When Barrel, a Little Italy-based digital agency, moved and designed its new office space from scratch in August, its brass envisioned a work environment tailored to the tastes of the growing company, and at the same time lent itself well for collaboration.
The company’s new work space features small purple stools scattered throughout the office so co-workers can park quickly at each others’ desks instead of hovering awkwardly or reserving a conference room. Why? Enabling quick, seated desk-side meetings — rather than forcing one person to crane their neck and the other to lean down — promotes a feeling of equality among peers, says environmental psychologist Sally Augustin. “When we have to tip our head back to see other people, it influences how we interact with them. The people who are tipping their head up feel subordinate,” says Augustin, who helps companies build workplaces that foster productivity and collaboration.
Barrel is among a host of companies that’s increasingly paying attention to how to structure their offices to increase efficiency. Those changes range from creating more flexible meeting setups to introducing standing desks or conference tables — and, Augustin says, are often firmly rooted in psychological research.
At Barrel, employees work side-by-side at long rows of desks in the middle of the office, but even these seating arrangements were designed with a goal in mind: to promote camaraderie among the office’s staff. Every quarter, the office shuffles its seating assignments. In a more traditional workplace, “new people end up being tacked onto the ends, and they don’t talk to anybody,” explains principal Sei-Wook Kim.
Lee Khleang, a producer at Barrel, says this arrangement helps familiarize him with his co-workers’ roles and makes working together more efficient. “When we collaborate, everyone’s really comfortable asking each other questions,” says the 24-year-old Park Slope resident.
At Continuum, a West Newton, Mass.-based consultancy whose specialties include business design, principal Craig LaRosa says standing conference tables make meetings shorter and more focused.
“High seating implies it’s going to be short and quick,” LaRosa says.
But what works for one workplace might not work as well at another company. “You have to remember that every time people stand up to move to a new place, they lose their train of thought,” says Augustin. “So it could easily be that the best thing for your organization is to have people able to do multiple things in one space, as opposed to creating a range of different spaces,” she says. “You have to think about how people can really add value to [your] organization.”
If you’re looking to kick-start your efficiency but can’t get your company to spring for new furniture, LaRosa suggests a few simple do-it-yourself ways to increase the efficiency of your seating arrangement. The easiest? Removing the arms from your office chair. “That’s going to immediately make it easier for you to get up and get out,” he says.
Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, it could help to look for taller tables or tables that could be converted into standing meeting tables.
“Try to get out of the conference-room mentality,” LaRosa advises. “It’s about breaking down barriers to collaboration.”
To that end, LivePerson, a Hell’s Kitchen-based software company, eschewed traditional conference rooms and instead built nooks and crannies into its open-plan space so that four or five people could meet at a time. That setup allows employees to convene more spontaneously and feel less like they’re working in a traditional, hierarchical, closed-door work environment, says CEO Robert LoCascio.
“What we heard [from LivePerson workers] was, we’d like to do meetings, but not in conference rooms,” he says. “It makes it easier for people to knowledge share.”