As a trend we often get hooked on to trend speak. It relieves us from the burden of thinking more deeply. Millennials have been reigning the debates on workplace design for a good amount of time. It’s just that changes have not been as radical as we are reading. Yes, millennials made choices that are different from Gen X but so were Gen X choices made than Baby Boomers. Very soon, millennials will be old news and Gen Z will be taking over, and your workplace will still be there that was so passionately debated and painstakingly designed for millennials and their choices.
We can instead look closely at how the nature of work that is changing and design a little more timelessness into our design features that remain constant across generations. Baby Boomers are just as important to your organizations as Gen Z will be. They will be managing the millennials and Gen Z and setting the vision and strategic direction to the company. All generations at work are important as long as there is work.
Designing a high performance and a relevant workplace requires a deep understanding of how people think, work and relate to each other, like or dislike each other. It could entail more than a physical environment of work. It may not just be a cool logo or a sticker on the wall of your office but a cultural promise and premise of how employees perceive their workplace and carry that message as brand ambassadors of their organizations. It’s simply not about beer and foosball table at your workplace. No, never.
Designing timeless workplaces is a deliberate art. There are two aspects of workplace. One is essentially, physical. Here you take care of physical spaces, light, daylight, thermal comfort, comfortable furniture, safety and hazard free space. This needs to be combined with non physical attributes like sense of belonging, recognition, motivation, associative value, aspiration with your peers and leaders, vision and fulfillment and this is placemaking. So, workspace + people = workplace. Hence, designing timeless workplaces is a deliberate art and also a continuous art. It’s never conclusive, it’s dynamic. In perpetual beta mode. Only because people are always in beta mode.
Conversations about what millennials want — in work and in life — are replete and plentiful. Thankfully, there’s a new and very different generation that employers should understand a bit more: Generation Z. Tomorrow there will be another generation which employers should not lose sight of.
The problem with design is that good design cannot be measured in any, finite or infinite, way. Good and timeless design is honest and promises only what it can accomplish and acknowledges what it cannot. Good and timeless design is about the focus on the core functionality and purpose and embracing simplicity.
It is okay to not break rules which didnt even exist.
