Here is a small sample of the stories and developments we are paying attention to these days. It’s our way of helping you stay on top of developments in the worlds of technology, workplace and facilities design, the workforce, and work design—any and all of which are going to affect the future of work, often in ways we can’t even imagine.
This article (by Stephanie Fanger) in the latest issue of IFMA’s Facilities Management Journal begins with a brief history of office design and then focuses on efforts to link the workplace with workforce performance. I especially liked the two case studies (Glaxo Smith Kline and Procter & Gamble), and the closing table that lists the pros and cons of open and closed office environments. It’s a very useful summary of an important topic that remains elusive for too many facilities professionals (thanks to my colleague Marcus Bowen for catching this one).
My good friend and colleague Jessica Lipnack (one of the genuine pioneers in the field of remote/distributed teams and organizational networks; she and Jeff Stamps were teaching us how to lead distributed teams over 20 years ago) just found a fascinating video presentation on networks—at a very generic/conceptual level.
The link above is to a post on Jessica’s blog, Endless Knots, which in turn will take you to the presentation by Manuel Lima, the lead “user interface designer at Microsoft Bing.” It’s about 11 minutes long, and worth every minute. Very thought-provoking.
It may have been published in “Time for Kids” (Time Magazine), but it’s a story for all of us; the new One World Trade Center building has just passed 100 stories, and is already taller than the Empire State Building. It’s a real tribute to the fortitude of New York City (and the dreams of the building’s developer), and a proud symbol of a stubborn unwillingness to give in to terrorists. Now, the question is, who is going to lease all that space—and put themselves that high above the ground?
Workforce Management magazine is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year with a series of articles tracing some of the history of the workforce and management. The April 26-28 issue contains a fascinating story of the workforce demographics of the 1950’s, with some important comparisons to the 2012 workforce. Issues like jobs, career progression, retirement, and women in the workforce were talked about 60 years ago, but as you might imagine, the comments were a whole lot different then than they are now.
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I’ve just returned from a Cornell University class reunion that reminded me of several very important principles that have guided most of my work and my life since I was an undergraduate there fifty years ago.