Office environments can be liken to a garden which may be planned and cultivated with intelligence or allowed to exist on a come what may basis. But whether planned with proper cultivation or left unattended it will bring forth. If no thoughtful purpose is put into it, useless weed seeds will fall therein and continue to produce their kind. Just as a gardener plans and cultivates the ground and keeping it free from weeds to produce the fruits and flowers of his desire, so can the space of the office be developed to produce the culture, productivity, effectiveness and warmth required, weeding out all the generators of time-wasting, non-productive and uninspired circumstances. By pursuing this endeavor a person sooner or later discovers that one can effectively control and enrich circumstances that produce fruits required by cultivating environments rather than trying to address the circumstances as results.
Environment and circumstances are one. The outer circumstance in any environment is always connected to ones inner state. Thoughts and emotion produce results of its kind. Likewise the inner state is almost always connected to the environment. The connection between circumstances and environment in the workplace is rarely connected in the mind of leaders. Often time’s leaders will address every other aspect in the workplace other than environment looking for changes in culture, productivity or higher profits.
Business environments both material and psychological are seldom planned. They are allowed to develop by their own order. The circumstances that come out of the workplace are seldom connected thereto. Every business is where they are because of the law of their being, the way of thinking that develops the character that has brought them there. Circumstances do not make the business but rather reveals itself to itself.
Office design should reflect the thoughts, ideals and character of the business. In the natural world people understand this clearly, everything produces according to its kind. Pigs produce pigs and fig trees produce figs. Nothing can come from a peach seed but a peach. With this in mind, not planning the office environment from the framework of sound business ideas and mindfulness is a recipe for whatever grows therein.
There are natural conditions in the workplace that affect the overall atmosphere and character of the business; be it geographical, ethnic, or generational etc. The Boomers may have different mindset than say the Gen Y’s. A Midwest mindset may be different than a New Yorker. Cultural differences between ethnic groups can provide natural environmental influences. Blending natural conditional behaviors and making them congruent with company ideals and philosophies is a start in the direction of environmental planning.
Global conditioning is another avenue that affects business environments. It is obvious the workplace and way we do business and the tools available that we use in the workplace is changing rapidly. Business as we knew it twenty to twenty-five years ago (or even a few short years ago) is almost foreign to workers today. Business as we know today has change from our back yard to become globalized. What happens in one part of the world affects residents in other countries. Technology tools are coming to market faster than thought. Today we have; smart phones, laptop computers, iPads, email, iPods and global positioning systems. Together with hardware products we have Cloud computing, streaming, Twitter, Facebook. Ideas and recourses are coming to market faster than ever before. Creativity and innovation is leading the market.
The thought patterns of business today need to be creative and innovative to stay in step with a technology based world. It is no longer an effective strategy to allow business to develop its own mindset. Companies today must be perennially creative, innovative and productivity minded. Without these core attributes it is difficult staying in step with a performance based world.
Purposeful intelligent environmental planning requires being mindful of the world around us and building an environment as a foundation to speak to these conditions. Every fiber of a company’s being from the way it looks, feels, speaks and performs must be planned with purpose and intelligence. Being that visual proponents is a key factor in establishing an affective environment. Office furniture can be a foundational consideration in achieving a results driven workplace.
The way a company looks and feels is part of the story it tells. Modern office furniture well done and placed in effective ways that inspire workers to want to come to work and participate in building a forward culture is the beginning of creating a great environment and control over circumstances.