Biophilia and Nature Near, The Sounds and Sight of a Stream

     I share this video made recently while walking the hills around Montpelier with our new puppy and family members.  This is for those of you near and far who appreciate the sounds of nature and especially this one of spring time in Vermont.  I believe in the importance of embracing nature in design, especially well defined by the word biophilia. 

     Championed by noted biologist E.O. Wilson, it means "an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world." Oxford Online Dictionary.  Too often natural elements such as the sounds of water, the oxygenated aroma's of plant and the texture of river stones, other natural materials are absent from our daily experience inside our homes, workplaces, where we shop and worship.  

     Much of my work as an architect and workplace designer involves bringing the natural back into the everyday experience inside.  What better antidote to the cacophony of cell phones, sirens, sounds of everyday cosmopolitan life than soothing sounds of water, smells of plants and textures of materials. Where possible I believe it intrinsically valuable to creating a sense of well being to include water features and ample  plantings into interior environments.  So many of us spend the majority of our lives inside these days working long weeks whether at the office or as mobile untethered workers at home, coworking spaces, libraries, coffee houses etc.  

     Smart business people who want to create welcoming environments for work, play, shopping, learning, worship would do well to bring nature near. 

      

Letting Nature Speak - Lines Which Inspire

Today I skied Stowe's Mountain's heralded Perry Merrill trail in gorgeous March sun.

Hoar frost stuck intensely to the branches today frozen their from last night's sudden snow and drop in temperatures.  The upper reaches of the mountain was a wintry wonderland and a true albeit ironic gift of spring.

This is what inspires me to design.  Nature's gifts!

Fingers of branches reaching up to the sky yearning to burst forth with Spring's budding energy.

Thoughts for 2011_Vermont Business Leaders Networking Group and The Workplace

As December slips away many of us turn our thoughts to what 2011 will bring.  What a year we've lived through.  I won't elaborate but it's been a dynamic one, full of transition, transformation and definitely innovation.  Remember, be sure to look towards the end of this post for strategic business suggestions for 2011 relating to the high performing workplace.

This morning I participated at my first ever bricks and mortar LinkedIn networking event.  Vermont Business Leaders Networking Group, about a year old or so, routinely holds meetings hosted at member office locations. Renato Wakim of OM Workspace's Williston showroom hosted this month's gathering.  They're at new digs at 20 Wintersports lane.

CPA's,  Financial Services, Interior Designers, HR/ Organizational Design consultants, Architects, Online Retailers, Transition Planners all came together to meet and greet.  We discussed outlooks for 2011, and it was pretty positive.

Today we heard some positive economic signals with lower unemployment figures and rise in personal income among other factors.  Retailers are seeing higher levels of spending and activity this holiday season as compared to last.  Are we truly moving out of this miserable recession?  Leading economic indicators were up 1.1 %.  See Fox News article.  9 out of 10 indicators were moving in positive directions.  Mergers and acquisitions saw tremendous growth the most since 2007, 1.1 $Trillion. with signs this growth will continue into 2011.

The folks around the table seemed to think so from there position on the ground.   Although it's going fairly slowly right now, it seemed the consensus while muted now was pretty positive for 2011.

What does this mean for you and your business and industry for next year?  One area we discussed was how so many companies are sitting on piles of cash reserves built up over the last couple years and are beginning to make plans for spending, or at least considering it in 2011.

The Value of Design Thinking

Design is an active participatory and collaborative process. It is a verb not a noun. Design is really design thinking applied to problem solving or creatively surmounting challenges we face in business. Design and design thinking equals value creation. It's participatory because the design process does not operate in a vacuum.

The design thinking and doing process means engaging with others in value setting conversations and active design sessions of brainstorming, sketching, prototyping, pricing. These cycles of design move from the fuzzy blank paper stage to the implementation, creation, building, roll-out stage and finally into the living and using stage which is why it's so much fun.

It's also why it is so much work. So many factors effect design thinking on one hand it seems extremely complex and the other it is beautifully simple. The idea of honing down, clarifying, editing of design concepts into functioning, attractive and sustainable realities keeps me coming back for more. It is a process which builds upon itself. Good ideas become richer for it. So does the conversation and the learning!

If you think about it the action of design involves identifying something missing, whether it is designing a new workplace or home or better yet, redesigning an existing one, re-purposing and renewing it for a new chapter of living or working.

Marry the design thinking process with sustainable green design and game changing results can happen. A new re-energized future awaits you.

Address wherever you can in your process consider energy flows and usage, water conservation, resource conservation and recycling, creating long-term effective behavioral interactions, create and preserve healthy indoor air quality. Re-direct choices people make when using your product, service, building or software into greener more long-term value's driven decisions.

Bill Strickland Jr., Manchester Bidwell Corporation and WMCAT

A few weeks ago I met Bill Strickland Jr. at NEOCON, World's Trade Fair in Chicago June 15-17th. It was at Steelcase's Green Giant's Monday Night Reception where he spoke about his inspirational work building Manchester Bidwell Craftsman's Guild and Corporation in Pittsburg over the last generation. He told the story of how he followed his passion in making pottery into an organic improv journey of creation of alternative educational programs in the inner city neighborhood of Manchester. He turned the impossible into the possible so to speak and lit up the minds and hearts of underprivileged young people and adult learners along the way. As years went by he built momentum and enthusiasm for his work by galvanizing the local private sector when public funding and support waned. He turned this into a powerful process of continual reinvention with his team of talented educators where they reached out to industry and provided needed various kinds of workforce training to fill demand in local corporations in exchange for program and operational support.

He won a Macarthur Genius grant, started the grammy award winning MCG Jazz Record label and created nurturing student centered learning environments and facilities. He also wrote a book which I recently read on my vacation to Michigan titled "Make the Impossible Possible" which is found on his non-profit website.

His message where we all have something really valuable to offer our world and to follow our dreams and our passions. By building bridges and seeking sincere relationships with others of shared viewpoints inspired me to visit a program in Grand Rapids modeled on the MBC and Bill's visionary work, the Western Michigan Center for Arts and Technology. It opened in 2005 and in 2007, I believe received it's USGBC Leed for Commercial Interiors Silver Certification signifying a strong committment to providing a quality, healthy learning environment for area high school age arts students and adult learners gaining skills in medical technologies.

I didn't have too much time for my visit but I took a look around the front lobby / reception area and ducked into various learning spaces as well as enjoyed the central commons area where there was a cafe like setting. The central downtown location was literally across the street from the City Library, other businesses, a YWCA and other services. There was a children's museum across the street. Visiting WMCAT really reinforced Bill's message of the importance of creating world class environments for learning. As I couldn't visit Pittsburg this was the second best I could do to experience the MBC philosophy in action, adapted to Grand Rapids. WMCAT is really important because it shows the adaptability of the MBC model here and for other areas of the country.

Harvard Business School has been Studying the work of MBC over the last 10 years or so updating and refining a series of case studies first examining the initial programs and ideas but now looking at the replication of the model to other communities around the country. I can think of the MBC model being useful for those in my community in Vermont as we ponder the future of education and workforce training of our children and adult learners some who are seeking alternative careers due to job cuts and other drastic effects of our economy. I bet the Green Workforce training initiatives being discussed in Washington and State Capitals around the country could learn from the public private cooperative initiatives MBC has championed over the years and create good well paying sustainable, useful jobs for the next generation. (Photo of Bill Strickland courtesy of Bill-Strickland.org, Building Photos by S. Frey)

World 2.0 - Emerging Work Strategies Changing the Workplace

How to cope in today's changed marketplace? What kinds of choices may company executives make in today's harsh economic climate to help lower business costs? Can green and sustainability principles be of help for companies seeking to regenerate themselves? Steelcase's Workplace Futures Group headquartered in Grand Rapids just recently produced a fascinating Deep Dive 360 for June, How Emerging Work Strategies are Changing the Workplace: Telecommuting was just the beginning.

Here's are two lists from the Study. They summarize data gained from a joint Steelcase and CoreNet Global 2009 Sate of the Industry Report, March 31, 2009. So the data is fairly fresh and perhaps helpful. It certainly identifies the kinds of choices and behaviors organizations have made in the last year or so as the economy melted down. However, many are short sighted stop gap measures, and do not offer healthy sustainable long-term choices.

HOW COMPANIES ARE CUTTING PROPERTY COSTS

1. Redesign office space to increase density


2. Deferment of capital projects / Expansion plans


3. Implement telework programs


4. Accelerate projects that reduce ongoing expenses


5. Restructure leases


6. Shift work to lower cost locations


7. Move to lower cost facilities


8. Cancel capital projects / expansion plans


9. Reduce / Defer maintenance


10. Sale of owned properties


11. Exercise early termination options in leases
    

ALTERNATIVE WORK STRATEGIES IN USE, RANKED BY POPULARITY OF USE.

1. Telework or telecommuting in which an employee works from home, substituting telecommunications for the commute to work.


2. Mobile work, a work style in which a person consistently uses multiple spaces, both inside and out of the office, to accomplish his/her work.


3. Hotelling temporary workspaces assigned through a reservation system; typically used by mobile workers but also used by any worker not near his/her assigned workstation.


4. Home office used as an alternative location to the primary office. Employees may work from home on a set schedule or on an as-needed basis.


5. Satellite offices which are smaller spaces located in areas closer to employee’s homes for greater convenience.

Does any of this help you and your company? Are you and your team exploring other strategies which are working for you? What are they? Largely absent are longer term Green Workplace Strategies and a Triple Bottom Lined approaches putting People, Planet and Profits into the overall space strategy equation.