When it comes to building great company culture, workspace design is often an afterthought or an echo that is ignored or overlooked. However, forward-thinking and comprehensive workspace design can help ignite company culture in organizations in ways so transformative, they can be hard to foresee.
The way you use and design your workspace or office heavily influences how effectively the company culture is propagated over and over again. Teams work well and prosper in a well-designed workspace that reflects the values and the basic essence of the company. Here’s how you can build a great company culture through a clever workspace design.
Altering the physical environment
It is imperative to understand the fundamental difference between the work environment and the company culture. Company culture often begins with excellent leadership but is propagated via the work environment and the physical environment. If leaders decide to establish and build a collaborative culture, it is carried out through the work and physical environment.
When done right, altering workspace design can completely change how an organization operates and functions. While it can promote physical well-being and social interaction, the workspace design can also build the company culture by providing employees with freedom, motivation, incentive, and resources to improve their productivity. It’s this philosophy – the philosophy of WorkWell – that’s so central to both the Max Towers and Max House buildings.
Building conversations and collaborations through smart designs
Building a great company culture starts with fostering a holistic environment that is nurturing and comfortable for the employees to co-exist in. While personal initiative and good leadership are key to successful collaborations and productive teamwork, they can be aided and enhanced further through smart workspace designs that communicate the same. ‘Information silos’ are a wonderful example of how workspace design can improve collaboration between interconnected and interdependent departments such as marketing and sales.
The power of aesthetics
Aesthetics are more than what meets the eye. If you’re looking to instill great company culture seamlessly and efficiently, do take into consideration the power and influence that aesthetics have and hold in a workplace.
One great example of brand expression through workspace design is Adidas’ Japan headquarters, which comprises a modern design with crisp black and whites, and includes invigorating splashes of colour that reiterate the idea of Adidas as a whole. Aesthetics can be motivating, inspiring, and can create a positive mindset if well conceptualized and implemented in synchronization with the company culture you want to instill.
Keep basic goals in mind
It’s important not to get overwhelmed or get carried away while designing your workspace. The basic goals that you set out to achieve should always be a priority and the first step towards doing that is to ensure that is by communicating with each department about their challenges and ambitions. Different departments may have different requirements, for example, the Marketing department might need a designated space that is designed to provide them with the infrastructure to aid content creation such as video making and recording. Hence, when you’re making changes to the workspace design, basic communication about the requirements of the departments can make them feel heard and help them function more effectively, enhancing and instilling the company culture even further.
There are countless elements and ideas that come together to establish the ideal company culture. However, workspace design is a good starting point if you want to build a nurturing and productive environment that takes into account the needs of various departments and also reiterates the core values of the company by affecting and influencing the basic functions. The company culture should focus on making the employees feel valued and empowered, and the workspace design should be such that it constantly motivates and guides them to achieve their operational goals and objectives effectively.
