Happily, we are now in a world of cheap computing power and real-time access to information and expertise.  This has enabled small, entrepreneurial teams to reinvent entire industries with little more than their wits. The ability to innovate like this should make knowledge workers the most important, value-creating asset of any company.  Except for one thing, workers are not an asset. They are people.

Innovation starts and ends with the people who have the talent, aspirations, capacity for unreserved effort and willingness to risk failure.  Therefore, supporting these workers and teams is critical for achieving long term competitive advantage.  Yet, in the competition to attract and retain the most talented workers, companies are still offering obsolete workplaces with draconian command and control policies or they are busy creating new open seating plans in the misguided belief that rearranging the same unfulfilled workers into the latest collaborative formats will spur innovation.

It’s not surprising that traditional corporate workplaces, which often have office utilization rates below 50%, have difficulty responding effectively to demand for a better way to work.  According to primary research sponsored by Serendipity Labs last year, workers feel they lack the mobility, wellness and work-life balance they need. The highest level unmet needs workers describe are for inspiration, autonomy, creative focus, and self actualization.  Indeed, delivering an inspirational experience is a very tall order for facilities managers to fill.  But by satisfying these higher level needs, the most talented workers and teams say they can excel at innovation, creativity and stretching to reach their potential.  Now that is a common goal among companies and their workforces!

 In my recent talk at the Worktech13 conference in New York, I focused on the consumerization of the workplace and how commercial workplace offerings are proliferating in response to worker demand for more inspirational experiences.   In the past 5 years, hotel chains have invested over $6 billion dollars to create workplace experiences in their hotels; from new collaboration-friendly lobbies to high performance meeting venues designed to serve project teams.   The multi-billion dollar workplace-as-a-service (WaaS) industry, including business centers, coworking and other hybrids, is also creating new workplace offerings every day that compete to satisfy workers’ desire for autonomy and inspiration.

For companies seeking to win hearts and minds of the most talented workers, it’s already too late for half measures, incrementalism, and watered down workplace pilot programs.  The time has passed for cheery memos from CEO‘s explaining how working from home (and personally shouldering the company’s real estate burden) will  provide worklife balance or how commuting every single day to the good old HQ to stay up to date on the latest office hub-bub will drive innovation.  The consumerized workplace is replacing the old ways of work as workers choose where when and how they get things done, every day.  The old workplace is dead.  Long live the inspirational workplace.

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Serendipity Labs is very pleased to announce that Zachary Brunner, 24, of Harrison has been named the Serendipity Labs Rye Artist in Residence for spring 2013.

Zach will enjoy complimentary membership at the Rye Serendipity Labs location this spring.   Mr. Brunner commented “I’m glad to be able to work in such an inspiring, friendly environment.”   Jodi Gordon, Community Manager for Serendipity Labs is responsible for curating membership and events to ensure a vibrant and engaging workplace experience.  Ms. Gordon will also be overseeing the selection of this summer’s Artist in Residence in May.

About the Artist

Zach Brunner graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Film in 2011.  He has completed pencils, inks and colors for two full length graphic novels, one of which, “The High Cost of Living Happily Ever After” is available on Amazon.   Zach has provided illustrations and animated content for the off-Broadway musical “Chix 6”, is a collaborator on the “Dragons of Blizzard Island” toy franchise, and works as a storyboard artist for Mercedes Benz among others.  He looks forward to continuing work in the comic book industry and eventually moving back into film as a concept artist.   The artwork above is a character design of a robot whale for the film “Brother” directed by Sari Rodrig.  See select other works at  http://cargocollective.com/zbrunner

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Remember when Telecommuting and Home Officing were supposed to be the “future of work”? These revolutionary ideas were going to redefine work and transform the quality of our lives. But after 20 years of expectation, it hasn’t happened. Why?

Today, less than 2% of US knowledge workers report working from home full-time, and a majority, when given the option, say they would rather not. Even two recessions, which spawned countless corporate work-at-home initiatives, did not prove to be a catalyst for change, despite the potentially huge real estate cost savings to corporations.

The Workplace of the Past.  Back when work was a place, company headquarters always had a centralized and hierarchical spatial design. Workplace design was a class-based system. By rank, every executive, manager or worker got a specific type and amount of space. Space was part of each worker’s identity. Work’s space design legacy supported business processes in which mail and interoffice memos were physically delivered to inboxes on each worker’s desktop. To be away from the office too long meant work would physically and noticeably “pile up”. Suit jackets were regularly left on the backs of chairs as if to say, “even though I am away from my workspace, I am not far away”. Naturally, working at home, far away from the decision makers and mentors left people vulnerable and easily overlooked, if not disregarded. Working from home also meant fewer opportunities to benefit from serendipitous encounters, or to enjoy meaningful social inclusion. With managers using presence and proximity as a measure of employee performance, it’s no wonder working at home never got going.

The Present Workplace. Yes, the old days were rough for home officing, but everything has changed now, right? It was reasoned that with investment in better communications, connectivity and collaboration tools, workers could work from home so they could reduce commute times, improve life balance, wellness and productivity. Renewed interest in home officing has also been fueled with establishment of corporate sustainability initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emission. Great then! Just add better technology to let workers collaborate; add reliable mobile coverage, online and video collaboration, document sharing and ubiquitous internet connectivity. Add vast, free, online social and business networks to post to, check-in with, learn from, video conference with and follow others on…all without ever having to shake a hand. Hey workers can now even go to the water cooler or industry conferences virtually.

So we’re done? Not quite. What about addressing the solitary nature of working from home, safety and security issues, work life integration challenges, management resistance, Low T? What about losing the collective value of mentoring and apprenticeship? What about fostering peer equity so that all ideas are judged on their merit, not impaired by a culture that disenfranchises remote workers? How about offering great work environments to attract the best talent regardless of geographic location? How about ensuring an organization can achieve real estate cost savings while supporting an array of measurable workplace alternatives that meet corporate service level standards from IT and IP protection to sustainability and ergonomics?

Today, alternative workplace choices are in the hands of employees. Workers are choosing their workspace, without regard for policy or best practice. It’s the Wild West. Companies are being forced to move more quickly to establish distributed workplace models that can centrally support, measure and manage remote work activities. So,we’re not there yet.

The Workplace Yet to Come. Companies will need to follow their workers’ desires for decentralized work, but will this usher in a home officing revolution? I wouldn’t wait on that. Sure, knowledge workers will still get work done at home outside of regular business hours, but why should employees dedicate valuable personal real estate for company use, pay to heat and cool their homes during the day for one person, allow work to encroach on family life and worst of all be relegated to sit in cheap chairs, in poor light, in the solitary confines of an extra room, except when interrupted by deliveries, errands and other welcomed distractions?

The Distributed Work Era is under way. Work-life after the centralized HQ workplace is now being brought to reality through significant commercial investment and entrepreneurial innovation. Forward thinking office, retail and hotel property owners, corporate real estate managers, IT/infrastructure managers, designers, and technologists are laying the foundation to support a continuum of workplaces. The world of work yet to come will be physically decentralized, but managed centrally. This can be accomplished through use of branded networks of on-demand workplace providers. Such workplace providers will consider employees and the company as their customers. Work locations near home, but not in the employee’s home, will be the dominant form, reducing commutes and improving work/life separation. These networks of workplaces will be designed to support the collaboration and meeting space needs of a growing mobile and remote workforce, with provisioning and space reservation technology to enable workers to seamlessly traverse suburban coworking facilities, urban collaboration centers, business centers, hotels and of course redesigned corporate facilities. Such high performance workplaces will provide safe, secure and friendly service along with the social interaction and sense of community most high performing workers crave.

An exciting array of consumerized workplace alternatives will support the Distributed Work Era, offering branded workplace networks to suit every worker’s need for workplace portability, social inclusion and service, while providing for centralized corporate measurement and management. The privilege of working in this set of high performance workplace environments will empower and drive productivity from the most valuable and trusted workers. As a result, well supported remote work privileges may soon supplant the corner office as the ultimate a symbol of workplace achievement.

Yahoo! Now you can defend your misguided decision and yet still offer opportunity for your most valued employees to traverse the full spectrum of workplaces, even working at home as a last resort.

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The environment lends itself to productivity; workers …”

Source: Liz Giegerich, “‘Work Alone, Together’ at New Rye Workspace”, Rye Patch (December 12, 2012)

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While the Serendipity Labs brand positioning is meant to attract talented knowledge workers and provide an inspirational, flexible, workplace experience, we are often inspired by our members’ and guests’ personal and professional brands.

Working close to home, but not at home, flexible, sustainable, connected and secure.

Reid, we like how you roll.

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More importantly, Chris has captured the essence of an enormous anthropological shift in just a few simple observations that any listener can relate to. Knowledge workers can now choose how when and where they work because technology enables mobility and accountability. Meanwhile, companies are aggressively slashing office space obligations 30% to 50%, and are reinventing their remaining space to support innovation as a competitive advantage.

What is not new, is that face-to-face human interaction leads to unexpected discovery (serendipity) and valuable innovation. Finding the right mix of space, that allows workers to collaborate, cogitate and connect when they need to, means offering more than one design typology, not just rows of open plan picnic tables.

Cities may not fall, but we can certainly avoid millions of unnecessary commutes, achieve better work-life integration, and allow the best ideas to flourish when we all move away from our Mad Men ways and into the new world of work.

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Meanwhile, in the corporate realm, alternative workplace initiatives are liberating hundreds of thousands of middle and senior managers from traditional centralized offices. A generation of workers is being un-tethered from their desks. As companies rush to downsize and reinvent the centralized workplace, emancipated corporate workers are finding themselves working from home. Yet, over 80% of corporate workers still say they would rather not work from home due to isolation, distractions from work and interference with home life.

As an alternative or adjunct to working from home, most coworking options, as they have sprouted up so far, just aren’t located, designed, serviced or even meant to meet the standards of a professional workforce. And many corporate executives don’t feel comfortable working in the hip, techie terrariums or collectivist camps that have defined coworking spaces so far.

So is coworking not for grownups?

Independent research by StrategyOne, funded this year by Serendipity Labs, provides new insights into the coworking experience that corporate workers would create if they could. Over 150 corporate workers were recruited for a two month long, online research project. Participants loaded photos of their ideal workspaces, commented, and engaged in an ongoing online dialogue about their workplace needs. The participants came from a variety of industries and roles. The three groups of participants were: those without workplace flexibility, those with flexibility and corporate recruiters.

The research indicates corporate knowledge workers rank the top needs as follows:

1. Spacious, clean design, natural light
2. Location close to home, but not at home
3. Quiet spaces, confidentiality, ability to focus
4. Reliability of technology and services
5. IT security, material and personal safety
6. Flexible, inspiring , collaborative spaces
7. Accessibility to transportation & amenities
8. Social interaction, community, networking

Interestingly, according to secondary research, independent creative class workers also consistently named the same needs, but ranked their importance in almost the exact opposite order. We invite you to comment with your own insights. For additional findings of this research, contact us: info@serendipitylabs.com

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Remember when Home Officing was supposed to be the “future of work?”   It was going to redefine work and transform the quality of our lives. But after 20 years of expectation, it hasn’t happened. Why?

Today, less than 2% of US knowledge workers report working from home full-time, and a majority, when given the option, say they would rather not. Even two recessions, which spawned countless corporate work-at-home initiatives, did not prove to be a catalyst for change, despite the potentially huge real estate cost savings to corporations.

In a recent podcast on NPR, Stephen Dubner  fails to see the cake for the crumbs while focusing on an interesting study, “Does Working From Home Work?  Evidence From a Chinese Experiment.”

There is a third way, a better way, that addresses the needs of both knowledge workers and employers, and that’s what we are doing at Serendipity Labs.   Here’s why.

The post Who Wants Cake in the Breakroom? appeared first on Serendipity Labs, Coworking and Collaboration.

Source: John Golden, “Making space for a new work era”, Westchester Business Journal (August 16th, 2012)

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Serendipity Labs plans a rapid expansion of the network through company-owned and franchised locations as well as locations managed on behalf of corporate clients and real estate partners, starting with locations in Rye, NY and midtown Manhattan. Each location will be staffed by a team trained in world class hospitality standards and served by the proprietary cloud-based technology platform, OASIS™, that delivers internet access, phone service, secure wi-fi and access control at enterprise service level standards.

“30% of US knowledge workers are now un-tethered from the corporate workplace, a figure projected to reach 60% by 2020. These knowledge workers are now choosing where they work and how they collaborate, the same way they choose their own mobile devices,” said John Arenas, Serendipity Labs, CEO. “Meanwhile, working from home hasn’t met their need for human interaction, collaboration, productivity or work-life balance. The result is a massive shift toward the ‘consumerization’ of real estate and away from traditional office space. We believe in creating environments that not only facilitate productivity, but also inspire success, and we are proud to deliver a transformational workplace experience to our members and their guests. Whether it’s for individual focus, team interaction, or virtual collaboration, Serendipity Labs provides the engaging and inspirational alternative that workers are looking for, while enabling companies to reduce real estate costs and attract the most talented workers.”

Serendipity Labs recently completed an equity funding round, attracting a minority investment by strategic partner Steelcase, Inc. (SCS:NYSE). The partnership with Steelcase allows Serendipity Labs to benefit from Steelcase’s highly respected workplace design guidance, research insights and vision. “We are always exploring new ways to create value through our insights, workplace designs and integrated technology products. We believe we can help power exceptional experiences in this next generation of workplace-as-a-service solutions. Our involvement with Serendipity Labs is consistent with that goal,” said John Malnor, VP Growth Initiatives at Steelcase.

About Serendipity Labs, Inc.
Serendipity Labs, Inc. (www.serendipitylabs.com) and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Serendipity Labs Franchise International, LLC and Serendipity Labs Management, LLC are leading the way in delivering high performance workplace-as-a-service experiences supported by a cloud-based enterprise-wide service delivery platform. The Serendipity Labs executive team is comprised of professionals with deep domain expertise in alternative workplace services, enterprise collaboration technology, commercial real estate and franchising.

About Steelcase, Inc. For 100 years, Steelcase Inc. (SCS:NYSE) has helped create great experiences for the world’s leading organizations — wherever work happens. Steelcase and our family of brands — including Steelcase®, Coalesse®, Designtex®, Details®, Nurture®, PolyVision® and Turnstone® — offer a comprehensive portfolio of furnishings, products and services designed to unlock human promise and support social, economic and environmental sustainability. We are globally accessible through a network of channels, including approximately 650 dealers. Steelcase is a global, industry-leading and publicly traded company with fiscal 2012 revenue of $2.75 billion. More information can be found at www.steelcase.com

Contact: Amanda Hass
pr (at) serendipitylabs.com

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