living office magazine

FINAL ART © Daniel Carlsten 2016 (Limited usage right)

A Human-Centered Approach to Work and Workplace

LIVING OFFICEHERMAN MILLER 54


Living Office® puts your people in a place to succeed—so your business can, too.

Around the world, Herman Miller’s places are living examples of our belief that the best workplaces address the diverse needs of individuals and the culture of their organizations—so all can prosper.

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“The other thing that Gilbert Rohde said to me one day, he says, ‘You think the interesting thing in the house is period design—the interesting thing is the people who live there.’ This was almost an earth-shaking statement to me. I’d never thought about that. And later on he supplemented it. He said, ‘You’re not just making furniture anymore; you’re making a way of living—a lifestyle.’”

—D.J. De Pree Herman Miller Founder, 1891–1990

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Herman Miller’s history is perhaps best summarized as a series of significant, even providential, shifts. The first occurred in 1930, when the company transitioned away from reproduction furniture and began to manufacture modern designs. We did this in large part because a designer named Gilbert Rohde convinced our founder, D.J. De Pree, that twentieth-century people required honest twentieth-century solutions. In doing so, we helped birth American modernism. In 1968, we shifted away from the home to focus on systems furniture for the workplace. This move followed our conviction that when approached with the principles of problem-solving design, the work environment could contribute power-fully to the effectiveness of people and organizations. By making this move, we established the framework and practices that still influence the modern workplace, and even created an entirely new profession—facility management. In 1976, together with designer Bill Stumpf, we launched Ergon®, the world’s first ergonomic work chair. At a time when office work demanded that people sit for extended periods, Stumpf and Herman Miller believed that sitting could contribute positively to one’s health. This helped cement an emphasis on ergonomics and workplace well-being that continues to inform our work, and our industry, to this day. Over the years, we at Herman Miller have also understood that our organization has endured because of dedicated and extraordinary people with a higher ambition for our community and values that extend beyond the product we sell. D.J. De Pree believed that, “a business is rightly judged by its product and service—but it must also face scrutiny and judgment as to its humanity.” People naturally want

to come together to accomplish some-thing greater. People also want to maintain their unique identities and freedoms. We at Herman Miller have come to see the great possibilities that arise from this dynamic: organizations can empower people, and people are essential to organizations. Today, we once again find ourselves in a period of extraordinary change. While we have always practiced human- centered design, with Living Office we believe that now means something more. It means moving beyond seeing people simply as productive contributors to a company, or as part of a performance system. It means seeing them as whole people, motivated by a diverse range of human needs—many of which, at one point in time, might have seemed incompatible with the world of work and workplaces. Living Office helps fulfill that full spectrum of needs. In doing so, it drives better outcomes for the individuals it supports, and for the businesses that employ them. Three years ago, Living Office was just an idea. Today, as this publication attests, it’s a reality—backed by evidence that it’s helping people, and their organizations, do great things. Looking back on those words Rohde said to D.J., I think now, more than ever before, we at Herman Miller can see a new “way of living.” I hope you can, too. —Brian Walker Herman Miller President & CEO, 2016

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New Ways of Living

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16 IT’S ALIVE!!! We present everything you need to know about Living Office and its four distinct areas of focus. 22 THE NEW LANDSCAPE OF WORK A global study reveals six key shifts that are defining the most successful new workplaces. 36 SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS The minor annoyances of typical workplaces are adding up to major issues for organizations. The remedy lies in rethinking the design process itself.

38 ALL TOGETHER NOW Workstations and conference rooms can’t do it all. Explore three Living Office settings that better meet the needs of today’s work. 46 UPDATE AVAILABLE Technology evolves faster than you can say “USB 3.0.” Get ready for these five trends that are changing the world of work.

Unprecedented change and disruption are calling into question the precepts and standards that for decades have guided how, where, and why we work. By applying a deeper understanding of what makes us human, and addressing the forward momentum of technology, Living Office helps negotiate the changes at hand. It offers people a more natural and desirable experience of work, and derives the greatest value from an organization’s most critical assets.

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FINAL ART © Daniel Carlsten 2016 (Limited usage right)FINAL ART © Daniel Carlsten 2016 (Limited usage right)

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Living Office applies a deeper understanding of what makes us human to help create workplaces that deliver a more natural and desirable experience of work for people, and fuel greater outcomes for organizations.

STORY BY SAM GRAWE & GREG PARSONS ILLUSTRATIONS BY DANIEL CARLSTEN

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FINAL ART © Daniel Carlsten 2016

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As Herman Miller’s former design director George Nelson astutely observed nearly half a century ago, “Design is a response to social change.” Today, we recognize we are amidst a period of social change as great as any we have known. The fundamental ideas behind what work is, how and where it is done, and even why we do it have been upended and are in flux— in such a state of flux that, three years ago, we asked ourselves what management methods, tools, and workplaces would look like if we left our preconceptions behind and started fresh. Where would a response to social change take us today?

and connection that is so critical to success today. And finally—as you will see throughout this publication—we envision workplaces where the fixed formalities and formulas of the past give way to an ever-evolving, purposeful variety that is attuned to both individual and organizational needs. Living Office has served as our way of addressing these shifts. It began three years ago as an idea. In the intervening years, we’ve worked with designers, technologists, organizational leaders, and people whose brilliance isn’t so easily categorized, all with the goal of creating these new kinds of living

Those questions led to Living Office. We were reminded that, regardless of the rate of change or the power of all our newfangled tech-nology, all value starts and ends with people. People define the problems, imagine the ideas, define the solutions, and deliver the interac-tions that make anything in our world what it is. Moreover, people determine the value of each of those things by how well it fits with who they are and what they seek. Given this, we asked ourselves: Wouldn’t it make sense to create management methods, tools, and work-places based as closely as possible on people? In some sense, they always have been. With

Living Office, we see an opportunity to make them fundamentally more so. Today we can envision management methods that move away from the standardized, hierarchical, financially driven model of the industrial era to fully recognize people’s holistic needs and enable the best of individuals and their organizations. Where tools once demanded that we adapt to their technologically driven interfaces, today we see technology modeled on more naturally human instincts and interactions. Our technology has graduated from assisting with automation and information management to supporting the human-centered creativity

Living Office has four distinct areas of focus: a new, human-centered point of view on work and workplaces that helps people and their organizations prosper; a placemaking framework to deliver these kinds of places; a diverse portfolio of furnishings and tools for provisioning them; and services and support that enable their creation and livelihood.

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workspaces—and demonstrating that they make a real difference. For individuals, that difference is a workplace that is profoundly more effective and desirable. For organizations, the difference is between a necessary facilities cost and a beneficial strategic asset. In the course of our work, Living Office has developed four distinct areas of focus: it is a new, human-centered point of view on work and work-places that helps people and their organizations prosper; a placemaking framework to deliver these kinds of places; a diverse portfolio of furnishings and tools for provisioning them; and services and support that enable their creation and livelihood. Even more important, Living Office also includes a new point of view on meaning. While many businesses still define performance in strictly financial terms, we envision a broader conversation. Why do people work—for a paycheck or something far greater? Can we understand engagement or inspiration more holistically? Should an organizational balance sheet also account for the happiness and well-being of individuals? What are all the ways an organization can get the greatest value from its assets? What are the real vital signs of success? In this new, human-centered world of management methods, tools, and work-places, what does all of the connection, learning, building, and evolving add up to? We believe the sum total is prosperity. When people understand and harness their unique passions as individuals and apply this through the greater context and purpose of an organization, both can fulfill a holistic range of fundamental needs—from financial security to greater purpose. Prosperity relies on each of us to help create it—through how we work, the tools we work with, and the places we work in. It’s a mutually reinforcing dynamic that benefits both individuals and the organizations they work for. The publication in your hands includes our latest research, thinking, and proposals for navigating the changes ahead. It also documents how Living Office is helping organizations achieve prosperity on their terms. After reading this, we hope you’ll be inspired to join us—and define your own path to prosperity.

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With all the changes to how, where, and why we work today, is it any wonder that organizations are exploring a variety of new design solutions to address the shifts? To ascertain the substance and scale of these changes, we studied 120 progressive work environments from a variety of industries throughout the world. Although each of these offices was unique, they all shared traits that signaled significant movement in the way

organizations and their design partners were planning space. In the course of our study, we found that the benchmarks that were once used to help guide workplace design have been turned on their heads. At a macro level, these emerging trends point to a growing demand for more workplaces that offer greater variety. Living Office offers a holistic placemaking framework and product portfolio that make this variety purposeful.

A global study confirms that progressive organizations and their design partners are planning space to a new, wildly different set of benchmarks.

The New Landscape of Work

STORY BY MINDY KOSCHMANN & JOSEPH WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS BY LEONIE BOS

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From Oversized Conference Rooms to Precision-Fit Meeting Spaces

Large, traditional conference rooms (think long rectangular tables with seats lining the sides) are still prevalent in many offices today, but our research shows that most are underutilized: people only use two-to-four seats in spaces designed to accommodate six-to-twelve.1 This means that the valuable real estate these large rooms occupy is not being put to good use. We observed that top organizations are reclaiming the space used for large but perpetually underutilized conference rooms and redistributing it throughout the office landscape to make room for smaller, more purposeful settings and connective spaces. Those that have adopted this approach have seen an increase in space utilization, and their people feel better supported for the many ways they work together.2

1 Confidential and Proprietary research with Fortune 500 companies conducted by Herman Miller, 2014. 2 Confidential and Proprietary Living Office longitudinal research conducted by Herman Miller, 2015.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN 10 Conference Room Seats

EMERGING TREND 7 Meeting Space Seats

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From Required Circulation to Desired Connection

In the past, circulation space was viewed as a necessary evil: offices had to have it so people could comfortably move from Point A to Point B. But circulation space can be far more than a conduit for people. When purposefully planned—with people’s needs, experiences, and activities in mind—it can become active connective space. We’ve found that progressive organi-zations are making more room for connective space by reducing the number of private offices, too-large conference rooms, and underutilized assigned workstations. To give this connective space more value, they are prompting greater connection by carefully considering sightlines and adjacencies between key areas of activity, to facilitate information sharing and relationship building between people and teams.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN33% Circulation Space

EMERGING TREND 47% Connective Space

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For decades, the breakroom has been a physical manifestation of group culture. As the nature of work shifts to accommodate a broader range of activities that may be considered social, companies are beginning to understand the value of bringing more people together in these kinds of settings. Our research indicates that leading organizations are creating cultural hubs, or large, centrally located Plaza Settings. These vibrant communal spaces provide plenty of comfortable seating, enticing amenities, and inspiring artifacts that help people feel more engaged, connected with coworkers, and in touch with the broader purpose of the organization.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN 16 People per Breakroom Seat

EMERGING TREND 4 People per Plaza Seat

From Distant Breakrooms to Central Plazas

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From Standard Conference Rooms to a Variety of Group Settings

If you observe any office, in any business around the world, you’ll notice people doing a variety of activities throughout the day. A majority of these activities are social and collaborative in nature, like dividing and conquering work on a project, having a conversation, or co-creating an idea for a new product. But many offices only offer one type of group space— conference rooms—to support this broad range of activities. Our study revealed that forward- looking organizations are creating work-places with a variety of settings, each specifically designed to support different people and their work. In these offices, people have better support for their work, and the organizations are making optimal use of their space.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN 1 Standard Group Space

EMERGING TREND 6 Purposeful Group Settings

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From Assigned Seats to Shared Workpoints

Technology has freed people to work anywhere in the office, and many people are doing just that. In space-utilization studies, we found that 60 percent of the time individual workstations were unoccupied.3 While this freedom is great for workers, it also means that the spaces occupied by their assigned workstations are being underutilized. The preeminent organizations we studied are shifting from a workstation mentality to a workpoint state of mind. Instead of assigning one desk to each person, these organizations created shared workpoints throughout the office to give people the variety they need to do a range of individual activities. This approach doesn’t mean that assigned workstations aren’t still appropriate for some people and work, but shared workpoints make better use of space and provide better support for the way most people are actually working.

3 Confidential and Proprietary research with Fortune 500 companies conducted by Herman Miller, 2014.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN 97% Assigned Workstations

EMERGING TREND 41% Unassigned Workpoints

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From Privacy-as-a-Luxury to Privacy-on-Demand

As work activities have become more inter-active and communal, the need for privacy hasn’t gone away. The best ideas happen when groups can function like accordions: individuals pulling apart to work solo on tasks and coming back together to share progress or develop concepts. This means that everyone needs access to a variety of supportive settings, especially ones where individuals can think, sketch, write, or relax independently. Private workstations or offices are no longer the way to provide this privacy. In fact, our research shows that private offices are unoccupied 77 percent of the time.4 In our study, we noted that many orga-nizations are taking their exclusive-yet- vacant private offices and transforming them into smaller, better-equipped Haven Settings, where anyone can work. These organizations are making more efficient use of their space while signaling to employees that their contributions are valued.

4 Confidential and Proprietary research with Fortune 500 companies conducted by Herman Miller, 2014.

TRADITIONAL FLOORPLAN 67 People per Private Space

EMERGING TREND 24 People per Haven

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Setting Up for Success

A TALE OF TWO SETTINGS

A large North American financial-services firm recently spent $240 million on a new facility that included dozens of standardized conference rooms. They were created with a traditional linear process, and a traditional conception of what a conference room is supposed to be. The rooms were all outfitted with the latest technology and high-end furnishings. A few months after moving in, they were underutilized 80 percent of the time. In our view, the alarming occu-pancy rates could be explained by the fact that the spaces fell short of meeting

the needs of the people for whom they were supposedly designed, because those needs weren’t holistically considered during the planning process. From inadequate circulation space, to furnishings that blocked sightlines, to technology tools that were oversized and oversophisticated, many little issues added up to a big problem: undesirable and overpriced settings that people avoided. Herman Miller worked with the firm and its designers to take a holistic view of the settings and adjust furnish-ings, tools, and surroundings to better

support the people, their work, and their unique character. The number of seats in each room was reduced based on the average size of meetings. Smaller monitors were placed so that they could display content and video-conferences simultaneously. Circulation and sightlines were improved. Ultimately, the cost of the newly designed rooms was less than the previous design, and utilization rates more than doubled.

standard workstations and conference rooms of the past. These hardly support the array of activities people do today or the different kinds of tools they need to do them well. For organizations that recognize this and are making the effort to recreate their workplaces, we identified another challenge: the design process itself. Most offices are outfitted in a linear way, where the structure is built or renovated, furnishings and finishes are specified and installed, and finally the technology is layered in. This often occurs under the auspices of different teams and stake- holders—often working independently. Even with the best intentions and highest- quality ingredients, a linear process results in surroundings, furnishings, and tools that don’t come together to support what people are actually doing.

What if we could reimagine the workplace holistically? What if the office could be designed to fully support different people and the exact kind of work they were doing, and the tools they needed to do it? Living Office helps organizations and their design partners do just that. Living Office brings everyone involved in the design process together around a framework of common work activities and correlating settings. By considering both activities and settings in the context of an organization’s goals, as well as the attributes that make the company and its people unique, a design team can imple-ment a diverse mix of settings that reflects the organization’s unique culture while also supporting the work people are doing. Once the optimal settings are identified, the whole design team—from the facilities manager to the architect and

interior designer to the audiovisual specialist—can come together to align the surroundings, furnishings, and tools within each setting with people’s activities and the character of the team or organization. And this is done in a way that maximizes the value of each square foot and technology investment—and research increasingly offers the data to prove it. In an ultimate setting, every element in the space works together to offer people an elevated experience of work. It’s the videoconference that seamlessly connects. It’s the brainstorming session where every-one participates. It’s the refreshing moment in a quiet, private space. Aggregated at an organizational level, it’s the most effective use of resources and an acknowledgment that people and their work matter. And that, ultimately, could be the difference between winning and losing.

AFTER BEFORE

When it comes to the workplace, minor deficiencies and distractions can add up to major issues—and fixing them can have major benefits.

STORY BY ABDALLAH FADEL

It is probably not an overstatement to say that anyone who has worked in an office knows what it’s like to struggle with surroundings, furnishings, and tools that are out of sync with the work at hand. It’s the power outlet that requires crawling under the conference table. It’s the seat at the end of the table that blocks the video camera. It’s the room that’s double- booked. It’s the technical difficulties that delay the meeting by 10 minutes. These challenges are so common-place that most of us have just become accustomed to them as a normal part of the workday. Rarely do we step back to consider that the time and energy wasted at an individual level has major implications at an organizational level. We estimate that the average Fortune 500 company annually loses $12,000 per employee in wasted meeting time—more than many companies spend on individual wellness. Our latest research shows that, 77 percent of the time, private offices are unoccupied, and 67 percent of the time, conference rooms are underutilized. Aggregated at an organiza-tional level, that’s a lot of empty seats and wasted space. Then there are all the intangible costs—to community, culture, performance, and, ultimately, attraction and retention. The conference room that’s out of date effectively says, “We don’t care.” As people have greater choice about when, how, and where they work, many decide that the office is no longer their ideal place to work (simply look to your local WiFi-enabled coffee shop for evidence of this). So we wondered why workplaces have fallen so out of favor with the people for whom they are purportedly created. For one, the nature of work has itself changed significantly—increasingly, new forms of self-directed, creative, and collaborative work take place alongside established forms of directed, repetitive, and individual work. Multilocation teams and remote work have become commonplace. Tools and technology change rapidly to support these shifts. New solutions for co-creation, display, remote connection, and nonlinear development are being introduced all the time—either replacing or being layered on existing systems and solutions. But while work and tools have under-gone a significant transformation, many workplaces have not. Many only offer the

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All Together Now

With a holistic approach to their surroundings, furnishings, and tools, these Living Office Settings offer a more natural and desirable experience of work.

The following three Living Office Settings were designed to support distinct work activities for specific individuals and organizations. Think of settings like recipes that may be altered or seasoned differently to suit individual tastes, or based on the context of the meal in which they are being consumed. Each setting has a core set of ingredients (surroundings, furnishings, tools) that can be tailored to enhance people’s experiences, fulfill their needs, or express an organization’s culture. Within each setting, the surroundings, tools, and furnishings come together to offer the appropriate context for, and support of, the work at hand. We believe that considering all of these elements cohesively and holistically helps deliver superior outcomes for both the individuals using a setting, and the organization creating it.

STORY BY MINDY KOSCHMANN & JOSEPH WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE STUK

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Quiet, PleaseHavens offer people the privacy and quiet they need to complete complex, creative tasks without distraction from others.

Many organizations are drawn to the idea of an open plan office because they believe people working in close proximity can more easily share ideas and spontaneously solve problems. But that same open plan office can also stymie tasks that require deeper thinking and higher levels of concentration. Individual work is complex and idiosyncratic; there is no one-size-fits-all approach to accommodate it. Our primary research indicates that the best support can change based on an individual’s work activity, mood, and desired level of con-centration. Therefore, it’s important to not only offer a range of Haven configurations, but also to vary degrees of individual control within the setting (things like lighting, privacy, sound, and ergonomic support). Supporting individuals and their work—even if that’s simply a quiet, contemplative moment—is critical to the success of any organization, and makes Havens essential within a Living Office.

Haven

WHO’S USING THIS SETTING GROUP SIZE 1–2 People

DURATION OF USE 1–2 Hours ACTIVITIES Create, Converse, Contemplate

HOLISTIC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

1 Keeping distractions at bay is critical to sustaining a creative work flow. In this Haven, the door and partitions keep auditory distractions down, absorptive materials prevent sound from reverberating inside, and window treatments afford control of visual distractions.2 While sitting at the Distil™ Desk, personal tools are within arms’ reach: bags stored on nearby hooks, notes posted at eye level on a tackable wall, and space for reference materials to be spread out.

3 The height-adjustable Setu® Chair provides ergonomic support without a surfeit of adjustment controls—making it an appropriate solution for a communal Haven. Other shared tools, such as a small wireless speaker for conference calls or music, a table lamp, and wall rails for hanging portable whiteboards, support individual control of the space.4 An upholstered bench offers the ideal spot for a quick, mind-refreshing nap or for a visitor to engage in conversation.

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Clubhouse

Improv, Improved A Clubhouse provides a creative team with a flexible environment that supports the way they actually work— flowing freely between tasks, sharing work and iterating constantly, and engaging one another on the fly.

Ask any CEO what their company needs to do to get ahead of the competition and you’ll likely get an answer that includes innovation. In today’s work environment, organizations increasingly rely on high-performing teams to do this critical work. Why? Because research shows a direct cor-relation between collaboration and innovation (as much as 81 percent, according to a study commis-sioned by Google.)1 But the typical layouts of most offices just aren’t designed to support the fluid style of work that’s characteristic of these teams. Our primary research showed that the best creative teams operate in complex, often improvisational ways.2 Their approach to work activities is similar to a jazz ensemble’s ap-proach to creating music—with each member riffing and playing off the others. Team members move nimbly from convening as a group to work-ing in parallel to drive toward their goals. They make these transitions as needed, not according to a defined process or plan. These insights served as the foundation for the setting we call Clubhouse. Clubhouses support a complete range of work activities through a variety of adjacent individual and group spaces. Each element helps the team stay connected to one another and to the broader purpose of the work at hand, while also enhancing individual productivity.

WHO’S USING THIS SETTING

GROUP SIZE10–15 People

DURATION OF USE 1–3 Months or Ongoing

ACTIVITIESAll 10 Living Office Activities

3 A bank of Meridian® Storage creates a strong anchor for the setting’s “epicenter,” the social and physical heart of the space, where people can quickly huddle or gather.4 At the “wall of awareness,” in- progress work on display serves as a constant visual reminder of the team’s shared goals and achievements.5 A more secluded, do-not-disturb zone allows people to get away to think, relax, or take a call.


1 Workpoints are equipped with high-performance chairs, height-adjustable Locale® work surfaces, and a variety of ergonomic technology tools, so everyone stays comfortable and supported. Low screens provide enough privacy for focus, but still allow people to signal one another and engage as needed. 2 When quick chats at the desk become longer discussions, participants can shift to a nearby semi-enclosed space, where they can sit and talk without distracting colleagues working nearby.

1 BBC News, “Google: Mobile, Social, Cloud Changing the Way We Work,” Feb. 3, 2012. www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/business-16858085. 2 “Team Landscapes: Total User Experience II,” Confidential and Proprietary research conducted by Herman Miller, 2015.

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Workshop

Mindshare A Workshop helps bring people together and gives them the tools they need to efficiently create and share ideas—whether they’re two feet or 2,000 miles apart. To ideate and collaborate, teams need to have a place to come together to engage in their work. But the typical conference room, which is often the only dedicated space for gathering, isn’t necessarily designed for these kinds of creative activities. A Workshop provides the flexibility for different types of teams to do different types of work—for a few hours, days, or weeks at a time. It’s equipped with furnishings and tools that work holistically within the surroundings to help drive an elevated experience of collaboration and foster creativity.

at the whiteboards. People can do so with-out disrupting the creative flow or towering over one another and giving the impression that they are dominating the gathering.4 The teardrop-shaped tabletop opti-mizes sightlines between people in the room, remote participants, and digital content, strengthening everyone’s ability to focus and communicate.5 Dual, stacked monitors allow participants to view digital content up top without losing face-to-face connection with remote colleagues at eye level.


1 The space is scaled for people to easily engage with the communal digital and analog tools arranged around the perimeter. A series of wall-mounted rails organize personal items and work content while keeping the floor space clear.2 Portable Exclave® whiteboards and tackboards can also stack on carts that move around the room or to other parts of the office once a work session has ended.3 The standing-height Exclave table encourages everyone to contribute by making it comfortable to transition be-tween working at the table and sketching

WHO’S USING THIS SETTING

GROUP SIZE 6–8 People

DURATION OF USE 1–3 Hours or 1–3 Weeks

ACTIVITIES Co-Create, Converse

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Update AvailableLuddites are so 200 years ago. We look at five tech trends that are shaking up offices in the twenty-first century.

STORY BY SAM GRAWE ILLUSTRATIONS BY VIKTOR HACHMANG

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future, 1973 “But Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.” —Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 Click on a link embedded in a calendar invitation, and a series of windows opens to reveal a cadre of global colleagues ready to tackle the work ahead, in stunning 1080p resolution with 24-bit audio. Technology— it’s amazing! Spend half an hour entering and reentering a 10-digit code into the room’s videoconferencing equipment before giving up and cobbling together a telephone call. Technology—what a farce! Love it or hate it, technology defines— and continually redefines—the processes, expectations, and behaviors related to work. So, with that in mind, here’s what we see on the technological road ahead, from some near-term basics to visions of an audacious future.

GOIN’ MOBILE A lot of jobs used to require that people come to a place of work to use bulky desktop computers loaded with expensive software; make calls on bulky desktop phones; and make printouts or copies using expensive, bulky equipment. And send faxes, lots of faxes. If your last trip to a coffee shop didn’t make it abundantly clear, those days are over. With the occasional charge and connection to a wireless network, our technology can now help us accomplish all kinds of work in all kinds of places (including in the expensive and bulky building your company occupies). So give people anywhere-and-everywhere access to the basics: a comfortable place to sit, a flat surface to work on, a place to plug in (with USB outlets, too), and instant connectivity.

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MIND THE APP The next time you’re at a dinner party with someone in IT and the conversation fades to awkward silence, why not ask where he or she stands on BYOD? For the layperson, that’s “bring your own device”—a term that came into vogue at Intel, in 2009, as an increasing number of employees began connecting their personal phones, tablets, and PCs to the corporate network. To folks in IT, it’s either a great way to empower people to get their work done by allowing them to self-select conve-nient and up-to-date tools or a giant security risk and a compatibility headache. Wherever your fellow guest stands on the issues, there’s no denying that the variety of choices and ease of use we’ve come to expect as technology consumers are generating an “app mindset” for all of our technology experiences. That means if it takes more than a minute to down-load and install, requires more instructions than can be intuited from a couple of uses, or doesn’t live up to its initial promise, people will toss it out and move on.

GROUP ON It says something that one of the most cele-brated inventors in human history recognized that “great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.” Alexander Graham Bell likely never imagined a world in which his discoveries would lead to something (surprisingly useful) called Slack, but electronic communication has evolved to enable new means of co- creation, group cognition, and productivity. It used to be that those “many minds” all had to be in the same place at the same time— and technology largely served individual productivity and creation. With work increas-ingly distributed among diverse global teams, technology today is helping to enable “asyn-chronous collaboration”—where individual contributions to a larger-scale project may occur independent of schedule or location. There is a dizzying array of software (and cloud-based) solutions that enable this work, but the latest tools don’t always jive with IT policy. Make it your policy to enable the right tools for the work at hand.

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VIRTUALLY THERE With technologies like Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift, virtual reality has gone, in 2016, from being virtual to, well, real. Although workplace applications for VR, and its less-Matrix-like cousin augmented reality, will likely be more specialized and limited for some time to come, we like to imagine a time when we need not fly halfway around the world for that important meeting but rather host it in virtual space. Some of the more audacious possibilities for virtual meetings might include the ability to: tightly monitor and control, or even eliminate, body language and facial cues; translate conversations and presentations into multiple languages on the fly; look more than one person in the eye simultaneously while making that critical point; or turn a sour meeting around by switching over to puppy and kitten avatars. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

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SMART FOR DUMMIES If a mention of “the Internet of things” causes you to roll your eyes and ponder the universe’s need for a refrigerator that tells you the milk’s sour, you’re not alone. But consider this: experts suggest that the number of connected devices will reach 50 billion by 2020. While today those smart devices may be thermostats and toothbrushes, tomorrow they’ll range from raincoats to urban sanitation systems—and the implica-tions of everything talking to everything else represent nothing short of a fundamental shift in human experience. Undoubtedly, the im-pact on work and workplace will be signifi-cant. Individual and group settings will automatically adjust to predetermined prefer-ences (from simple things like lighting levels and surface heights to more complex things like perceived comfort and privacy). Calendars will automatically shift to enable the optimal gathering of participants, given the location and purpose of the meeting. Entire settings could be swapped out overnight based on the work at hand. Ideally, a smart workplace will enable a more seamless experience for individuals, while the data being collected from all those interactions will help organiza-tions make wiser strategic decisions about how to provision for their people. The clock is ticking, so it’s time to wise up on smart.

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56 A PUBLIC DISPLAY OF CONNECTION For San Francisco’s fuseproject, all work is social. 68 GROOMED FOR GROWTH Harry’s new Manhattan workplace is transforming its business as its business transforms.

86 TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS Our research reveals what individuals and organizations get from their Living Office. Hint: It’s good news.

We conduct rigorous research in real Living Offices, and the results are clear. Living Office is helping people feel more creative, connected, and engaged in their work. In turn, organizations are seeing greater efficiency, productivity, and innovation.

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A Public Display of Connection

How do you make work more social without making it impossible to work? Public Office Landscape® is designed to help start-ups and established organizations get the benefits of buzz, without the bother.

STORY BY RANDALL BRAAKSMA PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK MAHANEY

LOCATION San Francisco, CaliforniaSQUARE FEET 20,625EMPLOYEES 75YEARS IN BUSINESS 17BUSINESS PRIORITIES Promoting Knowledge Sharing, Stimulating Innovation

fuseproject

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Connections are vital to fuseproject’s success. People naturally drop in and talk with colleagues to catch up or to share an idea. With so many venues for connecting with colleagues, fuseproject is able to juggle an impressive array of design projects and clients.

“We didn’t base the system on storage or desking,” says Béhar. “It’s the first system based on modular, ergonomic sectional seating.” Through a tech- enabled, high-speed process of trial and error, and dozens of prototypes, fuseproject created a design that brings advanced ergonomics to lounge seating.

“We wanted to create a design that would support a more flexible, fluid way of working, while

addressing the very human need for interaction.” —Yves Béhar, Founder and Chief Designer of fuseproject

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“All work is social,” goes the old (by now) saying.1 That’s surely true in start-ups, where a sea of desks in an open room is the default workplace design—often because it’s affordable but always because it supports the camara-derie and connectivity that can spur creative thinking and get ideas to market faster. The enviable togetherness of these start-ups is certainly something they want to maintain, especially as they grow. The advan-tages of such a setup aren’t lost on start-ups’ more established siblings, either. These compa-nies see a more social workplace as the key to attracting new talent, helping their best people stay engaged, and instilling business agility. The trouble is, the workplace can be so social that there’s no place to get away from it all. As start-ups grow and add people, buzz gets quickly replaced by noise. For more established companies, the challenge is to introduce social spaces without disrupting the existing flow. Yves Béhar, Founder and Chief Designer at fuseproject, knows the value of buzz first-hand. His San Francisco-based industrial design and branding firm had outgrown its start-up location and needed to move, but everyone was concerned about losing the creative energy of the company’s space. To add to the challenge, the move happened as Béhar and his team were developing a new workplace system for Herman Miller. After a good deal of research and thinking, Béhar and his team concluded that furnishings could be the answer to holding on to the best of the social workplace—but only if the design took a novel approach. So they set out to create the world’s first work-place system specifically designed to foster better collaboration through social interaction. They wanted their design to be deliberately social, to hit the sweet spot between a free-for-all frenzy and library-like quiet. “We didn’t base the system on storage or desking,” Béhar says. “It’s the first system based on modular, ergonomic sectional seat-ing. And the name, Public Office Landscape, is intentional. We wanted this to be a social work landscape.” Béhar’s team observed that, in social work environments, people are always seen balancing on the edge of someone else’s desk for a quick chat. In fact, Béhar and his counterparts at Herman Miller found that about 70 percent of face-to-face interactions happen at the desk and last three to five minutes.2 The Social Chair represents one big way the Public system differentiates itself. Designed for connection—literally and figuratively—with a flexible back and arm that physically link to desks, storage, and other chairs, the Social Chair serves as a place where people can sit down, catch up, and, just maybe, share an idea that catches on.

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“People come in here and say: ‘Wow, I wanna work here! This looks like a great place

to collaborate.’ It’s more than just a nice- to-have. It’s why this place exists.”

—Logan Ray, Partner and Director of Strategy

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Public screens enable fuseproject team members to develop ideas and make them real for their clients; the screens also define work areas.

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“Work isn’t binary,” notes Béhar. “People don’t simply go from being at a desk to a conference room and back again. We wanted to design Public to support the fluid interactions and spontaneous conversations that help drive work forward.”

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Collaborative spaces need to be everywhere, Béhar believes, so talk can flourish and lead to big ideas. Just as important, people need places to exit the buzz and concentrate. The key is to provide this variety across the office landscape.

“We wanted to deliver the casual and spon-taneous feel that people are after,” Béhar says, “but with improved ergonomic consid-erations for work tasks and postures.” He adds, “If you’re going to create collaborative space, it has to be everywhere; it can’t just be restricted to a certain area.” The thinking is simple yet revolution-ary: Start with a seat that makes it inviting and comfortable to connect with other people, and design all the other elements—surfaces for working, containers for storing, low partitions (that are easily moved) for screening—around it. Mix elements as needed across the office so there are places to work on one’s own, to sit and have a quick conversation with a coworker, and if the energy is right and the talk draws others in, to go to a nearby screened-in space or café-style setting. Make the elements versa-tile so they can be changed and added to for scalable growth. Create an appearance that fits equally well in growing start-ups and established office environments, and enable the ability to scale up to match growth. “We wanted to create a design that would support a more flexible, fluid way of working,” explains Béhar, “while address-ing the very human need for interaction”—in other words, to embody the best of the start-up vibe, with wide-open choices for where to work, so people can go to a spot that supports what they’re doing in the moment yet absent the things that detract from the ability to make quality connec-tions and do great work. In reviewing Public for Architect magazine, Aaron Betsky,3 curator, lecturer, and writer on architecture and design, notes, “When you combine the chair with low partitions that finally seem to be as easy to detach and move as we were always promised such elements would be, with white desks in the background, Public Office Landscape looks more like a restau-rant than a work setting.” If the goal is to keep the vibe going, the Public menu is very appealing.

1 Larry Prusak, author and researcher, advanced the idea in the late 1990s. Malcolm Gladwell expanded on it in his New Yorker article “Designs for Working” (December 11, 2000, p. 60). Both owe a debt to the work of Kjeld Schmidt and Liam Bannon (“Taking CSCW Seriously: Supporting Articulation Work,” Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Vol. 1, 1992. pp. 7–40). 2 Herman Miller, “The Ws of Work,” September 2011. 3 Aaron Betsky, “Swiss Designer Yves Béhar's Public Office Landscape Furniture Promotes ‘Social Desking,’” Architect, February 26, 2014.

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Follow Harry’s journey from a head-quarters that hindered its growth to a workplace where people and the business are prospering.

Groomed for Growth

STORY BY MINDY KOSCHMANN PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORDIE WOOD

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LOCATION New York, New YorkA&D FIRM Studio TractorSQUARE FEET 26,000EMPLOYEES 115 YEARS IN BUSINESS 4BUSINESS PRIORITIES Promoting Knowledge Sharing, Increasing Efficiency, Attracting and Retaining Talent

Harry’s

BEFORE

Harry’s former headquarters was a lot like a college dorm—chaotic and fun but not exactly a place where you could focus. The 3,000-square-foot loft in New York’s SoHo neighborhood served the men’s grooming start-up well when it was just the two founders—Jeff Raider and Warby Parker alum Andy Katz-Mayfield—and a handful of employees. But Harry’s staff quickly outgrew the office, which was basically one large workroom, where business analysts squinted at spreadsheets alongside chatty customer service representatives, and product samples and packaging materials spilled over into the reception area. “It was hectic,” recalls Scott Newlin, Harry’s Design Director. “All of that energy is great for momentum, but it also hurts your day-to-day when you’re just trying to have a phone conversation and you can’t.” Plagued by the pervasive hum of conversation and activity, people sought refuge in the outside hallway and stairwells for private conversations and phone calls. Meetings were another issue. With only two conference rooms to share, people were forced to gather in the freight elevator. “We were meeting there in the depths of winter, wearing our winter jackets and sitting at a little cardboard table set up in the middle,” says Jeff Raider, Harry’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO. “At that point, we knew we needed more shared space.” It was more than just the inconve-nience of meeting in an elevator that drove the company to seek new accommoda-tions. Harry’s office was inhibiting the

When employees needed privacy to focus on work or to have phone conversations, they were often forced to find a quiet space in the outside hallway. The freight elevator served a similar purpose. Groups met there because the two conference rooms in the office were regularly booked.

The vast, open workspace at Harry’s former headquarters was full of energy, but was also loud and cluttered. With a lack of floor-to-ceiling walls, space for assembling sample kits, and division between different types of employees, visual and acoustical distractions were the norm.

collaborative creativity that had helped the start-up grow from two guys with an idea for improving the shaving experience to a booming business competing with estab-lished industry giants. “Very few individual people in our company can see a project from start to finish,” says Raider. “It almost always involves a team effort. But in our old space, we were constrained. We had to dedicate the vast majority of the office to individual workspaces and desks, which didn’t leave lots of room for people to get together.” The office was impeding employees’ efficiency, too. Hours were lost sending

emails back and forth to schedule meetings. And with limited storage—located far away from the workspace—people were running in circles to complete simple tasks. Many employees had learned how to cope with the pitfalls of an outgrown office, but for new people and prospective hires, these small annoyances seemed overwhelming. “We had a couple of people come in that were interested in working for the company,” says Newlin, “but with the buzz and energy of the old space, they had sec-ond thoughts about whether they would be able to work in an environment like that.”

“In our old space, we were constrained. We had to dedicate the vast majority of the office to

individual workspaces and desks, which didn’t leave lots of room for people to get together.”

—Jeff Raider, Harry’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO

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DISCOVERY

TYPES OF SETTINGS AFTER THE MOVE

PLAZA MEETING SPACE HIVE WORKSHOP LANDING COVE CLUBHOUSE

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TYPES OF SETTINGS BEFORE THE MOVE

PLAZA MEETING SPACE HIVE

Creating a workplace that reflects their unique culture and brand was one of Harry’s leaders’ top goals for the new space. To achieve this, they worked with the design team to select furnishings, colors, materials, and finishes that express who they are and what they do.

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would help them advance. These included promoting knowledge sharing, increasing efficiency, and attracting and retaining top talent. Next, employee focus groups met to identify aspects of the organization’s character—deciding whether it was more formal or informal, more uniform or di-verse—and identified and prioritized daily work activities. The focus groups uncovered a few surprises along the way. The first revelation was the staff’s desire for the organization—and their office—to have a more formal character. After working in a chaotic open plan office that didn’t support their activities, Harry’s employees craved more structure, organi-zation, and efficiency. “As a group that is working in a small space that has no real walls or boundaries or areas for specific tasks—literally just an open plan—I think that what ends up hap-pening is you kind of feel like you’re grasp-ing for structure,” says Newlin. “Private offices start sounding nice at that point.” A second and equally important discovery was that their space wasn’t sup-porting the full range of activities people were doing throughout the day—creating new products, answering emails and phone calls, having quick chats and longer con-versations, and solving problems together, to name a few. “Through the discovery process, we really broke our activities and floorplan down into numbers,” says Newlin. “We need this number of conference rooms, we need this number of one-on-one chat rooms, this number of lounge areas where you could put your laptop on your lap and just work.” The insights that emerged from the process helped Harry’s and its design team transform the new office into a diverse landscape with settings they could be confident would support a full range of activities—no easy feat in the new space. “At 26,000 square feet, the trick is to make sure the space doesn’t look like a ghost town,” says Mark Kolodziejczak, an archi-tect at Studio Tractor. “With Living Office, you have different settings that support different activities. The settings are dis-persed, but they allow activities to happen in meaningful proximity to one another.” Employees now have formal Meeting Spaces, where they can present to poten-tial investors; small Coves for informal conversations; and bustling Hives, where customer service representatives can power through emails or have quick chats with colleagues. In the Clubhouse Setting, graphic designers can easily create

Living Office specialists led focus groups, including architects from Studio Tractor, through a discovery process that would help the design team plan an office where people could work together—and alone—more efficiently.

A 26,000-square-foot space in SoHo served as a blank canvas for Harry’s Living Office. Informed by findings from the Living Office Discovery Process, the design team shaped the empty loft into a landscape of distinct settings to support a full range of work activities.

“With Living Office, you have different settings that support different activities. The settings are dispersed,

but they allow activities to happen in meaningful proximity to one another.”

—Mark Kolodziejczak, Architect and Partner, Studio Tractor

The time had come for a new facility and a new way of thinking about the work-place. After a prospective visit to Herman Miller’s Chicago showroom, in 2014, Harry’s leadership believed Herman Miller’s Living Office could help them better understand the ways their people worked, identify the types of settings that would support their activities, and create a workplace where anyone would be proud to spend his or her workday. The company engaged Brooklyn-based Studio Tractor to get going on its new 26,000-square-foot space. To begin this journey, Herman Miller guided Harry’s through the Living Office

Discovery ProcessSM, which helps compa-nies identify and clarify their Purpose, Business Drivers, Character, and Activities. Using insights from the discovery process, an organization can work with its design partners to prioritize the types of settings that will best support its people and its business, and create an office landscape with the right mix of these spaces. The resulting workplace provides better support for people’s activities and needs and helps the organization express its brand. Leaders from Harry’s kicked off the process by identifying key organizational goals that they hoped the new workplace

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together. And if a task requires quiet, people can camp out in Havens—enclosed rooms that are perfect for making phone calls or thinking through problems. With all of this variety and the free-dom to work in the settings that best suit their needs, Harry’s employees were excited to move into the new space. But the true test came six months later, when Herman Miller checked in to determine if these settings were actually helping the staff connect more easily and be more efficient. To do this, Herman Miller conducted robust on-site research, using a variety of meth-ods, including observation and extensive surveys among leadership and staff. Wrote one employee in a survey, “The new layout allows for free communication with colleagues from all departments. But it’s comfortable and quiet enough to keep you focused.” Settings aren’t the only things help-ing people work better together. The hall-ways and open areas that cover 58 percent of the floorplan are also encouraging peo-ple to connect. These connective spaces, furnished purposefully with Public Office Landscape café tables and Social Chairs, give people many more opportunities to move about, bump into one another, and share ideas than they had at their former office, where only 37 percent of the layout was dedicated to circulation.

“In the last space, I felt like people weren’t moving because there weren’t options, or they were moving out of desper-ation,” says Rachel Peck, Staff Manager. “Here, there are options and flexibility.” At the beginning of the project, Harry’s leadership team had identified “increasing efficiency” as an important business driver. This priority was closely tied to the staff’s desire for a more seam-less and structured work flow, which they expressed during the discovery process. The organized, efficient new floorplan is making this a reality. “We have our marketing team sitting next to our customer acquisition team, who, on a day-to-day basis, have dozens of conversations,” says Newlin. “I think this really allowed a more streamlined approach to the way they work. It also has allowed us to take less time in between certain tasks.” The employee survey shows that people are noticing this new level of effi-ciency. Only 29 percent of people thought their old office helped them work produc-tively, but now 70 percent think the new space is helping them do their jobs faster and better.

Since the beginning, Harry’s unique culture has helped attract and retain top talent. So in addition to providing more settings to work, the new office reminds visitors and employees of the values and goals that have brought them together in the space.

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When it’s easy for people to have con-versations, it’s easy for them to stay connected, share ideas, and solve prob-lems. And since the discovery process revealed that innovation is a top priority for Harry’s, its new office has plenty of places for people to meet (not just rooms they have to reserve).

EMPLOYEES FEEL THEY CAN HAVE IMPROMPTU MEETINGS

BEFORE 47%

93%AFTER

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EMPLOYEES SAY THE OFFICE PRESENTS A GOOD CORPORATE IMAGE

When you walk into Harry’s new home—open and vibrant, without the chaos— it’s easy to believe that the new space will help the company move the dial forward on its third business driver: attracting and retaining top talent. Anyone visiting the space will get a clear understanding of the type of company it houses. Harry’s brand and culture are evident in the overall design as well as in the small details—from a display area featuring photography from their online magazine, Five O’Clock, brightly colored razors, and bottles of shaving cream and lotion, to a pop of blue from the company’s logo on the legs of Layout Studio® tables.

“I’ll meet somebody who I think might be a great fit for Harry’s, and my next step is always, ‘Come to our office. Just come check us out,’” says Raider. “I think because we are so proud of our space, it speaks for itself for all who come here. They’re like, ‘Whoa, this is cool. It’s well designed, it’s open, it’s collaborative.’ The brand immediately comes to life.” Peck agreed. “Every time I bring a visitor or guest in here, people are im-pressed with the space. That’s really nice to finally be in a grown-up space where it feels good to bring friends, candidates, and investors.”

In shared Haven Settings, small groups can gather to work together on projects or discuss topics that require privacy. Screens form a protective boundary around the setting, while comfortable seating allows people to casually interact.

Expressions of Harry’s brand, including a display area with brightly colored razors, bottles of shaving cream, and photography, connect diverse settings throughout the office. They also remind everyone of the company’s purpose:to offer a great shave at a fair price.

“When people walk in here, they feel like this is their home and the home of our company. It’s also

where our brand lives and breathes.”—Jeff Raider, Harry’s Co-CEO and Co-Founder

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LEESMAN® INDEX FOR WORKPLACE EFFECTIVENESS: HARRY’S

GLOBAL BENCHMARK: 60.1%The Leesman Index is a global benchmark-ing service that includes data on workplace effectiveness from hundreds of global organizations. Using the Leesman survey tool, employees assess their work environ-ments. The results allow organizations to understand where they need to invest time, money, and effort for future improvement.

BEFORE 48.4%

71.9%AFTER

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BEFORE 47%

98%AFTER

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“In many ways, I feel like we really do have a Living Office…it’s an office that we feel like we can

live in and that accentuates action and vibrancy in the way that we interact.”

—Jeff Raider, Harry’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO

The employee survey also under-scores this sentiment. Before the move, only 47 percent of employees were proud to bring visitors to the office. In the new space, 98 percent say they feel a sense of pride when they bring someone to visit. With its new workplace, Harry’s is fulfilling more than just their business needs—they’re also fulfilling people’s fun-damental needs, such as security and autonomy. When an office allows for work to get done in a comfortable, intuitive way, people can worry less about the basics and focus more. Newlin can already see this happening in their new office. “You can walk into this space and know exactly what you need to do during the day, where you’re supposed to work, and where you can store things,” he says. People feel like their need for auton-omy is being fulfilled by their having a choice of settings and the freedom to work in the ones that suit them best. Survey findings confirm this: 83 percent of employ-ees said that they have the tools and re-sources they need to do their work, and 60 percent said that they have the ability to choose where they can work within the office. Newlin is already seeing a positive effect on employee satisfaction. “We have more spaces where people can work with-out being impeded by private conversa-tions,” he says. “People seem to feel happier in the spaces where they work.” This improvement in employee morale is substantiated by the results of Harry’s Leesman Survey, which measures workplace effectiveness and employees’ satisfaction with it. While Harry’s previous accommodations garnered a mediocre 48.4 out of 100, its new headquarters received a 71.9—nearly 12 points higher than the Leesman Global Benchmark of 60.1. It’s not that Harry’s new workplace is perfect—they’ve had to order additional furniture to support their growing staff and make a few adjustments to the layout to better suit work flow. But that’s what Living Office is about. It’s a system for creating work environments with a variety of pur-poseful settings that are capable of adapting as naturally as the people who occupy them. “In many ways, I feel like we really do have a Living Office,” says Raider. “I know the word ‘living’ has multiple meanings. I think one is it’s an office that we feel like we can live in and that accentuates action and vibrancy in the way that we interact. The other thing is that it can constantly evolve, and you can learn. And that’s very much aligned with how we think about growing our business. We’re really excited to contin-ue to make this a Living Office.”

Collaboration has always played a major role in Harry’s rapid growth. At the former office, conversations came at a cost to everyone else: distraction. Now, when quick chats in the main workspace grow into longer discussions, colleagues can relocate to Cove Settings or to more private, enclosed Havens.

Leaders, including Co-Founder and Co-CEO Jeff Raider, work at a table near the rest of the staff. Close proximity between the two groups eases communication and speeds the decision- making process. The leaders’ presence near the entrance of the space also makes a strong impression on guests.

Employees have the freedom to work in the settings that best support their interactions. If they want to have casual discussions, they can sit in a casual lounge area. If they need to gather together for formal meetings, they can choose from several large conference rooms.

EMPLOYEES FEEL PROUD TO BRING VISITORS TO THE OFFICE

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There are fundamental reasons why people are motivated to work. To name just a few, we desire security and a sense that we have the autonomy to control our own circumstances. We like to be recognized for our achievements and find purpose in something greater than ourselves. Businesses, ultimately, aren’t that different from people. They, too, have needs to fulfill—things like revenue, profit, and growth—in order to realize their purpose. To satisfy those needs, the individuals running businesses set strategies and define priorities. Through research and interactions with clients around the globe, Herman Miller has compiled a list of common priorities outlined by our customers. We’ve also conducted a robust research study of select organizations with Living Office workplaces. Through a variety of methods,

we captured qualitative and quantitative data before, during, and after the realization of Living Office workplaces. Our analysis of this data proves that Living Office elevates the experience of work for people through a more deeply considered, human-centered approach, and helps organizations achieve strategic goals. Here, we examine these business priorities and share data that demonstrates how having a Living Office is helping organizations from a variety of industries, in diverse locations, and with differing needs and goals. From large, multinational organizations, such as ManpowerGroup and Mars Drinks, to rapidly growing start-ups like Harry’s, the results are clear: Living Office has helped people feel more creative, connected, and engaged in their work. In turn, their businesses are seeing greater efficiency, productivity, and innovation.

Taking Care of Business

Around the world, across industries, and at companies both large and small, Living Office is empowering organizations to do more for their people—and benefit more from the results.

BEFORE 42%

BEFORE 64%

AFTER 91%

BEFORE 67%

AFTER 84%

BEFORE 66%

AFTER 95%

BEFORE 57%

AFTER 98%

AFTER 90%

STIMULATING INNOVATION In a world where the most successful

organizations are the ones that generate better ideas faster, companies aim to create

workplaces primed for creativity.

“I see people that I feel like I haven’t seen in several years every day now. And I think that is what this

project was all about—bringing us together.” —Christie McCullough,

Senior Interior Designer, Earl Swensson Associates

MY ORGANIZATION IS OPEN TO NEW IDEAS VALLEY OF THE SUN UNITED WAY

“Being able to get up and find a new place

to sit gets the creativity flowing again.”

—Staff, MASS Design

MY WORKPLACE ALLOWS ME TO COLLABORATE ON CREATIVE WORKCHS, Inc.

THE DESIGN OF MY WORKPLACE ALLOWS ME TO INTERACT INFORMALLY WITH COWORKERS

TAVISTOCK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

ATTRACTING & RETAINING TOP TALENT People define the problems, imagine the ideas,

and create the solutions that deliver value. That’s why a workplace that helps draw—and

keep—top talent is essential.

“We are showing our candidates that we care about people, because this Living Office concept is for people.”

—Jaroslava Rezlerová, Managing Director, ManpowerGroup

“People seem to feel happier in the spaces where

they work.”— Scott Newlin, Design Director, Harry’s

I’M PROUD TO BRING VISITORS TO MY WORKPLACE CHS, Inc.

“If I was touring offices to decide what kind of place I’d want to work, this would be that kind of place.”

—Staff, MASS Design

I HAVE AN ENJOYABLE WORK ENVIRONMENT VALLEY OF THE SUN UNITED WAY

“It’s really important to us to make the office a place where people want to be. Our redesign is itself community-based.”

—Leader, Mars Drinks

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BEFORE 45%

AFTER 80%

BEFORE 31%

AFTER 93%

PROMOTING KNOWLEDGE SHARING With more than 40 percent of the workforce

due to retire in the next five years, organizations often want to create workplaces where

knowledge transfer happens more seamlessly.

I CAN HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITHOUT INTERRUPTING OTHERSHARRY’S

“Instead of sending an email to a colleague in a far corner, we want to encourage delivering that message

in person. Who knows what else might be shared, or who else you might meet along the way?”

—Xavier Unkovic, Global President, Mars Drinks

“The workplace creates unscripted conversations.

I find there’s a lot of value in that.”

—Merl Waschler, President & CEO, Valley of the Sun United Way

I HAVE THE TOOLS I NEED TO DO MY WORKMASS DESIGN

“The open office is great. More interaction with executives improves communication and makes

it easier to make decisions.” —Staff, Tavistock Development Company

INCREASING EFFICIENCY Optimizing processes helps people work more effectively. When workplace elements combine

methodically to support the work people engage in and the tools they use, it helps drive

down unnecessary costs.

“Living Office calibrates based on the changes in our organization. That’s very unique.”

—Leader, MASS Design

MY WORKPLACE IS COMFORTABLE AND FUNCTIONALCHS, Inc.

“People in the space feel like they are getting a lot more done, a lot quicker.”

—Scott Newlin, Design Director, Harry’s

I CAN REARRANGE MY WORKPLACE TO SUIT MY NEEDSVALLEY OF THE SUN UNITED WAY

“The new space makes it easy to quickly get

together, talk about an issue, and then disband.”

—Leader, Tavistock Development Company

BEFORE 13%

AFTER 74%

BEFORE 45%

AFTER 94%

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STRENGTHENING BRAND CONNECTION A brand’s power lies in its recognition and trustworthiness. A workplace that

is designed to express unique purpose and character can strengthen both.

“This office is really alive. You see people talking,

meeting—it’s a big difference. And it shows

our clients that we care about people.”

—Jaroslava Rezlerová, Managing Director, ManpowerGroup

“When people walk in here, they feel like this is their home and the home of the company.”

—Jeff Raider, Co-CEO, Harry’s

I’M PROUD TO BRING VISITORS TO MY WORKPLACEMASS DESIGN

MY WORKPLACE PRESENTS A GOOD CORPORATE IMAGECHS, Inc.

“Now when clients come through our office, they can see excitement, they can see energy.”

—Todd Hilbert, Principal, Earl Swensson Associates

LIVING OFFICE RESEARCH METHODOLOGYTo ensure the efficacy of our approach to Living Office, Herman Miller partners with select organizations to observe and analyze their workplace transformations. Designed as a longitudinal, multi-method study, it captures qualitative and quantitative data through the perspectives of staff, business leaders, and professional researchers. The initial phase of the research occurs before the move. Researchers develop a baseline for data and understanding through a series of discussions with leadership—around objectives, goals, culture, and their current workplace. Next, staff members take an online survey to answer questions about their work environment and its effects on their performance and well-being. Select employees document life in the current space to reveal how they use it. Finally, the research team spends time observing the space and the people who occupy it. As the organization is moving into their new workplace, researchers and facility staff document the process over the course of the first few weeks. Three to six months after the company has moved in, the methods and process from the first phase of the research are repeated, but the focus is shifted to the new space. The entire experience culminates in a discussion between the organization’s leadership team and Herman Miller to evaluate the project’s success. Findings from all portions of the research are summarized in a series of reports that can be used to make decisions about how the workplace could evolve to better support people’s needs, and to help the business achieve its goals.

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94 ALL SYSTEMS GO! No matter who you are and what you do, we have a work system with your name on it. 110 CROWD CONTROLLED Good things happen when people are put in charge of their own workplaces. We explore the benefits—and establish some ground rules— for individual control. 118 SITTING PRETTY Photographer Carl Kleiner captures the art and science of Herman Miller seating.

129 CHAIRS OR WHY PEOPLE SIT To sit is to, “adopt or be in a position in which one’s weight is supported by one’s buttocks rather than one’s feet and one’s back is upright.” We have the reasons and the means. 149 LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD Laura Guido-Clark explores how materials can support an organization’s culture and people.

Living Office proposes a fundamental shift in the design of workplaces—from standardized solutions designed to support all people and all work, across an entire office, to diverse settings specifically designed for different people doing different kinds of work. To realize these new, highly varied workplaces, we offer a diverse portfolio of furnishings and tools—as well as the know-how to provision them purposefully.

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All Systems Go!STORY BY GREG PARSONS

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSH COCHRAN

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Purchasing the right work systems for an organization—or teams within an organization—isn’t exactly like picking up a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. But with our new structure for under-standing their use and application, we’d like it to be.

For decades the tried-and-true methods of selecting a system and applying it across the office landscape proved to be efficient at an organizational level. But as the world changed, that efficiency became deficient at the individual level. When Herman Miller conducted the research that led to Living Office, we found that workstations were unoccupied for 60 percent of the day. So much for efficiency (to mention nothing of attraction and retention, engagement, and happiness!). As Dilbert and Office Space made all too clear, the workstation-at-its-worst (the so-called “sea of cubicles”) had become an object of almost-unanimous cultural contempt—a physical representation of the pervasive negative sentiment most of us harbor toward “face-less” organizations. As Herman Miller worked to help customers realize their own Living Offices, it became clear that a single standardized furniture system would no longer solve all of their problems. Rather, we saw that delivering a purposeful variety of settings required a purposeful variety of furnishings—and a process for their purposeful application. At the risk of being overly deliberate, we realized that purposefulness was the missing link. Even start-up-type offices—with their beanbag chairs and foosball conference tables—while perhaps offering a refreshing alternative to the status quo, presented their own set of design clichés and practical dilemmas. Our research found that these kinds of “highly collaborative” spaces weren’t opti-mized for the realities of work, couldn’t scale, and, at the end of the day, were no more heavily utilized than their generic counterparts. Taking all this into account, we reevaluated our furniture offerings using two lenses: that of Living Office, with its settings based on the specific purpose, character, and activities of each organization, group, and individual; and that of our customers, who desire a practical means of understanding what to purchase, in which quantities, for which people, and why it mat-ters. We soon recognized that our systems furnishings fell into two distinct categories: Landscape Systems and Focused Portfolios.

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Canvas Office Landscape®

With its cohesive, versatile kit of parts, Canvas simplifies the creation of highly varied workplaces that can easily grow and adapt as organizations evolve. The system supports a wide range of individual and group work activities across the most Living Office settings. Regardless of the configuration, Canvas delivers a refined architectonic aesthetic and the flexibility to respond to years of business and work change.

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Our work with clients showed us that even the most progressive office layouts still relied heavily on a single system to accommodate workers—albeit more sparingly, less universally, and with greater regard to what exactly the inhabitants would be doing in their spaces. Landscape Systems are our solutions that offer the adaptability, variation, and cohesion to

meet a broad set of needs across the entire floorplate—in most cases, between 50 and 75 percent of it. Recognizing that this is the most critical furniture investment a company will make and that companies vary wildly based on innumerable factors, Herman Miller offers a selection of Landscape Systems that are deliberately diverse in purpose and character.

LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS

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From conversing with colleagues in a Meeting Space to focusing on individual tasks in a Hive Setting, Layout Studio seamlessly supports a variety of activities across the workplace.

Layout StudioWith an ideal balance of versatility and affordability, Layout Studio offers a refined, minimal aesthetic that harmonizes with a wide range of environments. Its streamlined leg- and support-beam structure allows for efficient configuration and the ability to scale from simple tables to fully outfitted workpoints. Levels of privacy and storage adjust depending on the desired application and budget. These thoughtful details and options contribute to an environment where employees feel valued and supported at every level.

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Arras®

Designed specifically for the Asia-Pacific market, Arras offers a crisp, colorful aesthetic, and delivers autonomous infrastructure—including power, data, storage, screens, and lighting—across open work environments. Arras Bench is a customizable, surface-based solution that flexibly supports workpoints or varying density. Arras Spine is a narrow, freestanding unit that anchors space, and combines with a variety of furnishings to enable settings for both individual and group activities in a full range of postures.

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Public Office LandscapePublic Office Landscape is founded on the ideas of social connection and collaboration, and the value they create. This is enabled by a high-performance Social Chair that serves as the foundation of individual and group settings. The design of Public is informal and contemporary—ideal for entrepreneurial, growing businesses, or any organization that seeks the vibrancy of such a culture.

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LocaleDesigned based on research into the unique working habits of high-performance teams, Locale helps deliver the creativity and innovation that leading executives deem critical to their organizations’ success. It enables the creation of unique neighbor-hoods of work that define a team and culture, let people move fluidly between activities, and support social connection and individual focus. Locale is an invaluable tool for an organization’s most valuable workers.

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We at Herman Miller recognized that even the most adaptable system was failing certain individuals and groups of people doing specific work—more often than not, the highly creative and innovative work that helps create value for an organization. Our Focused Portfolios were designed to meet these unique and divergent needs. With Living Office, Herman Miller offers a more nuanced view of the activities that constitute collaboration, and the resulting

systems have been specifically designed to support the needs of people engaged in those activities. Want to create the ideal working neighborhood for a project team? To support coders working in pairs? To give individuals ultimate control of their space? We have Focused Portfolios that express the unique purpose, character, and activities of people doing specific tasks and can help them progress toward their goals.

FOCUSED PORTFOLIOS

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ExclaveWork processes and tools have changed dramatically over the last decade, but the majority of group spaces intended to promote those activities and utilize those tools have not. Exclave holistically addresses the problems that constrain collaboration and inhibit knowledge sharing to create environments that support people and keep ideas moving forward.

Metaform Portfolio®

Like an open-source operating system, Metaform offers a platform to create hyper-flexible, highly customizable, individually control-lable settings for work. It is designed to support individuals and groups who benefit from this on-demand versatility. These are agile teams who frequently adapt their size, structure, or working processes to meet the needs of the tasks at hand—characteristics that are embodied in the system itself.

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Resolve®

With a space-efficient 120-degree angle at the core of its design, Resolve supports the creation of densely populated group settings that nonetheless feel humane and livable. This angle is also con-sistent with the natural size, reach, and movements of people—aiding productivity by putting all necessary tools and technology within arm’s reach. Resolve offers an ideal balance of privacy and focus with openness and connection.

Renew™ LinkRenew Link helps create high-density environments for workers whose tasks often require extended periods of focus. This height-adjustable system offers the greatest postural flexibility and ergonomic support in its category, with subtle considerations that enhance concentration and contribute to an individual’s feeling of support.

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When people are put in charge of their own workspaces, good things happen for their companies, too. Metaform offers a new paradigm for individual control.

Crowd Controlled

STORY BY CHRISTINE MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYNE VEEN STYLING BY MARIE-YAN MORVAN

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In a world where commerce and technology have enabled unprecedented choice and cus-tomization—from on-demand media to user- configured technology to car options that can be endlessly personalized—it is assumed that people can get just about anything, anytime, in any way they want. The workplace is not exempt from these changes, and many organizations and designers are exploring how to create hyper-flexible, user- controllable workplaces. “Down to the kit of parts that make up a workspace, we are accus-tomed to a lot of choice and flexibility in our world,” says Todd Heiser, Design Principal at Gensler. “The world is moving in the direction of more customization, controlled by you.” Research shows that this new trend of individual control in the workplace also delivers business benefits. For one thing, when employees have more control over their work environments, their feelings of autonomy, empowerment, and belonging all increase. And people who feel like they belong are more likely to stay at a company.1 “With today’s talent wars, we are looking for any way we can to help clients retain talent,” says Jason Hall, Creative Director and Owner at Charlie Greene Studio, a collective of design professionals in Chicago. “If people have control over their environment, it makes them feel valued.” Allowing for individual control, or “hack- ability” (as it’s referred to in some corridors), can also boost productivity. Research conducted by Gensler found that employees who had choices about when, where, and how they worked were more innovative and performed better—and were also more satisfied with their jobs and workplaces than employees who didn’t.2 The personal control that comes with flexible spaces has an additional benefit for teams. As people move furniture around, they talk about why they are doing so. This exposes underlying assumptions about what it means to be a team and how people expect to work together. They are literally shaping their environment into something that reflects the team’s identity and purpose. That’s powerful.

Even considering the benefits of individual control, there are several reasons companies might have second thoughts when it comes to facility use. Primary among these are issues of health and safety. Almost any tour of a work-place with high individual control will turn up minor issues, like chair and table combinations that are ergonomically questionable, as well as bigger problems that could present safety hazards, like a standing-height desk improvised from stacked boxes or equipment that was never intended for use in the office. There are also less-tangible challenges. Progressive companies generally use their spaces to tell a story. “When you give people control of space, they might disrupt the flow of or undermine a narrative that’s been carefully crafted to convey a company’s purpose,” says Hall. “Flexibility is good to a point, but when you walk into a space that’s a cluttered mess, it says something about the company. The flexibility has to be within an overall under-standing about what you’re trying to communi-cate about the company.” The end result of the customization also has to preserve the integrity of the larger floorplan.

1 Jacqueline C. Vischer, “Towards an Environmental Psychology of Workspace,” Architectural Science Review (2008), 101. 2 Diane Hoskins, “Employees Perform Better When They Can Control Their Space,” Harvard Business Review (January 16, 2014). Accessed from www.hbr.org/2014/01/employees- perform-better-when-they-can-control-their-space.

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WHEN TO HACK Be hackable when you need to define an em-powered, change-driven, or disruptive team or organizational culture. In almost any company, there are teams given the task of redefining, recreating, disrupting, or delivering something new, different, and better. The work these teams do is improvisational, and they need a space that supports these on-the-fly changes.3 Let the workplace embody the culture and empower the innovators. Be hackable when your organization or teams are growing or changing quickly. This situation can be based on the overall growth or evolution of a company, or on the nature of certain teams. Development teams, for example, often start small, grow and evolve their work as the development matures, then shrink as the development moves toward completion. Their spaces can also adapt to reflect these shifts.

Be hackable when you dedicate one space to multiple teams. Sometimes it is effective and efficient to dedicate a highly flexible space to teams with multiple short-term missions. This may take place over the course of a few days or a few months. Hackable solutions are ideal to accommodate the diversity of missions, activi-ties, and character of these teams and the peo-ple within them.

3 “Team Landscapes: Total User Experience II,” Confidential and Proprietary research conducted by Herman Miller, 2015.

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HACK WELL With a better understanding of user-controlled places and when they make sense for compa-nies, we came to recognize that there were no furnishings designed to make them possible. Everything was either too heavy and rigid or too lightweight and jury-rigged. With Berlin-based Studio 7.5, we set out to create the first furniture designed just for this new way of working. The result is Metaform Portfolio. Delivering on the promise of user control are Metaform’s two modular, lightweight blocks and four lightweight table surfaces. Together, these enable the world’s most individually con-figurational and endlessly variable workplaces. The blocks weigh in at just 18 pounds, making them easy to move or reconfigure. The four ridges and furrows support table-, desk-, and counter-height surfaces and also provide un-precedented vertical display and access to tools and ideas. “There’s an oxymoron in today’s offices,” says Carola Zwick, of Studio 7.5. “If you can turn it into a PDF, you don't need physical storage for it. If you can’t PDF it, it probably won’t fit in your filing cabinet. We designed Metaform as a flexible way to store and display all of these critical objects. It creates meaningful clutter—a texture that triggers memory and ultimately inspires.”

“Today, almost all professions ‘ended up’ in offices that are descended from the classic office for administrative work,” adds Studio 7.5’s Burkhard Schmitz, “as a result, the ‘production floors’ for knowledge workers all look roughly the same—especially with computers as univer-sal tools. So movies, buildings, airplanes, shoes, and apps are being developed in similar settings, which deprives these professions of their specific flavor. By providing an environ-ment that can gracefully stage artifacts, sam-ples, books, and drawings, in a meaningful way, the physical richness of work can be regained.” But individual control, and the physical rich-ness that comes with it, doesn’t have to mean chaotic disarray—Metaform provides a calming, organizing boundary. And it doesn’t have to mean safety risks: each Metaform block is inher-ently structural and self-sufficient, and the system delivers flexible, smart, and safe power. Once the infrastructure is in place, Metaform offers an open platform for iteration and invention. Studio 7.5 even encourages individuals to further customize their Metaform blocks by utilizing 3D printing to create their own unique accessories. As Schmitz notes, “Our goal is to enable people to assume roles similar to those of a craftsman in his shop, surrounded by what he needs to be most productive.”

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Herman Miller seating takes on a new hue through the lens of photographer Carl Kleiner.

SittingPretty

Setu Chair, Studio 7.5, 2009

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Sayl® Chair, Yves Béhar, 2010

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Equa 2® Chair, Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick, 1984

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Eames® Aluminum Group Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1958

Mirra® 2, Studio 7.5, 2014

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Ergon 3® Chair, Bill Stumpf, 1976

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(from left to right, designed by Charles and Ray Eames) Eames Aluminum Group Chair, 1958, Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair, 1950, and Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair, 1946

Embody® Chair, Bill Stumpf and Jeff Weber, 2008

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Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Charles and Ray Eames, 1956 CHAIRS

OR WHY PEOPLE SIT

People sit for many reasons. They sit to rest, to work, to eat, to draw, to talk, to listen, to wait. Each situation (pardon the pun!) involves a totally different set of values in designing chairs functionally adapted to these various purposes. A living room chair (to rest) is not a chair for a desk (to work)—a dining room chair (to eat) differs from a stool (to draw)—the chairs around a conference table (to talk) vary considerably from auditorium seats (to listen) or from chairs in lobbies or terminals (to wait)... It is the special virtue of Herman Miller chair designs that in every case they are closely related to function and purpose, while keeping in mind the human anatomy, the psychology of the occasion, and the physical properties of the materials of which they are constructed. Herman Miller chairs maintain their timeless qualities, always consistently contemporary, while merely imitative styles around them exhaust their qualities by fading into obsolescence. —Herman Miller Catalog, 1964

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CHAIRS OR WHY PEOPLE SIT ...TODAY

The story goes that George Nelson didn’t want visitors to linger in his office at Fortune magazine. In a manner typical of his particular genius, he devised a solution to this quandary in the form of a slatted bench running along one wall. The slats certainly held aesthetic value, but, more significantly, they served as a kind of discomfort-based timer—overstay your welcome, and the bench would begin to tell your posterior it was time to move along. The example of the bench demonstrates an effective articulation and manipulation of the criteria for seating Nelson would lay out some 20 years later in Herman Miller’s 1964 catalog. Function and purpose, human anatomy, the psychology of the occasion, and physical properties all come together to solve a particular problem—in this case, Nelson’s distaste for unscheduled interruptions. While the text claims that, “Herman Miller chairs maintain their timeless qualities” (seemingly quite accurately, given the number of chairs from 1964 that Herman Miller still manufactures and distributes), it is perhaps even more assuring that our thinking also remains timeless. Although the world has changed significantly—considerably altering the framing and context within which we examine these qualities—concerns of function and purpose, human anatomy, the psychology of the occasion, and physical properties still guide how Herman Miller thinks about seating. Many of the basic activities of work remain similar, but how we go about them is now wildly different. If we consider function and purpose, the mobility of today’s technology means people are no longer bound to a desk. But at the same time, tasks that once required getting up and moving around (like sending mail) can today be done entirely while seated. Granting this, a widening range of settings and a greater variety of seating may now be considered suitable for work. Fundamentally, human anatomy hasn’t changed in the last 50 years, but we now know more than ever before about how the body actually works—and Herman Miller has applied that knowledge to the development of increasingly effective ergonomic chairs. For instance, we now understand that staying in one

position reduces the natural pumping action of the muscles that delivers nutrients to the intervertebral disks. We also understand that as more people are spending more time in a variety of seated postures, it’s important to support the sacrum to sustain the forward tilt of the pelvis, which restores the natural spinal curvature—improving posture and muscle balance and thereby reducing fatigue and increasing endurance. Work today can be just as formal as it’s always been, but it can also be more relaxed and social—and even within the same company, there’s wide variation based on roles, depart-ments, and colleagues. The spectrum of social dynamics—or the psychology of the occasion—that people are accustomed to experiencing outside of work has become increasingly relevant inside the workplace as well. Today’s designers are tasked with accounting for a far broader range of experiences than the work-place designers of the past. For instance, while 50 years ago it might have been unthinkable to introduce a relaxed living-room type of setting for all but the highest-paid executives, today we understand its broader value and appeal. If fiberglass and plastics represented the vanguard of material innovation in Nelson’s time, today’s most valuable material is data. While physical properties are no less important to a chair’s construction—and we are always striving to make things better— a chair’s digital properties will play increasingly important roles in the future. We believe that chairs are not merely functional tools, they are also cultural ones. Our point of view—in refinement since before the time of Nelson’s bench—has led us to the greatest range of seating in our history. Chairs that were once intended solely for lounging are now viable options for working. Chairs that were once intended for the office have found their way into our homes. Performance attributes and technologies that led us to the development of innovative ergonomic work chairs have been applied to lounge chairs, with entirely original results. Today, Herman Miller seating is more complex, more beautiful, and more purposeful than ever before—just like life itself.

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Nelson™ Marshmallow Sofa, George Nelson, 1956

Osso Chair, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi, 2011

Striad™ Lounge Chair, Jehs+Laub, 2016

Dressed First, Stefano Giovannoni for Magis®, 2014

S.S.S.S.® Stool, Philippe Starck for Magis, 2012

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Saiba™ Conference Chair, Naoto Fukasawa for Geiger ®, 2015

Nelson Swag Leg Armchair, George Nelson, 1958

Clamshell™ Wood Lounge, BassamFellows for Geiger, 2012


Girard® Color Wheel Ottoman, Alexander Girard, 1967

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Landmark™ Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger,1964

BumperTM Side Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1966

Branca Chair, Sam Hecht/Industrial Facility for Mattiazzi, 2010

Eames Soft Pad™ Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Charles and Ray Eames, 1969

Tom and Jerry Stool, Konstantin Grcic for Magis, 2014

Module Lounge Seating, BassamFellows, 2015

Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1958

Clerici Armchair, Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi, 2015

Tuxedo Component Lounge™ Settee with Table, BassamFellows for Geiger, 2014

Crosshatch™ Chair, EOOS for Geiger, 2013

Crosshatch Side Chair, EOOS for Geiger, 2016

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Bolster Sofa Group Club Chair, BassamFellows, 2014

Eames Chaise, Charles and Ray Eames, 1968

Chiaro Chair, Leon Ransmeier for Mattiazzi, 2015

Solo Stool, Studio Nitzan Cohen for Mattiazzi, 2012

She Said Stool, Studio Nitzan Cohen for Mattiazzi, 2009

Nelson Coconut Lounge Chair, George Nelson, 1955

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Bevel Sofa Group, BassamFellows, 2014

Eames Molded Plywood Dining Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1946

Chair_One, Konstantin Grcic for Magis, 2003

Tuxedo Component Lounge Club Chair, BassamFellows for Geiger, 2011

Keyn Chair Group by Herman Miller™, forpeople, 2016

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Chadwick Modular Seating, Don Chadwick, 1974

Air-Chair, Jasper Morrison for Magis, 2000

Rolled Arm™ Club Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1970

Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Charles and Ray Eames, 1956

Eames Tandem Sling Seating, Charles and Ray Eames, 1962

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Module Lounge Seating, BassamFellows, 2015

Caper® Stacking Chair with Tablet Arm, Jeff Weber, 2016

Steelwood Chair, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Magis, 2008

Osso Stool, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi, 2011

PlexTM Lounge Furniture, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, 2016

Brabo™ Club Chair, Vincent Van Duysen for Geiger, 2013

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Eames Executive Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1960

Saiba Chair, Naoto Fukasawa for Geiger, 2015

Déjà-vu Chair, Naoto Fukasawa for Magis, 2007

Sled™ Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1966

Sayl Chair, Yves Béhar, 2010

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Solo Chair, Studio Nitzan Cohen for Mattiazzi, 2012Landmark Low Arm Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1964

Scissor™ Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1968

Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1950

SwoopTM Lounge Furniture, Brian Kane, 2010

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Public Office Landscape, Yves Béhar and fuseproject, 2014

Public Office Landscape, Yves Béhar and fuseproject, 2014

Sayl Stool, Yves Béhar, 2015

Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1950

Deft, Khodi Feiz for Geiger, 2010

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She Said Lowide Chair, Studio Nitzan Cohen for Mattiazzi, 2009

Nelson Pedestal Stools, George Nelson,1950

Steelwood Stool, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Magis, 2010

Air-Chair, Jasper Morrison for Magis, 2000

Celle® Chair, Jerome Caruso, 2005

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Mirra 2, Studio 7.5, 2014

Venice Chair, Konstantin Grcic for Magis, 2011

Chiaro Stool, Leon Ransmeier for Mattiazzi, 2015

Folding Air-Chair, Jasper Morrison for Magis, 2000

He Said Chair, Studio Nitzan Cohen for Mattiazzi, 2009

Embody Chair, Bill Stumpf and Jeff Weber, 2008

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Eames Molded Plastic Stool, Charles and Ray Eames, 1950

Chiaro Lounge Chair, Leon Ransmeier for Mattiazzi, 2016

Chair_One Stacking Base, Konstantin Grcic for Magis, 2003

Wireframe™ Sofa and Ottoman, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, 2012

Officina Chair, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Magis, 2016

Stool_One, Konstantin Grcic for Magis, 2006

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Crosshatch Stool, EOOS for Geiger, 2016

Envelope™ Chair, Ward Bennett for Geiger, 1966

Eames Molded Plastic Armchair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1950

A Line, Khodi Feiz for Geiger, 2010

Full Twist™ Chair, Mark Goetz for Geiger, 2010

Medici Chair, Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi, 2012

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Eames Soft Pad Side Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1969

Saiba Lounge and Ottoman, Naoto Fukasawa for Geiger, 2016

Troy Plastic Chairs, Marcel Wanders for Magis, 2013

Paso Doble Chaise Longue, Stefano Giovannoni for Magis, 2009

Branca Stool, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin for Mattiazzi, 2014

Wood Base Club Chair, BassamFellows for Geiger, 2016

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Laura Guido-Clark shares her approach to selecting materials to support an organization’s purpose—and, more importantly, its people.

STORY BY CURT WOZNIAK PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE SCHUCK STYLING BY NASTASHA FELKER

Living in a Material World

Aeron® Chair, Designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf, 1994, Remastered by Don Chadwick, 2016

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With Living Office, Herman Miller recognizes the power that the built environment offers in shaping the experiences of people working together. To better understand the subtle— and not-so-subtle—ways that colors, materials, and finishes can contribute to the environment and enhance those experiences, we turned to our Creative Director of Materials, Laura Guido-Clark. From her studio in Berkeley, California, Guido-Clark and her team have worked with a wide variety of clients in areas that range from commercial interiors to personal electronics, and from toys and games to automotive. Since 2013, she has been engaged with Herman Miller on various projects—including a recently completed refresh of the entire materials offering, as well as an ongoing research project on the relationship between color and the human experience.

Guided by an approach she calls Climatology, Guido-Clark takes an inside out approach to designing materials. Unlike traditional trend forecasting, Climatology involves taking “temperature readings” of the current emotional, political, social, and economic environments and breaking them down into human values and emotions. Once a collective desire is determined, a palette and materiality are created to evoke that emotion. “My colleagues and I want to under-stand the human experience in a much more holistic way,” she says, “and we come at it from a materials point of view.” She sat down to answer a few questions about her work and what it means for organiza-tions seeking to create a more impactful place.

To bring ease and calm to a setting where as many as five work activities need to be supported—often simultaneously by different resident team members—Guido-Clark created this palette built upon greens and neutrals. “The whole palette is indicative of the outdoors, layering neutrals and greens much like what happens in nature, building in intensity, but perceived as holistic,” she says.

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What does materiality mean to you? I view materiality as a concrete expression that evokes a multi-sensorial response. For me, I can’t think of it as just the skin without also thinking about the heart. The heart of it is what it’s trying to express, and the skin of it is what it looks like visually— what it might feel like. But the heart of it is what it’s saying, what it’s trying to evoke. That is how I think of materiality. That is why I think it’s so important.

What does that mean for an organization looking to create a Living Office? It’s truly an expression of itself through materials. We know that to create a more human environment, we have to understand the depth of materiality and how it affects people—from hard to soft, from neutral to color, from warm to cool. Materials, particularly the color of materials, create an emotional layer within a setting. I love this statistic: Most subconscious opinions of a product or a place are formed within the first 90 seconds of seeing it. And between 60 and 90 percent of those opinions are based on color alone.

An understanding of sensory experiences provides the foundation for Guido-Clark’s work. To create a richer experience, she encourages designers to layer contrasting materials—warm and cool colors, smooth and textured surfaces. “The people using a space every day may not know why it feels a certain way, but they feel it,” Guido-Clark adds.

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A re-imagination of the classic pairing of tan and navy, this sophisticated palette supports a range of focused to collaborative activities. “The tension between the colors is lovely,” Guido-Clark says. “There is a spirit of vitality, but with an underlying earthiness.”

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Speaking of statistics, can you share some of the insights from the research work you and Herman Miller have undertaken? Our early findings and analysis indicate a connection between the materials used in a space and that space’s ability to optimally support different activities. For example, spaces for independent, focused work require a softer, quieter palette, while spaces that are highly interactive require choices that are bolder or more saturated. As this research continues, what more do you hope to learn? It’s important to think of materials not singularly, but in relationship to the whole. So our studies are designed to learn about how materials can be combined to provide a context for a person’s intention—for what they hope to accomplish in a particular setting.

How has Living Office reshaped the Herman Miller materials offering? I want to drive a process of material selection through emotion, not by category. I don’t want to say, for example, that we need five laminates; I want to understand more about what all of us need as human beings—to understand more about the workplace, and our changing needs within it. I think when you work backward and you think about who people are and what they need to accomplish and the types of work they are doing, you become so much more in touch with what colors, textures, and patterns could help facilitate that—instead of being driven by the typical requirements of a material category or price grade. And Living Office has really given us a platform for this approach.

Guido-Clark’s intent for this palette was to support a team’s creative interactions.“It’s kind of like Georgia O’Keeffe’s theory about not wearing color to allow the energy of people and spaces to radiate,” she says. “I wanted to create a dominant black-and-neutral environment where you get a hit of hyper-color so that everything else recedes.”

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Illustrations by Daniel CarlstenCover, pgs. 13–21, 53–54, 87–89, 91–92

Photography by Geordie Woodpgs. 2–6, 10–11, 68–85

Photography by Mark Mahaneypgs. 2, 11, 56–67

Photography by Ross Mantlepgs.3– 5, 9–10

Illustrations by Leonie Bospgs. 22–35

Photography by Mike Stukpgs. 38–45, 100–101, 106, 109

Illustrations by Viktor Hachmangpgs. 46–51

Photography by The Collaborationistspgs. 58

Photography by Paul Barberapgs. 75

Illustrations by Josh Cochranpgs. 94–109

Photography by Douglas Friedmanpgs. 98–99, 108

Photography by Derryck Menerepgs. 102-103

Photography by Mikkel Mortensenpgs. 102–105, 107

Photography by Wyne Veenpgs. 110–117

Styling by Marie-Yan Morvanpgs. 110–117

Photography by Carl Kleinerpgs. 118–128

Photography by Charlie Schuckpgs. 149–157

Styling by Natasha Felkerpgs. 149–157

Typeset in FF Meta and FF Meta Serif,designed by Erik Spiekermann.

Printed by The Avery Group at Shapco,Minneapolis, MN.

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Z, Y, Aeron, Arras, Canvas Office Landscape, Caper, Celle, Eames, Embody, Equa 2, Ergon, Ergon 3, Exclave, Geiger, Layout Studio, Living Office, Locale, Meridian, Metaform Portfolio, Mirra, Public Office Landscape, Resolve, Sayl, and Setu are among the registered trademarks of Herman Miller, Inc., and its subsidiaries.

A Line, Brabo, Bumper, Clamshell, Crosshatch, Distil, Eames Soft Pad, Envelope, Full Twist, Keyn Chair Group by Herman Miller, Landmark, Nelson, Plex, Renew, Rolled Arm, Saiba, Sled, Striad, Scissor, Swoop,Tuxedo Component Lounge, and Wireframe are among the trademarks of Herman Miller, Inc., and its subsidiaries.

Living Office Discovery Process and Performance Environments are among the service marks of Herman Miller, Inc., and its subsidiaries.

Alexander Girard is a registered trademark of the Alexander Girard Foundation.

Leesman is a registered trademark of Leesman Limited.

Magis and S.S.S.S. are registered trademarks of Magis SpA.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Printed in USA. Please recycle.

© 2016 Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland, MichiganLO2102

All rights reserved.

To determine if a Herman Miller product is available in your part of the world, please visit:hermanmiller.com/global

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Living Office is a human-centered approach to work and workplace, and offers each business a unique platform for realizing its strategic goals. If you’re ready to start planning your own Living Office, connect with a Living Office Specialist or visit your nearest Herman Miller showroom for further inspiration. For more information, please visit:hermanmiller.com/livingoffice

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