Good design solves problems, and the best design solves problems that are difficult to define or not even evident yet. Business leaders today realize they have to be more innovative, make faster decisions and cope with exponential change and complexities.
Place matters more than ever before when solving these issues. That's because our environments shape our behaviors, and spaces where we work can either foster the types of behaviors that drive business results, or help sabotage them.
Steelcase studies workplaces around the world, works with business leaders from diverse industries and constantly prototypes and tests new designs for spaces that can foster the kinds of results that organizations seek today. We use our own offices as living laboratories to prototype new designs for spaces that can foster the kinds of behaviors that organizations need today.
(Read more: Home is where the waste is)
Our research shows that there are new challenges in today's economy:
- The more mobility technology allows, the more we need fixed places to come together to connect and collaborate.
- The smaller our technologies, the more we need larger-scale places to share and communicate effectively with others.
- The more data we generate, the more we need places to help us make sense of it.
- The more collaborative we are, the more we need time alone.