508 Interior Design Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. campus and as a meeting area for employees. The offi ces are open, with collaborative spaces and lounges in which coworkers can socialize and engage. Individ- ual work and collaborative work can occur anywhere in the complex. For the imaginative and artistic minds at Pixar, this is the kind of place they always dreamed of working. It is a place where work does not feel like work, which is a refl ection of the company’s offi ce environment. In contrast, because employees have a different way of working in an accounting fi rm, the offi ce design would look very different from the offi ce designs for IDEO or Pixar employees. Supporting Communication and Collaboration Two signifi cant issues that impact offi ce design today are communication and collaboration. To determine how employees work individually and with each other, design- ers conduct surveys to gather details on communication preferences. For instance, do employees prefer e-mail versus face-to-face conversations, and how much collab- oration do employees need to accomplish their work? The younger workforce today prefers more teamwork and collaboration than previous generations, Figure 14-22. Gensler, one of the world’s well-renowned architectural and design fi rms, developed a Workplace Performance Index (WPI) to understand how people work within organizations and how workplace planning and design can best support their activities. Gensler’s WPI revealed that offi ce work falls into four categories: ■ learn ■ collaborate ■ focus ■ socialize In today’s economy, workplace success is determined not just by what people know, but by how fast they can learn. Gensler data indicates that workers at top companies spend 80 percent more time learning than their peers in average companies. Collaboration is a workplace activity characterized by sharing, connecting, and building on ideas through a group process resulting in innovation and productivity. Proximity to each other in the offi ce and visual contact help people interact. Focused work is free of distractions and interruptions. Designers can create an offi ce design, or workplace environment, that supports the privacy employees need for focused work. Social networks help organizations solve problems, learn, innovate, and adapt. The resulting sense of community creates pathways of information sharing and helps to align values, culture, and mission. According to Gensler researchers, at top-performing companies, workers socialize 16 percent more than peers at average compa- nies. Workplace design can enhance socializing through the development of such collaborative work spaces as non-dedicated team areas. This type of space allocation, which may be as much as 35 percent of the new offi ce model, refl ects the practical realities of today’s mobile, collaboration-intensive work style. Goodluz/Shutterstock.com Figure 14-22 Greater collaboration and teamwork are characteristic needs of today’s workforce. millann/Shutterstock.com