Change Your Space, Change Your Culture

Book excerpt: The fastest, easiest way to shift culture toward engagement and productivity Change Your Space, Change Your Culture is a guide to transforming business by rethinking the workplace. Written by a team of trail-blazing leaders, this book reveals the secrets of companies that discovered the power of culture and space. This insightful guide reveals what companies lose by viewing office space as something to manage or minimize. With practical tips and implementation details, the book helps the reader see that the workspace is, in fact, a crucial driver of productivity and morale. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture was born out of recent studies that expose truly outrageous "Oh, my God" realities: More than 70 percent of the workforce either hates their job or they are just going through the motions. Half of all office space is wasted. Those shattering facts exist because office space is generally regarded as "overhead" or "sunk cost." Most buildings today clearly communicate the low priority placed on people-friendly design. Poor workforce engagement is baked into the culture. This book provides guidance on turning this around, by rethinking and reshaping space to align with the way people work. Specifically, this book moves from the high-altitude view down to the details on how to: Discover the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way to shift culture Add square footage by using space more effectively Boost employee engagement and vitality by the creative use of space Learn how space can become a powerful productivity tool We all know that design, space, and flow have a powerful effect on the human psyche. Our homes, museums, sports arenas, places of worship, and even airport terminals reveal that. Environment can inspire dread or enthusiasm, distraction or focus, collaboration or isolation. That's why the office must be designed to inspire the desired culture and workflow – if it's not properly designed, no program, training or rules will be effective over time. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture is the practical guide to office space, the foundation of an engaging culture.