Have you ever noticed that certain environments actually boost your productivity? Have you ever walked into a room and felt unexplainably happier? Our physical environment can have a significant impact on us, both consciously and subconsciously.

Since most of us spend a minimum of 40 hours a week at work, it’s worthwhile taking a look around the office to see if the environment is actually encouraging high performance or simply providing a functional work setting.

Privacy/Confidentiality
Even if we’re not blessed with a secluded office, four walls and a door, most of us still appreciate at least a minimal amount of privacy. Being constantly on display can discourage risk-taking and limit creativity. Additionally, if you find yourself working on sensitive or confidential projects, a lack of privacy can cause undue anxiety as you attempt to keep things “under wraps.”

Consider your tasks and personal preferences. Does your environment provide adequate privacy?

Supporting Diverse Work Styles
It’s rare to find a group of people who share identical work styles. More often, you’ll find entire offices where no two people are alike. Some enjoy an energetic, vibrant atmosphere, while others are easily distracted and prefer silence. Some multi-task as a way of life; others focus solely on one thing, and then methodically shift their attention to the next. A strong work environment should be able to accommodate everyone. An environment that forces you to change your personal style is only harming productivity.

Consider your personal work style. How is it similar to – or different from – that of your coworkers? Does your physical environment support everyone equally?

Inspiration
You don’t have to work in a museum to find inspiration around you. Inspiration can be found in something as simple as a nice piece of art on the wall, a thriving plant, or a funky furniture design. Color, lighting and material all make a big difference in the overall look and feel of a room. Drab, boring surfaces lead to drab, boring interactions. Physical clutter begets mental clutter. If you’re looking to feel inspired and motivated in the office, your environment needs to be a physical reflection of all that you find inspirational.

What inspires you? Nature? Family? Art? Does your physical environment at the office reflect these things?

Collaboration Space
It’s rare to find any business that cherishes individual work over collaboration. And yet, many offices are set up with a sole focus on the individual and provide limited space for team collaboration. I’ve seen entire groups of people huddle into one cubicle for team meetings. Offices like this are perfect examples of environments that don’t support productivity. Effective collaboration requires ample space for groups to gather comfortably and appropriate tools for collecting the ideas produced (such as whiteboards).

Does your office support or stifle a collaborative approach?

Getaway Space
The ability to just get away from work – while still being in the office – is a necessity for many of us. Breaks help keep productivity levels high; they allow you to decompress, gather your thoughts, and find your second wind. A nicely furnished, spacious break room can be a relaxing sanctuary that everyone in the office can enjoy. However, all too often break rooms are messy, out-dated, and generally unpleasant. Without a convenient and comfortable break area, many of us fail to take the necessary down time that would help us maintain productivity throughout the day.

Does your office provide space to get away? More importantly, is it a space you actually want to spend time in?

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Republished from our friends at Office Arrow

Yeah, there’s an app for that. Even depositing checks.

If you didn’t get a chance to read the New York Times last week, the big buzz was over USAA’s update to their iPhone application- which lets members take a photo of both sides of their paycheck (or any other one), and deposit it directly into their account!

Another app, allows a user to take a photo of a room in their house, add in furniture, and move things around to make sure everything looks good in 3D!

That got us thinking. Is high technology going to be the new norm?

When I was growing up, the checkbook used to be the number one thing needed when leaving the house. You’d write one up, give it to someone, they’d take it to the bank, and there’s the cash. The same sort of routine for buying furniture. If I were playing interior designer to outfit my office, I’d walk into a showroom, talk to someone, take it back to my place for a trial, and then buy. Even now, just a few years later, look at us; checking out possibilities at on online store, no talking necessary- unless you want to actually see it in the final environment. With these new apps, a lot of that won’t be needed anymore – simply take a picture of your office, and rotate that new Think chair 360 degrees in your 3D virtual office.

Once the trend of applications like these catch on, and I can see it happening sooner than later, where is there still a place for an “old fashioned” business to exist? I mean, once you’re able to cash a check without seeing a teller and pick exactly what furniture you want without help from a store’s rep, what’s next?

Is the trade off between convenience and and human interaction worth it? Will people even know how to recognize personal (not digital) customer service when they see it? What do you think?

How to Sit: Five Tips for the Office

I may work at Steelcase, but sitting is not my number one occupation. I wouldn’t doubt if it wasn’t yours either. With most of us spending at least half of the day sitting, more than ever, it’s important that we do it right.

Those tiny, repetitive movements that we all do at our desk jobs tend to add up after a while- not to mention, giving us sore shoulders and a headache.

Here are five tips to keep you sitting right, and less exhausted at the end of the day:

1. Use your sitting bone, that’s what it’s for! – your feet should be on the floor, with your knees and hips bent at about 90 degrees. This will distribute the weight off of your thighs and on to a more solid part of your body.
2. Leave some room to move – make sure to have about four fingers-worth of space behind the back of your knees and the front of the seat. Otherwise, you might end up sitting too far toward the front of the chair, and end up slouching when you get tired.
3. Moral support – adjust the armrests so that they support your elbows and arms at 90 degrees. Otherwise, if the rest is too high or low, you’ll be using your shoulders to make up the added difference.
4. No Stretch Armstrong here – When your armrest is perfect and you’re sitting straight at your desk, your fingers should be able to touch the keyboard without stretching.
5. Take a hike! – Make sure to get out of your chair at least once an hour and walk around, or kill two birds with one stone and walk & work with a treadmill desk like the Walkstation. Your body will be able to stretch, get your blood flow moving, and reenergize you.

cobi: comfortable collaboration
Designed by the Steelcase Design Studio in collaboration with Luke Pearson of PearsonLloyd

In case you haven’t noticed, we spend more time in meetings today than ever before. Meetings in any office set-up (at home, meeting rooms, teleconferencing) requires changing postures and various degrees of support us.

We’ve all been there…squirming, fatigue, and loss of focus (sound familiar?) are unavoidable. Enter cobi.

Every part of cobi was designed to flex and adjust to your body. cobi’s top flexing edge lets you comfortably rest your arm on top of the chair. You know, like you’ve tried to do on every chair you’ve ever sat in, but this time it feels good.

cobi’s seat encourages you to move and shift, allowing you to sit centered or off to the sides. It’s even comfy to sit with your back against the arm…seriously.

cobi is great as a conference chair because it offers one manual adjustment (seat height). Research says we don’t adjust more than seat height on conference room chairs anyways. We sit down and move into the first item of discussion on the meeting agenda.

And, if you’re in meetings as often as I am (more than I’m at my desk), cobi is perfect! I’m not at my desk long enough throughout the day to require more adjustments…and if I had more adjustments, I don’t think I’d have the time to use them!

i2i: an intuitive seating arrangement
Designed by the Steelcase Design Studio in collaboration with Thomas Overthun of IDEO

Sometimes, you don’t need a conference room for meetings. You may only need a few chairs in which you and a small team can connect. And those big, stuff lounge chairs don’t cut it (unless you’re looking for a place to nap). You need a chair you can move, shift, and breathe in (not to mention looks nice too).

So…picture yourself in your non-conference room meeting. You have a lot to take in: people to your left and right, people straight ahead, and often a screen or laptop as a centerpiece. And don’t forget to say something intellectual. With all of that going on, how do you maintain focus and orientation without losing comfort? Answer = i2i.

i2i’s dual swivel mechanism keeps you focused where you need to be: keeping eye contact. The back and seat swivel independently, allowing you to change your posture without changing your orientation…and vice versa. You kinda got to see it to get it.

Your body requires you to move and shift. Tilt back, forward, left, or right. Slant your body in any direction. Slouch if your mother isn’t looking. i2i keeps you comfortable regardless of position. One less thing you need to think about.

When I was a kid, I refused to let the different types of food on my plate touch each other. No peas in my mashed potatoes!

For a while, as an adult, I actually tried to do the same thing, creating a proverbial “divided plate” to separate the various components of my world. No work at home! No home at work! But, you know what? That’s just not realistic. Sadly, they don’t make those cute plastic plates for life…

You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide

In today’s world, the lines between work and life have blurred for two obvious reasons:

• Technology. With Smartphones, email and Instant Messenger, we’re always reachable. Private networks, remote computer access and collaboration tools mean we’re never more than a mouse-click away from our offices.


• Expanded Hours. Research shows that the average American work week is 54 hours. In an average week, only 14 percent of us work 40 hours or less.

I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the pace of the world in which we live. But it does mean we have to change the way we think about the separation between work and life. Instead of viewing them as opposing forces, we need to focus on work-life integration.

We should start by asking ourselves: What kind of environment can we create at home and at work to maximize our productivity – and ultimately, our satisfaction – with both?

For one thing, we can stop thinking of “the office” as a boring, stiff, drab place where fluorescent lights flicker and the smell of burnt coffee fills the air. We spend far too much time at the office to be surrounded by such unpleasantness.

And let’s start creating a home office that helps facilitate productivity, so that – when we have to bring work home – it’s comfortable. Yes, office furniture can be both stylish and functional. You don’t have to hide it away in a back room somewhere.

Here’s the good news: We are beginning to catch on. We have created the new brand Coalesse specifically to reflect this new “integrated” work-life reality.

“Coalesse is about a belief that the boundaries between work and life have blurred. With products that fit as naturally in to the office as the living room, Coalesse focuses on the increasingly growing similarities between work and life.”

Office furniture – whether at home or at work – no longer has to be dominated with harsh lines and glaring surfaces. Instead, it can be full of chic, modern designs that reflect the way we really live.

Work is all around us. And so is life. Why not create an environment that respects both?

Are your worlds blending? If so, check out the Coalesse brand by Steelcase to create your perfect space.

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Republished from our friends at Office Arrow