What is an office space for?
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The team I work with has been in the same office space now for just over 12 months. Over the last 5 years we have moved across Manchester, constantly seeking cheaper and more flexible accommodation. Each time we have moved it has been that bit easier as we have become more paperless, and flexible in how we work. It’s been quite a journey!
The conversation is open again. We are wondering what an office space means. When we have so many remote / home working days, what is the purpose of an office space if it is empty so often?
Some aspects of this are about community, team spirit and belonging. That is really important. Can we achieve some of this using social media tools like Slack, WhatsApp or appear.in? It is possible, but not always realistic – and these things are not natural processes. After a conversation with my coach, Ian, I’ve been doing some research to establish what the alternatives are, what we can do differently, what our needs are.
I’ve only just begun the research and to think this through, so this is really about #workingoutloud.
Things we needs space for:
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Talking things through
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Being social
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Meetings
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Events
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Quiet space for deep work
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Places to share thing we are working on
- A place to keep things – although this is less of an issue than it was
I am sure there are other things, but this is my opening list of needs. The space we are in serves some of these needs, but not all of them. And over the summer months, the trains in England have been in such a mess, that most of us have questioned the wisdom of travelling into Manchester when the needs of being in the office space don’t outweigh the hours of commuting and disruption.
We may go through this whole process and decide to stay where we are – it is not just about the location of our space, but also how we use it and what modes of working we adopt.
Things I am digging out to look at include “Deep Work” by Cal Newport and the blog posts by staff at Buffer on the “State of Remote Work”. I’ve just begun to look at those. This blog post is a reach-out to those that read my blog for other ideas and thoughts that will help us as a team to figure out how best to meet our needs for the future. If you have any ideas please either comment below or send me a message.
Also published on Medium.