I work in end-user computing and we are pretty focused on improving personal productivity, mobile working and collaboration, but the irony is that for all the buzz about mobile working our users spend most of their time sitting down and it’s not good for them. For background I’ve linked to...
I’m seeing a lot more burnout at work for many reasons, all of them very disturbing. It’s bad for the employer because people become disengaged, productivity suffers, stress increases all around, sickness levels increase and retention suffers. It’s clearly bad for the individuals and their families and it’s also bad...
I’ve been passionate about workplace design for over 20 years, in fact I think my interest started way back when I redesigned my bedroom in preparation for my GCSEs. My Dad had bought me a large office desk that was surplus to requirements and it transformed my home working environment. ...
It’s been 264 days since I last bought anything new, not because I don’t have the money, but because I decided that I had enough stuff in my life. Well that ‘buying fast’ came to an end today with the purchase of a Surface Pro 3. I’ve owned a first...
As I’ve said on this blog many times, throughout my career my over-riding motivation and interest has been to make peoples lives better. For the last 20 of those years it’s been by improving their productivity, eliminating frustrations, improving autonomy, enabling effective team working and creating work spaces that enhance...
I spend a considerable time consuming information, in fact I probably spend more time reading, listening and watching work related content than I do any other activity in my day. Consuming for it’s own sake though isn’t very satisfying, I need a purpose in life and that purpose is enabled,...
I’m a big fan of “How I Work” articles and books, they are some of my favourite reads, for example Inc Magazine has a recurring feature and Lifehacker has their This Is How I Work Series, I even have one of my own. Reading these articles regularly enforces the point...
As part of HP’s happiness at work initiative they have listed 25 new places to work. I’ve repeated the list (minus a few of the less relevant ones like the Eiffel Tower!) below with my comments in blue: The garden. There’s nothing like an English summer. And even if the...
Years ago I setup a collaborative working environment for my team, the idea was for the environment to be really social, we had lots of breakout rooms, large tables where people could sit together, comfy seats, whiteboards everywhere a library area and of course quiet space for when you needed...
Back in 2001, I was given the opportunity to create my own team. It was a great opportunity and I pulled a team of about 30 people together to work on Architecture and Systems Integration projects in the Infrastructure arena. We hit upon a slight problem though we could not find any space within the existing company buildings in the area. This presented us with another great opportunity, work from home, or find and design our own office. This is the story of how we designed our Office and what we learned.