What Can Workplace Design Learn From Human Psychology?

Perkins&Will’s Kim Rousseau takes a have a look at what at this time’s office design practitioners can study from an 80-year-old principle of human psychology.

As a lifelong educational who spent his four-decade-long profession in college school rooms and analysis labs, the famed mid-20^th Century psychologist Abraham Maslow by no means labored in a company workplace and most definitely by no means even set foot in a single.

Nonetheless, 80 years later, his famed 1943 “Hierarchy of Wants” principle supplies a prescient lens for at this time’s most urgent office design challenges.

Hierarchy of Office Wants

Sometimes depicted as a visible within the type of a pyramid with 5 tiers, Maslow’s principle holds that human motivation is predicated on the pursuit of 5 completely different ranges of wants starting with probably the most fundamental physiological wants (meals, water, security/safety, and so on.) after which increasing to incorporate psychological wants like “belongingness,” love and emotions of status and accomplishment. Lastly, if every of those extra fundamental wants are being met, people can then be motivated to attain higher-level targets and, finally, what Maslow termed “self-actualization,” the achievement of 1’s full potential.

Practitioners of modern-day human-centered office design, whether or not they’re conversant in Maslow or not, usually method their work with an analogous foundation of understanding. Merely put, if employees’ most simple wants aren’t being met—in the event that they’re too scorching or chilly, if it’s too noisy, or if glare from the daylight is making it tough for them to learn their laptop screens—they gained’t be motivated (and even psychologically in a position) to reach higher-level work-related duties.

Within the early days of the pandemic and the next early phases of “return to workplace,” the main target was squarely on these sorts of base-level well being and wellness considerations (ie, the backside of Maslow’s pyramid): Was there ample house for social distancing? Was there adequate air flow? How have been shared areas to be utilized safely?

It was a major step backward for the office as a result of, within the years instantly prior, the company world had lastly reached the purpose of orienting workplace designs towards the very high of the pyramid, creating areas that helped employees develop and maximize abilities, heighten creativity and pursue big-picture targets and wholesome, balanced life.

Whereas these targets can, ought to and do stay because the aspiration of any/all significant office design ideations taking place at this time, the teachings we’ve collectively realized throughout this ongoing return-to-office part ought to modify our focus extra intently towards the center of the pyramid into the foreseeable future.

After a protracted (in some instances, multi-year) interval of work-from-home isolation, the workplace employee’s middle-of-the-pyramid want for group, belongingness and the ensuing emotions of acceptance, respect and love has by no means been better. As Maslow himself noticed, human beings are social creatures who yearn for constructive social interplay and the advantages that come from it.

So how can organizational leaders and office designers work collectively to develop workplaces and a office tradition that meets this second? With this Maslowian framework in thoughts, taking our cues from the household and from the non secular world would appear becoming.

Household Inspiration

Households, as we all know, draw their energy largely from generational affect and modeling: parent-to-child, grandparent-to-grandchild, older-sibling-to-younger-sibling. Are our workplaces designed to foster like-kind relationships amongst coworkers? Virtually talking, are there an ample quantity of socially pushed areas the place individuals from completely different generations (Child Boomers, Gen X’ers, Millennials and Gen Z’ers) can come collectively for casual mentoring alternatives and to study by experiencing. (Notice: This isn’t a one-way avenue: Boomers and Gen Xers have simply as a lot to study from their youthful colleagues as visa-versa.)

The household house, the place so many people have turn into extremely accustomed to working (to the simple detriment of the workplace), supplies a helpful inspiration for any such work surroundings. Are you on the lookout for intense privateness? Retreating to your bed room and shutting the door is the most definitely resolution. Quite the opposite, residing rooms and different such areas are largely social in nature, but additionally present quiet pockets for extra intimate one-to-one interactions. On the far finish of the spectrum, in fact, are kitchens: full of motion, high-energy, a large number of various exercise sorts and bigger full-family-sized interactions like meals.

Does your office pay deference to all three varieties of areas? Does it allow free motion and the power for workforce members to shift to various kinds of workspaces relying on the time of day, job at hand and even their temper? Now greater than ever, office design professionals have to suppose when it comes to radically human-based options that create alternatives for employees to return collectively, draw inspiration from each other, have enjoyable(!) and reestablish social connections (with out abandoning sensible, base-level issues like acoustics and the necessity for not less than occasional privateness).

Religious Inspiration

As beforehand talked about, the very best traditions of the non secular world present one other useful information. Particularly, how can workplaces allow the person to shift their focus outward towards the well-being of others and the group at massive.

In a pattern that was ushered in by Silicon Valley tech corporations starting within the early 2000s (some would argue, for less-than-altruistic causes) numerous organizations from all sectors have sought to create the artifice of group with in-house cafes and bars staffed by baristas and mixologists, exercise/leisure services, and even breakfast, lunch and dinner service—all inside their very own 4 partitions.

What if our subsequent technology of workplace designs as a substitute look to push individuals out into the group for these group–based mostly actions? What if workplace buildouts are literally smaller and organizations look to interact with motels, eating places and co-working services—all entities which might be important to a group’s wellbeing however have struggled because the starting of the pandemic—when planning bigger conferences or consumer leisure? And to take that thought one other step additional, what if we appeared to repurpose vacant workplace house (and even complete workplace buildings) for these kinds of communal makes use of?

Let’s cease making an attempt to duplicate group throughout the 4 partitions of an workplace and take into consideration designing workplace areas to be part of the precise group at massive.

In conclusion, the idea of a well-designed office appearing to hasten its occupants’ “self-actualization” stays as an aspirational aim for all mission-driven office professionals, no matter whether or not they subscribe to Maslow’s worldview, and even know his title. However on this present protracted “return-to-office” paradigm, consideration must be given initially to extra fundamental human wants—particularly our starvation for constructive, joyful and life-affirming social interplay.