When it comes to Jobs, Isaacson writes, “When Steve Jobs designed a new headquarters for Pixar, he obsessed over ways to structure the atrium, and even where to locate the bathrooms, so that serendipitous personal encounters would occur. Among his last creations was the plan for Apple’s new signature headquarters, a circle with rings of open workspaces surrounding a central courtyard.”

Many of these observations boil down to fostering teamwork. In an article for Reliable Plant by Rhonda Savage, titled “The secrets to successful teamwork: Trust and Accountability,” Savage lists 11 nuggets of wisdom to help any office team. The list reads as follows:

1. Define the duties.
2. Be clear with prospective employees during the interview process.

• Define your expectations in a workplace policy manual.

1. Outline the time commitment and set aside adequate time for each task.
2. Be careful to not overload your staff with too many commitments or too many interruptions.
3. Follow through by putting a note on your calendar to check on progress.

• Avoid showing favoritism toward specific team members.

1. Encourage your team members to stand up and lead!
2. Open the lines of communication by having an open-door policy.
3. Ask your team members to bend over backwards for each other.
4. True teamwork means encouraging individual leadership development.

Visionaries like Jobs and others in Silicon Valley have pursued innovative workspaces to put these suggestions into practice. You too can foster this kind of environment in your office with the help of Office Space Planners. Our expert designers and project managers offer a variety of services, including analysis, commercial space planning, project management, and move coordination.

Being an innovator doesn’t mean you have to dream up the best new ideas on your own. For any of your office planning, design, and project management needs, you can count on Office Space Planners!

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-Allow your employees to personalize their spaces. Workers are most productive when in an office which feels to some degree like home. Encourage employees to bring personal items, photos, and other keepsakes which foster a community environment in your workplace. If you are truly adventurous, you may even allow employees to bring pets to work!

-Let employees choose their own means of being creative. Let them customize coffee mugs, arrange their office area at their discretion, and express themselves through their own design.

-Not all office conventions are correct—you don’t need one desk per person! At many offices, only a few desks are being used at a time, and many end up wasting valuable space and resources. Thanks to mobile technology, an elaborate desk and cubicle setup is not strictly necessary. Think about ways to plan your desk arrangement to economize!

-Zone your workspace. Urban planners consciously plan communities so that buildings with common functions are close together. Organize your office in a similar way and you’ll like the results! Place comfortable chairs together rather than spreading them out across the room, if you like. If an employee wants to grab a snack or coffee, put all food and drink options in the same place—just like placing several retail and food service outlets together in an urban zone, it caters to the consumer (or, in this case, employee) and makes his or her experience a positive one!

-Have concentrated work in mind when designing. Make sure that your workers have locations in which they can feel inspired to work for several hours uninterrupted. Small business owners in particular must cater to their workers’ focus and contentment. An arrangement of varying types of comfortable working areas will help immensely toward this aim.

Office design is a delicate art—a balance must be struck between a laid-back atmosphere which makes employees feel at home and a productive atmosphere which feels like work. At Office Space Planners, we have experience planning successful offices which strike this balance in all fifty states—call today!

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CBRE’s Senior Director of EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) Research, Richard Holberton, noted that the downturn has taken its toll. “It is no secret that in recent years corporate occupiers have been constrained by stringetnt cost management strategies born out of the economic downturn.” But Holberton expects a change of track: “Now, things are changing in line with an improving economic environment, which we expect to have material impact on the office market this year. With grade A space in short supply across Europe… the expectation is that prime rents will move to an upward trajectory in more markets.”

The change would be a welcome one for Europe’s current climate. Despite expectations of growth, Europe’s total office take-up for the first quarter of 2014 has been on par with the first quarters of the previous recession years. However, two major European cities, Madrid and Paris, have seen drastic recent improvement, which may bode well for the rest of Europe. Low-rent office spaces in prime city locations were the key to these cities’ success.

Prague may be next in line for office market growth. Grade A markets are in large supply in the Czech Republic, as it boasts available buildings with suspended ceilings, raised floors, up-to-date heating and cooling systems, abundance of parking spaces, and magnetic card entry systems. The upward trend may be primed to spread to other major European commerce centers.

As demand for office space rises, the rent for available spaces will trend upward. Higher-quality office spaces are in tight supply in most of Europe, and growing occupier confidence along with positive trends in the economy may move major markets into prime rental growth. London has already seen this effect set in, as prime rent has increased by five percent there so far this year.

While demand for offices is returning in Europe, it has never left the United States. Office Space Planners offers service in planning, designing, and creating office spaces—and has done so in all fifty U.S. states! Office Space Planners is committed to creating the highest quality work environments, and matching your company’s needs with the office that will optimize performance.

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The Cloud, as it relates to office work, is essentially a central storage area for documents and software applications. Rather than have your own personalized copy of a word processing program on your desktop, you and everyone else in the office will access a central copy of the software program stored in the Cloud.

The actual physical location of the Cloud could be somewhere within your own office complex (particularly if yours is a large company), but oftentimes the Cloud is physically located elsewhere. This allows for a central maintenance location that can be managed by specialists. It’s almost like moving your IT professionals to another building where they then work alongside other IT pros, all under the same corporate canopy. And all with the same goal: Efficiently managing all of your company’s electronic information and resources.

One reason that companies are moving to the Cloud is to reduce the burden on their IT people, who would have to perform software installations and updates on each and every device that employees use to access software and files. These days, that amounts to a desktop system, a laptop, a tablet and at least one smartphone for every employee.

Building on this idea, it’s not hard to see that companies would also stand to save money by switching to a Cloud-based system. Experts say that workers with a need to continually access a company’s knowledge base (software and files) from several devices have created an opportunity to offer per-user licensing fees for programs rather that per-device fees. This savings can happen by switching to a Cloud model rather than the old install-everything-on-every-device model.

While some have raised questions about the security of data when stored offsite, others have consistently said that data is more secure in the Cloud than on individual devices.

That debate will likely continue for some time. One thing is fairly certain: Many businesses will be switching to the Cloud model in the years to come. Concerns about the switch are likely to be eased as more and more companies make the transition.

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-Always spend wisely. An obvious guideline when designing on a budget, but it cannot be overemphasized. Wall coverings and furniture are two facets that are all too easy to splurge on, but improvements can be gotten cheaply for both. Consider the maintenance costs when choosing what type of floor to use or install. Carpets are always a good choice, and they can be gotten relatively cheaply.

-Consider your reception area. More and more offices nowadays are getting rid of reception areas entirely. If you want an office with a reception area, ask yourself some questions. Will you frequently have clients coming into your office? Is space at a premium for other purposes? Really, the only reason a reception area should be high on your list of priorities is if clients frequently come to your office to do business. Otherwise, you may well be able to do without.

-Be creative with little finishing touches. It’s easier and cheaper than ever to decorate an office space. Consider blowing up large photographs, using digital artwork, and taking second-hand products and transforming them into inventive decorations. Such inexpensive but modern ways to decorate your office may not only cut costs, but may help project a resourceful image for your business.

-Leave out non-essential luxury entertainment items. Skip the jukebox and pool table. Make sure you’re not being suckered by a designer into buying something hip and expensive if it doesn’t reflect your office culture and doesn’t fit into your budget. Also consider the impact such additions may have on worker productivity—it may not be positive! Some luxuries here and there can be nice, as it’s important to make employees feel welcome and sustain office morale. But make sure not to overdo it.

-Keep the office clean! Make sure that no messes remain festering in your office space—not in bathrooms or shower facilities, not in offices, not in break rooms. Small maintenance costs may help you avoid large repair and overhaul costs later. Keep your space fit for every worker to use, show leadership by keeping it tidy, and watch costs be cut and employees work harder!

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-Make choices with your head, not your heart. It is obvious that you ought to look at the rent pricing and how it fits your budget. However, it is also imperative to make sure the terms of the lease are acceptable. Ask yourself some questions—is your business planning to grow in the near future? Is it likely that you may want to move into a larger office space sometime? If so, make sure that you are not going to be locked into an overly long lease! And remember—beyond rent, there are many other costs to an office space. Bills, maintenance, and appliances can combine to be 80% of a space’s total costs—so make sure you leave room in your budget for running costs!

-Be flexible. Make sure the office space you are looking into can be adapted if your business’ needs change. And be sure that a wide variety of potential hires will find the space aesthetic, appealing, and inviting. Younger employees especially will appreciate bike racks, close proximity to public transit, and office showers—if you aim to attract younger recruits, bear this in mind!

-Coffee is a very high priority! Stereotypes of office workers as massive caffeine fiends have some truth to them. Surveys of Overbury’s employees’ desires in an office frequently placed a demand for good coffee very highly. Seemingly small touches like these can make an office feel much more like home to the coffee drinker, a dominant creature in the office habitat.

-Light can make all the difference. Quality of lighting is known to have a major effect on those trying to study or work. Getting as close to natural daylight as possible is a good plan, as most employees will work efficiently in it. Studies have also suggested that working spaces with plants correlate to higher office productivity. If you don’t believe it, give it a shot!

Office Space Planners is full of creative solutions to get you into a better office—check out our website today!

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Cain theorizes that introverts, who tend to come up with their best ideas alone rather than while working in groups, make up one-third to half of America’s population, including herself. Although most American office spaces are designed with open offices, Cain has been hard at work on an alternative. Susan Cain and design company SteelCase are set to debut their design, “Quiet Spaces,” at NeoCon (not to be confused with the political ideology!), North America’s largest interior design conference.

One of Cain’s main concerns is interruptions in the workspace. Cain claims that introverts and extroverts alike will need double the usual amount of time to complete a task if distracted by chatty co-workers or a similar regular interruption.

The cubicle came into vogue in America around the 1950s, when the lack of walls in a working space was seen by many as a welcome departure from a fully enclosed office. Times have changed, and after such popular culture phenomena as Dilbert, Office Space, and Silicon Valley have satirized the cubicle-based workspace, it is easy to see why some would be excited for a return to closed offices. Cain claims that studies have linked open office workspace to increased stress and higher usage of sick leave time from employees—further signs of possible inefficiency in the cubicle design.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to Cain’s ambitious plan. The current “Quiet Spaces” model calls for a few closed offices inside a standard open office plan, which means it is still a compromise rather than a complete overhaul. (If extroverts prove to prefer open offices, perhaps this compromise is an ideal one.) Open office plans save considerable expense, as private offices carry a higher price tag than standard cubicles. Cain’s closed rooms cost from $10,000 to $25,000 each, and surely some companies will be willing to take the plunge on this new concept.

Is Cain’s quiet-centered office space design for introverts the trend of the future, or is it too radical a departure from standard office designs to catch on? Time will tell, but the research and reasoning behind the Quiet Spaces concept certainly provide food for thought.

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Today, the concept is the subject of continual discussion as design-minded entrepreneurs introduce cutting-edge concepts that, shortly after being introduced, often evolve into something even more creative.

And while it’s always entertaining to imagine a workplace filled with personable robots making quick work of mundane tasks about, the office of the future is already moving in directions that are more down-to-earth.

Seems that even designers and architects are concentrating more on concepts like collaboration, integration and communication. And in tailoring workspaces to the needs of employees as well as to the peculiarities of various company cultures. What might work for, say, a clean-energy startup may not wind up helping the folks who manage the sale and delivery of food items. Rather than simply shove everyone into the same kind of working environment, regardless of company culture, designers are now playing to those aspects that make a company unique.

There are, however, some shared design ideas that transcend company culture.

The number one issue that influences office design everywhere these days is transparency. Formality just doesn’t seem to cut it these days, for all except the most staid of businesses. Glass doors and walls are in, as are barrier-free spaces where underlings work elbow to elbow with head honchos. The benefit? Open workspaces tend to keep minds open, and also exude a ring of authenticity, which helps employees feel trusted and valued, resulting in greater productivity.

Company offices are also becoming more hospitable, whether by adding spaces such as a café or areas set aside for employee rest and relaxation. Some companies are even combining the reception area with a café space. Incoming clients can enjoy a beverage while they observe the workings of the office.

And companies are also stressing sustainability and flexibility. Workstations sometimes aren’t assigned to any one person. Smaller office spaces – the kind where only a couple of people have room to sit across a table from each other – allow workers to closely collaborate without bothering their colleagues.

All of which is meant to project a company image of valuing people first and foremost.

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The telecommuting craze looks to be intensifying. A human resources study from 2013 revealed that more companies planned to offer telecommuting to employees in 2014 than any other workplace perk.

With the craze, of course, come the pitfalls. Here are a few to avoid:

• Forget About Electronic Monitoring – Measuring keystrokes or time spent online via a remote measuring program only creates more stress for everyone. The whole idea of telecommuting is to encourage better and more efficient results, while also boosting employee morale and loyalty. Stationing Big Brother over employees’ shoulders, even virtually, runs counter to those goals.

• Plan, Prepare and Train – Expecting employees to sync with a telecommuting program without first establishing procedures, guidelines and communication principles is a recipe for disaster – both for the telecommuters and their in-office colleagues. Implementing a new program is stressful enough; implementing it prematurely is simply counter-productive.

• Consider Both Sides – It is hardly fair to give a loose set of reins to telecommuters while expecting those still in the office to hold to a different standard. Good planning and preparation are essential to a healthy workplace attitude as well as to a solid job performance.

• Keep It Transparent – The last thing people want to find out is that a colleague who appears to be increasingly “out of the office” has, unbeknownst to any of them, been given the green light to work more hours from home (or from Starbuck’s). Maintain the essentials of the program out in the open.

• Problem Children – No, not those who might occasionally be heard over the speakerphone while an employee participates in a meeting from home. Problem employees are not likely to become model employees simply because they’ve suddenly been allowed to work in their pajamas. Unless it’s obvious that a problem employee’s work will clearly benefit from telecommuting, it’s best not to get rid of the problem by allowing them to work from home.

Communication is the key to a successful telecommuting program, with more contact, not less, a high priority, especially early on.

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The basic idea is to coordinate the energy flow of one’s environment with the habits and actions of those who use it. This, it is believed, brings good fortune.

But is feng shui good for the office, where disharmony can often have the effect of producing profitable outcomes? Or could the practice’s reputed benefits – pumping up creativity and increasing the overall well-being of workers – result in even greater profitability?

Consider these tips, as well as some warnings, about using feng shui in the office:

• Face desks and work surfaces at a diagonal toward the doorway. Never shove a desk against a wall. Or, worse, against the back of another desk. A double diagonal formation, open to the doorway, best enhances energy.

• Play around with so-called fire colors such as oranges, reds, purples and yellows – brightly colored artwork will work – especially in southern corners of offices.

• Remove as much clutter as possible, making sure there is a place for everything. This includes putting away past or incomplete work projects, which only serve as distractions.

• Experiment with levels of lighting rather than one glaring wash. Enhance overhead lights with table and floor lamps. And maintain good air quality by opening windows or introducing air-cleansing plants.

• Rather than installing mirrors in the office, which might reflect bad energy from people coming and going, use the five feng shui elements instead. Wood, which boosts creativity, belongs in an eastern corner; earth items like pottery, which denote balance, can live in the center of the office; metal objects, signs of financial success, go in the western corner; and, water features, which signify openness and communication, should be put in a northern corner.

In short, master the elements of your office environment rather than letting them master you.

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