The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

Out of con­fine­ment and into the thick of it?

Many who are used to so-called ​“cell offices” with a door that can be closed are afraid that the work and their health will suf­fer as they trans­fer into a more open office envi­ron­ment where col­leagues are sur­round­ing them at all times. They are often very con­cerned that they will not be left alone to work undis­turbed and with con­cen­tra­tion at all from now on.

Con­ver­sa­tions to ease the proceedings

As it turns out, orga­ni­za­tions in which a num­ber of agree­ments are made between col­leagues regard­ing how to act in a few dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions appear to avoid a num­ber of neg­a­tive effects that can come from work­ing in open office envi­ron­ments. This applies both to the more clas­si­cal open land­scape where every­one still has their des­ig­nat­ed places and seats, as well as the activ­i­ty-based office where you need not adhere to strict silence, and which is more ​“like a reg­u­lar office”.

Do you think your com­pa­ny could use some of these agree­ments? Good!

If so, try this

If you, like many oth­er com­pa­nies, could use some touch­ing up of the guide­lines dic­tat­ing what you do and do not do in your office when it comes to mak­ing space for both con­cen­trat­ed work and spon­ta­neous co-work­ing, then do this:

1. Before the next appro­pri­ate meet­ing you have with the peo­ple you work clos­est to (per­haps a team meet­ing, a depart­ment meet­ing, or the likes), add an item to the agen­da about that you will dis­cuss and make agree­ments regard­ing, for instance, the following:
   • How will you clear­ly sig­nal to one anoth­er that you are not cur­rent­ly avail­able for help­ing oth­ers or any ​“quick ques­tions” your col­leagues might have at the moment? Will you let the sta­tus in the com­pa­ny chat be the way to sig­nal your sta­tus, will it be a sign or some oth­er sym­bol­ic item you place on your desk, or will you do some­thing else more appro­pri­ate to you, your team, and your workplace?
   • What will you do when you wish to dis­cuss some­thing with some­one in the open office land­scape for longer than it takes to address ​“just a quick ques­tion”? Will you retreat into a con­fer­ence room when dis­cus­sions turn into a prop­er meet­ing? Or are these con­ver­sa­tions some­thing that you all feel belong in the open envi­ron­ment and which should there­by sim­ply be held by someone’s workstation?
   • What kind of quick ques­tions or con­ver­sa­tions will you keep in the chat (mean­ing Teams, Slack, or what­ev­er chan­nel your com­pa­ny uses) instead of shout­ing it across the room?
2. After the meet­ing, doc­u­ment what you decid­ed to do and pub­lish or save it some­where where it will be eas­i­ly acces­si­ble to every­one, even new employ­ees who need to fig­ure out how things are done in your par­tic­u­lar workplace.

A com­mon approach

If you and your col­leagues estab­lish the sim­pli­fy­ing agree­ments and guide­lines you need to be able to work in close prox­im­i­ty to one anoth­er with­out dis­turb­ing each oth­er, it will become eas­i­er to work, you will be able to focus more, and you will do so with­out los­ing that great access to each oth­er you get when work­ing in this kind of setting.

Some might argue that ​“a lit­tle com­mon sense will get you quite far enough” and that such rules are not nec­es­sary, but we do in fact often dif­fer great­ly in both what is obvi­ous and what our pre­ferred work­ing envi­ron­ment is. A con­ver­sa­tion to bring it up and an agree­ment to set­tle the do’s and don’ts will make it all much more clear to every­one involved.

What’s been your solution?

There are, nat­u­ral­ly, a great many oth­er things in addi­tion to those I have men­tioned which you could do and agree upon to make your pro­fes­sion­al coex­is­tence smooth, more effec­tive, and enjoy­able. What have you dis­cussed at your office and what deci­sions have you made to ben­e­fit a con­struc­tive envi­ron­ment at work? Email me and share your thoughts!

(By the way, do you know there’s research that points to that we work bet­ter togeth­er with the right music?)