What Makes a Cool Office?

Photo Courtesy of Glassdoor

Eric Markowitz and Christine Lagorio-Chafkin asked What Makes a Cool Office? Short answer: It’s more than pool tables and free food. So they asked design buffs weigh in on how to build a creative, collaborative, and innovative workspace. Jason Freedman, founder of 42Floors, stated it well.

“The core job of the CEO is to create the space where people can do incredible work,” says Freedman. “And when you think of the CEO’s job in that perspective, the office becomes a huge part of the job. And yet, it’s also the thing they’re least qualified to do, because most of the time they’ve never done it before.”

Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many executives take the checkbox approach to innovation. That is, they think that setting up an innovation organization/lab is all that needs to be done. Beware These 4 Magic Bullets:
1. Build an innovation lab. 2. Tear down all the walls. 3. Copy company XYZ’s best practices. 4. Acquire the latest and greatest technology and gadgets.
Inspirational, Innovative Offices
Not unlike other startup businesses experiencing growth, Avado is using the opportunity as we prepare to double and then triple in size to craft a great work space. Knowing the exact timing of our growth wouldn’t be predictable, we initially chose to setup shop in a co-work space which allowed us a flexible lease and an easy ability to add people.
People have joined Avado due to our team, vision and mission, however we also want our office space to be a further attraction. Thus far, our office has been a neutral factor but we believe that we can remain on a prudent budget while creating a compelling work environment where people know they can do their best work. See How Quid Built a Beautiful Start-up Headquarters on a Dime.
Since there is no universal answer, I’ve curated some of the best slideshows and articles that you and your team can review. One of the recurring themes from the “cool office” articles is gathering input from the team about what they’d value most since it varies. An additional challenge is knowing that as we grow and hire different types of people, our space needs to support that. For example, the team has primarily been engineers yet we are expecting to also grow in sales, client services and business development.
One thing I know we want to continue is the serendipity and flexibility we get with hot desking – different people work near each other on different days depending on projects and when people arrive at work. As we grow, we want to maintain this so we can reinforce the team dynamic.
Set aside time to thumb through the slideshows in the articles below. You may also have a chance to visit some local workspaces. Often co-work spaces have elements of what you’ll see here. My favorite is CoCo Minneapolis (see slideshow here). I particularly like the array of meeting spaces that have been created fostering collaboration.