On making it theirs: How to involve your team
Both Henk Schouten of Hospitality Group and Paula Sobów of Powerplant start every project the same way: by asking. The thinking is simple: people use and value a space they helped shape. The work splits in two.
Ask first
Before anything’s drawn, find out how people actually work and what the current space gets wrong. Survey the right people, sit down with each team, and watch where people already gather. Paula runs workshops with every work group; Henk builds his plans around “the flow of employees through the building.” The most useful questions are about the work itself - what people come in to do, and where they get held up.
Then hand over some ownership
Set up a small, mixed group to stay involved throughout, and let people make the small calls: the furniture, the colours, the names of the rooms. As Annika Lieon, work.club's operations manager, puts it: it’s their office too, so give people a say before the move. Explain what each space is for and why. Then close the loop: show people how their input changed things, including what you couldn’t do and why. Involve people early and they become the ones who explain the changes to everyone else, and who provide support when things get difficult.
"It's not only the CEO who knows what all employees like." — Henk Schouten, Hospitality Group
Five questions worth asking
When you choose to come in, what are you actually coming in to do?
What do you have at home that the office doesn’t give you?
Where do you go to focus? To collaborate? To take a break?
What’s the one thing that would make you want to be here more?
What should we keep from the old office, and what should we leave behind?
Get the full toolkit
A ready-to-run staff survey and workshop
Free to download
More resources
Previous article
Make It Theirs — Designing a Space Built for People
Aquablu speaks with Paula Sobów of Powerplant and Henk Schouten of Hospitality Group on how to design an office space teams think of as their own, and return to again and again.
Next article
The office people turn up for, by design
Six things the research — and the experts — agree on.
Don't stop here
There's a lot more where this came from
You just read one article out of a whole edition, but the full edition is yours to download (for free)
