and it needs to! The more effectively you carry out this design strategy the more efficiently your team is going to function in that environment. Third: Is there some flexibility built into the workstations to accommodate individual needs? Unless you plan on cloning your helpers, you need to not only accept the individual differences in your team members, but you need to design for them. This runs counter to the industrial system approach that developed during the late 1800's when the machine revolution was in full swing and people were treated like cogs in some huge gear. In that practical philosophy people were brought in to serve the needs of the machines and their tasks were mechanical and drone-like. There are definitely production facilities that are still designed this way, where the human tasks qualify as unskilled labor (That describes work which only requires one to two days of training to perform). Even within that environment, good managers recognize the differences in aptitudes and personalities and seek to match worker and task effectively. However, these days we're in the hyper-information age and the gap between skilled and unskilled is growing larger and larger, as is their potential for success. When you invest in helpers, while it's nice to have someone to do the filing and answer the phones (Modern phone systems and computers have almost eliminated the need for that kind of help), what is truly going to carry you to success is tapping into your team's genius. That means helping them to manifest their unique talents. You can do that by creating an environment where they can express their unique energy within the framework of the mission. This does not necessarily mean an office filled with basketball hoops, cappuccino machines and other indulgences. The actual optimal space that most people need to command in order to work effectively is about forty-eight square feet. This will expand or shrink depending upon the dimensions of the person. If the space goes below forty-five square feet, efficiency and productivity often drops like a rock. The six-foot by eight-foot workspace provides enough room for the aura around the arms and legs to move about without feeling cramped. To promote the greatest productivity and creativity the furniture and equipment within that space should be easily movable and the team member should be encouraged to adjust it to their own preferences. Part of the responsibility of a good manager should be pointing out to the team member when it's time for them to do some rearranging. After all, in the course of a job the responsibilities and tasks often change. The arrangements and directions that worked originally may not work for the evolving tasks. Fourth: What images are people using at their workstation and are those images programming them in support of the mission? At the companies that have the fastest turnover involving trained staff we have noticed a familiar trend, the desks were awash in family pictures. This is not to say that having pictures of your loved ones around you is a bad thing, but remember, moderation in all things. If a worker spends their whole workday looking at their kids, someplace in their consciousness they're thinking, "If I wasn't working here I could be home with my kids and I miss them so!" It doesn't take a lot of that before they've run out of allowable personal and sick days off and they're explaining to the boss why they have to leave, "My kids need me at home too much!" Of course the kids probably also needed the money they were bringing home. After a week at home what are they doing? Looking in the paper for a new job!Don't let the family pictures be the prime focus for the eye in the workspace. Actually the best place for the family pictures are behind the person. This way, when they're working they're focused on the task at hand. When they turn around for their breaks or to leave they see their family. For an executive in an office, often the best place for them to sit is commanding the door. If they place the photos on a ledge behind them, people coming in will see the executive with pictures of the family standing behind them. Subconsciously this makes them take the executive more seriously, because those family pictures say that they are connected, responsible, loved and valued. You don't need to be an executive in an office to take advantage of this dynamic. Carefully choose and edit the images that people are looking at while they are working to help them stay focused and productive. Someone in sales needs to see images of the products and the benefits those products produce. Fifth: Are you facing a direction that makes you feel physically stronger? A person will have a unique combination of directions that work especially well for them. That's why forcing people into pre-designed floorplans can prove so problematic, because it doesn't allow them to find their best directions. While a person can look for their best direction by trial and error, in other words move the desk and see what happens in their life, there is another way. In Appendix B you'll find a section on Muscle Testing. You can actually Muscle Test a person and see what their best directions are. Just make sure that you ask the correct questions! "Is this a good direction for this person to face when working to be the most productive, on a scale of one to ten?" Then spin them towards another direction and test that way and so on!It works best if you have them close their eyes during the testing so that the body will tune into the energy patterns rather than the visual stimulation. Do not, and we repeat, do not spin the person around like a top. As much fun as this might be it will not yield the best results. Facing the 'best' directions can create a dramatic improvement in the good fortune department. Sixth: Are the light sources helping your eyes? The body likes natural light. It does not like radiation, visible or not, from fluorescent, halogen, television and computer screens, especially when they are the sole light source. The closest artificial light to the natural is the old fashioned incandescent light bulb, because it has the least amount of flickering. It may be lacking in the full spectrum, but if you have to use those more difficult light sources, supplement them with incandescent bulbs and whenever possible, natural light. Remember, for most people their primary sense is vision and without light and radiation that sense is pretty much out of the game. Being part of the nervous system, the eyes use electricity and they have a frequency. The eyes are designed to work in a steady light source, the consistent frequency that's provided by the Sun. The problematic light sources that we've mentioned use systems that flicker at a high rate of speed, but not so high that the body's electrical system doesn't notice that on/off action. For the eyes, designed to analyze and function in natural light, that means they are constantly have to overcome a distinctly different beat. It's as if you were playing a Brahms lullaby on the piano, while coming in from the next room was the beat of a Brazilian Samba. After a while your Brahms would get a lot livelier. While it might prove a very refreshing rendition, your ability to get the baby to sleep would pretty much have gone down the drain. If you can provide a steady light source as a baseline to depend upon, it becomes much easier for the brain to manage the flickering of the other lights as simply peripheral static. All this requires is shopping for a little, inexpensive lamp and that's easy enough for even the busiest entrepreneur. Seventh: Are the electronics frying your nervous system? Issue Six leads us naturally to this very modern challenge. To give you a little clue about how important this issue is, consider that the eyes are part of the brain and both are part of the nervous system. The nervous system uses Direct Current electricity. The type of electricity that electronics and other devices run on is Alternating Current. Note: We have talked about this subject so much that we feel like a broken record, assuming that you're old enough to remember what a record is in this day of CD's and audio files. Now, if you're old enough to remember when record players were powered by cranked up springs and didn't require an external electrical source at all, that's really impressive. The main place in nature where Alternating Current is found is lightening. It is a disruptive, powerful force and the body was not designed to deal with large amounts of it in our intimate environment. Of course the benefits that electricity brings, including Alternating Current, are so extensive that the best strategy is to figure out how to protect our bodies from the negative influences. There are relatively inexpensive devices that you can put on electronics that greatly reduce the problematic nature of their radiation. You'll find information about them through our website. There are simple things you can also do that will pass itself off as decorating. Plants absorb energy and if you put plants (especially cactus) on and around your computers, televisions, stereos and so on, they will help reduce the impact upon you.Remember, while the field around these electronics can be quite large, as much as ten to fifteen feet, the closer and more often you are around them makes a big difference. If your stereo is on the far side of big room from your favorite chair, the benefits from the music are greater than the damage from the radiation. On the other hand, when you are sitting in front of a computer for three to four hours at a stretch, if you'd like your nervous system to run according to the manufacturers specifications, you need to carry out some protective tactics. The two best solutions are ideally carried out together; First, place the radiation-dampening devices between you and every major component of the device, second, supplement with minerals and herbs that help protect the body from the damaging effects of electromagnetic fields. You will also find information about these through the resource section websites. Eighth: If the space needs to accommodate visiting clients, is it welcoming? This issue requires two solutions. First, make sure that everything is clearly marked so that customers and clients know where to go and what to do when they get there. While it is possible to overdo the "sign thing", typically we find that most businesses fail to provide clear instructions. When you're in a space every day it's very easy to assume that everything is very simple and easy to find. After all, you know where everything is, but of course, you work there. But a customer may never have been in the space before, or only briefly on sporadic occasions. They need instructions and clues. You want your clients and customers to feel confident and safe when they come to see you. Trust and freedom from fear are very powerful feelings and good feelings are what lead to customer loyalty and continued prosperity for a business.
Your entrance should be clearly marked as an entrance. The name of your business should be very evident, as close to that entranceway as possible. If they have to navigate through what looks like a common space beyond that entrance, additional signs need to take them by the hand and lead them to your door. You don't want your clients arriving confused and having to ask you if this is, in fact, the business they are looking for. Even the bathroom needs to be clearly marked. Many times a customer has traveled to get to you and they need to make a comfort stop. Don't you want your customer to feel comfortable when they meet you? Many times when a person is cutting a business meeting short, it's because they need to find a bathroom and they're embarrassed to ask. What if you're just about to ask for the sale and all they can think about is their bursting bladder? Here you thought that you lost the sale because they didn't like you, when it was just the result of you forgetting to put a sign on the bathroom door. Within the space individual work areas should be marked with the personal names and the departments they belong with. This makes it easier for people to navigate the working space without continually needing a native guide. Here's the second solution. This has to do with chair placement. No emotionally healthy person actually likes sitting with their back to the door. They may do it from necessity or for a specific purpose, but they don't like having to sit that way. Don't place your guest chairs so that customers and clients have to sit with their back to the main entrance to any room.
This goes one step past that. Don't set up any room where the back of a chair or couch is facing the main entrance. This is like a hand held up against the entrance saying "Stay Away"! Chairs can be sideways to the door. Although commanding the entrance is always preferred. If the only arrangement requires part of the back to face the door, then at least move them far out of the pathway and well to the side. Exception: There are some places where it is actually preferable to let your customers have their backs to the door. In supply businesses where mechanics, electricians, plumbers and other technical people are picking up equipment, there has been a long-standing tradition of placing the service counter directly facing the door. There's a good reason for that. In most instances the orders for these parts are being placed via the phone. The people walking in the door are often helpers and drivers who have been dispatched to pickup necessary items. Some things are ordered directly at the counter. One of the things in common is that the counter customers are mostly hourly workers. If that sales area is too comfortable, they will hang out, gossiping and drinking coffee as long as they think they can get away with that. Meanwhile, there's some technician, who is being paid twice as much as the driver, who is sitting on their tool belt waiting for those parts. In that type of sales situation, you want them in and out of the door as soon as possible, because when they arrive late at the work site they're going to blame their tardiness on lousy service at the supply house. Then the purchasing agents are going to look for a quicker, alternative supplier. Sometimes a little pressure is a good thing! Ninth: Do the colors support the type of work being done in the environment? For business, two of the most important colors are blue and green. For any place where there is a great deal of interpersonal communication that needs to happen at a high rate of speed, choose blue. It's a cool color and it helps people keep a cool head, tempers under control and reasoned practicality close at hand. If the business is best done at a more graceful, patient and well considered pace, choose green. Businesses like traditional banking, real estate, interior design and anything that caters to society's sense of stability, satisfaction, beauty and pleasure all work well in the presence of green.
When the work relates to the needs of the physical body, such as offices related to healing, men's clothes and stores that sell practical products, shades ranging from tan to brown all work well. These colors impart a sense of seriousness combined with comfort. For example, practical shoes are comfortable shoes and nine times out of ten, they are brown or tan.
Offices and workspaces that are entrepreneurial in their mission do best with gray. This is coupled well with chrome, reflective metal furniture. It combines a sense of quick reactions together with an eye for profit. Gray is a favorite color for running shoes and they seem to be part of the modern entrepreneurs daily uniform.
Professional offices where the work is primarily intellectual and informational, such as law, consulting, insurance and where personal gain is concealed behind an impartial, impersonal system, yellow works quite well. The color yellow they use will usually be one of the tamer varieties. It might be hard to take your local advocate seriously if they were sitting in a sunflower colored office. They might be altogether too cheerful, but a mild, slightly washed out yellow makes a wonderful backdrop for that big wooden desk and those rows of leather bound journals. Pink, orange, red, peach, purple and violet are not business colors. They're the selection to choose from for use in the dining room of a restaurant, but that's where people are spending and consuming, not working. That's why so many business deals are made over lunch. There's no problem with having small bits of these colors in the workspace, but to use them as the primary wall or floor colors is to tilt the energy of the people working there into nonproductive directions. The place would be awash with candy bar wrappers and microwave popcorn.
White has become much too popular in workspaces. Why? Because it's the paint that builders and landlords most often use, for the practical reasons that it's the cheapest color and the easiest for the tenant to paint over. Often, when a new business moves in, they don't want to take the extra time to change the color. Then, once operations are under way, they're too busy to move the furniture and put up with the paint smell.
We only suggest white in three situations. First, where the work area is very dark and most of the walls are covered with shelves, charts and other light-absorbing elements. Second, in an art gallery or studio where the neutrality of white won't conflict with the changing artwork. Third, in an energetic healing space. In that case, using white for the upper walls and sky blue for the lower walls helps to illuminate the higher energy centers, while cooling and soothing the lower. White doesn't add any flavor to the design mix. For the purposes of business, where you want to direct the team in a specific direction, white is too neutral. The Depth of ColorWhile white by itself has limited use, it's very helpful for lightening up one of the more productive colors. For example, while a brown room is properly serious, it also might be too light inhibiting to be effective, causing eye strain and low energy. By adding white to the mix, the color becomes tan, comfortably casual and light reflective. From the other direction, adding a small amount of brown to white adds warmth to white's naturally cool nature. As important as it is to choose the correct color, the lightness of that color is equally essential. This is an ergonomic issue. Offices can be too bright. If the work requires individual, concentrated attention, don't blast the space with light colors under powerful lamps and walls of windows. That is more effective where a steady interchange among the team is required. When the walls and windows are too bright, it causes distracting glare on computer screens.
The more the walls are going to be covered with light-absorbing furniture, like bookcases, the lighter the walls should be. If the walls are going to be generally exposed, then go several shades darker. If the rooms are exposed to large amounts of western light, which contains less color, use darker shades of the effective colors. This keeps the team's energy levels higher and prevents fading of both walls and fabrics. It also stops people from fading away in the late afternoon.
In a business containing multiple rooms and offices, key the colors to the specific mission of each area. This increases productivity, reduces staff turnover and is a helpful aid in navigating the place on your daily rounds. For example, if the accounting office is green, the customer service phone center is blue, the President's office is gray and the boardroom is tan, it becomes easier to understand their interrelationship. It also becomes easier to assume the mindset you need to use in each work area. That is the main purpose of color in a workspace, to help the team be who they need to be in that situation. Tenth: Are there environmental conditions that could be making workers sick? Always know the history of the space that you are using. The list of companies and offices that have had their workforce decimated by diseases brought on by the previous occupant's transgressions is very, very long. This is especially true in urban environments where offices have been placed in buildings that previously had industrial applications. One of the places to be most aware of this is in governmental buildings, especially in state capitals. As industry has moved out of the cities and governmental bureaucracy has expanded, it is only logical for state government to rehabilitate formerly industrial buildings for offices. Often times the environmental regulations that would have kept a private company from using the space without a ruinously expensive cleanup, seem to be less problematic when the state wants to use the building.
In recent years governmental workers seem to have suffered proportionally greater damage from chemical, pharmaceutical and environmental toxins than those in the private sector. The best solution for this is actually found in the next paragraph. Eleventh: Does the scent in the space promote emotional stability and mental clarity? One of the best ways to make an environment safe is through the use of potent and pure essential oils. Many of the most problematic toxins in today's environments are airborne. While toxins in the water are of course a problem, those toxins that sneak into the body with every breath are harder to control. If you find that the people in your space are suffering health challenges and even behavioral problems, start defusing essential oils in the rooms every day. In the resource appendices is a detailed description of the benefits of specific oils.
Beyond the health benefits are the emotional benefits. In business this is very important. While a person running a business or managing a team has to approach it in a very intellectual way, the customer and client takes a quite different approach. They pretty much decide their course of action based upon emotional indicators. Where the intellect comes in is after their emotional self has already seen where they want to go. The intellect then has the responsibility of justifying their choice and it can do that very well indeed! Essential oils create powerful, yet subtle emotional responses and if you want the people in your area to work together smoothly, you can use these wonderful tools. Twelfth: Are the workstations convenient, efficient and adaptable? Don't build everything in place. Don't screw the worktables and desks to the floor. Life is about change and new situations require adaptation. People are not cogs on a gear and if you want the best from them, allow them, in fact, encourage them to customize their working space to suit their style. Just because an arrangement works well for you doesn't mean it will work as well for someone else. That's why there are so many models of cars. Ergonomic designers spend years fine-tuning the interiors of cars to be comfortable and functional. Yet even with all of the models available, who doesn't get in and immediately start adjusting the seat and mirror controls, not to mention the stereo.
Of course, there are some restrictions because the workstations have to function in concert with their neighbors and the overall plan. But, within a double arms reach of the person's station allow them to adjust it to suit the dimensions of their mind, body and soul. And make sure to do the same things for yourself too! Excerpted from Ralph & Lahni de Amicis' book Prosperity Lessons
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