One should be wary of obtuse dogmatism in many areas. This also applies to new workspaces.
A recent article published in a daily newspaper in French-speaking Switzerland quoted the latest work of a professor from the HEC Paris. The text mentioned that “open-spaces are good for electronic messages”. This was followed by a demonstration that new concepts are only introduced by managers for cost reasons. Finally, the article referred to the study conducted by two Harvard researchers who studied two (you read “two”!) companies before and after transforming their offices, highlighting the negative effects of these transformations.
First, any first-year student of statistics knows that a panel of two companies to conduct a study involving millions of people around the world is not credible. This famous study has, moreover, been strongly criticized for several months now by workspace specialists, as the results of this study diverge so much from their own experiences. Let us look for the error…
Daily life “slightly” lacks distancing by presenting a truncated vision of reality and showing a possible but minority facet. Moreover, quoting a reference via a professor whose unilateralism in terms of workspaces is easily recognized is not very ethical professionally.
We must be careful not to give definitive answers in these areas because they are constantly evolving and depend on many factors. Moreover, the term “open-spaces” should be banished from the vocabulary, as it has been misused and confused with much more elaborate and efficient systems.
The newspaper in question will always be able to argue that it was a mere opinion in a “non-editorial” section. These subjects are sensitive and require tact, professional ethics, and total transparency. From there to believing that the professor quoted, or the journalist are “anti-open-spaces” because they live such a concept daily, there is a step that should perhaps not be taken…
New working concepts do not only depend on furniture and fittings: it is a change of culture to be operated and accompanied.
Management must be trained and supported when introducing such a concept. If this is the case, the figures quoted by the study are almost completely reversed! Change management is one of the keys to success. Why not mention it? It would make the whole thing more credible and, above all, it would contribute to the objective information that we can expect…
No hard feelings and above all, take care of yourself and especially of others, especially if they work in “Open-space”.