In episode 352, host Mike Petrusky speaks with Jeff Frick from the Work 20XX and Turn the Lens podcasts. Frick is a media entrepreneur who’s passionate about the future of work, leadership, and innovation, and he and Petrusky dive into his current views on the workplace and the role of the built environment in the future of work. The two explore how the physical office can serve as a place for meaningful interactions and experiences and discuss the role that technology can play in understanding space utilization and employee experience. Frick believes leaders should focus on creating environments where people can deliver their best work. He sees the future office as more flexible, with a focus on hospitality and services.
Agenda
- Predictions on the changing workplace environment
- Role of technology and innovation in the industry
- Practical advice for facility management leaders
What you need to know: Workplace takeaways
Takeaway 1: The role of the office is evolving to prioritize employee experience and collaboration over traditional fixed spaces
The office has gone from being a place where people simply come to work at a desk to being a space that fosters meaningful interactions and a high-quality employee experience.
“When people are in the built environment, they do have that great experience, that’s mainly determined by if there’s other people there that they want to see,” explains Frick.
Frick says it’s important to create a variety of activities and experiences within the office to enhance its value. “What makes an offsite very effective and important is that you’ve got a specific objective that you’re trying to accomplish. You’re bringing people together for a specific reason. You’ve got a variety of activities during that offsite,” he says. The office, he suggests, should now function more like an offsite, with amenities and services that support collaboration and creativity, such as podcast studios and flexible spaces.
Takeaway 2: The future of corporate real estate will be characterized by more flexible, shared, and amenity-rich spaces
Frick predicts the built environment will become more like a conference hotel, with a higher percentage of flexible and shared spaces compared to dedicated offices and open floor plans.
“I think the facilities and the amenities, and the services delivered will feel more like a nice conference hotel facility than the office of the 90s. I think there’s going to be more flex, less fixed,” he shares.
His example: People prefer taking phone calls in larger spaces, such as boardrooms, even when they are alone. “There’s a big instance where it showed all the boardrooms were filled, but when they went and checked it out, all the boardrooms are filled with one or two people at a time taking calls because they like the space,” he observes.
He also stresses the importance of understanding and responding to the changing needs of employees. “As someone goes through their day, what are the different activities and experiences they’re going to go through as opposed to this is your desk, you sit here all day and then you go home at the end of the day,” he says. The built environment should be designed to support these dynamic needs, ensuring that employees have access to the right spaces at the right times.
Takeaway 3: Workplace innovation requires a shift in mindset from housing employees to enabling their best work
“Don’t assume what was was correct, right, or that we’re going to go back to. We’re just going keep going forward, and I think what’s most important is to think of your constituents, the folks in the building, and to shift your mindset. It’s not how I can house them but how I can help them create an environment where they deliver the best work of their lives,” he says. It’s an approach that focuses on the employee experience and how space can contribute to overall organizational success.
Frick shares a paraphrased quote from Phil Kirchner, who emphasized the importance of facilities in a company’s success: “If you change attitude as a facilities person, assume the book is written about the company’s success. Could you look the CEO in the eye and say, ‘I can show that this facility and what it brings earned a chapter in the book of the company’s success’?” That means facility managers should think beyond mere space management and consider how the environment can directly impact business outcomes.
Part of the process is being open to not always being right. “I think the other piece is, you know, if you’re trying a bunch of things, some things are going to fail. So, I think you build around experiments that don’t go well, it’s going to encourage people to take more experiments and ultimately, it’s, it’s more people trying more things just as a rule of numbers is ultimately going to impact and create more innovations,” Frick says.
Workplace management insights
- The focus in corporate real estate and facility management should shift from housing people to creating an environment where they can deliver their best work.
- The office is evolving to become more like a conference hotel, with more flexible and shared spaces and hospitality services.
- Technology should be used to enhance the experience of people in the office, not just for remote collaboration, by facilitating serendipitous encounters and better understanding space utilization.
- The built environment should support various activities and experiences throughout the day, adapting to the changing needs of employees.
- Innovation in the workplace involves giving more data and decision-making power to those closest to the problems and customers and being open to learning from failure.
Do a deep dive into more workplace insights by exploring all Workplace Innovator podcast episodes
