Is Your Open Office Causing a Creative Crisis?

 

Barbarian Group's 1,100-foot-long desk.

Whenever Ben walks by, he comments on the design work prominently display on your monitor; he typically thinks you need to move everything to be center-aligned. Jane, with the constant cough, believes that the secret to convincing a client that an idea is brilliant is to speak above a normal decibel level. And Susan's mom packs her lunch, which usually includes some form of meat that smells like a hot dog wrapped in ham. 
Sharing an open office can be "revealing" for employees in many ways, but the main goal of these no-wall floor plans is to increase creativity and collaboration.
This is why so many agencies are renovating and revising their offices to create more open spaces.
Havas Chicago recently spent $10 million dollars to renovate its office, an 81,000-square-foot space that houses 450 employees. In creating its new digs, the company got rid of all offices and included more communal work spaces. The agency now occupies two floors, instead of three.

7 Ways To Be Productive In An Open Office

7 Ways To Be Productive In An Open Office: an open letter with suggestions on how to create the most efficient and energizing environment possible.

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Change work location at least once a day

This is something that inevitably has made me more productive and focused on singletasking. We read many times that we have to work on building a comfortable work space to focus. What I found was this: I had to create many of them.
To regain focus after finishing one task and moving on to the next one, just spending 5 minutes as a break, getting a drink or similar didn’t work. Nor did closing the laptop for 5 minutes or standing up
from my desk. I had to physically move from one place to another as part of my daily routine.
Most times I work out of my apartment for the first half of the day.
Then I have a list of coffee shops I can go to, or the lounge area in our apartment building. I know moving around isn’t possible for everyone. There are some very creative workarounds some companies have come up with though, that might help you here. Valve, dubbed “the bossless company”, gives every employee a desk mounted on wheels so they can change location during the day. #