Today, we collaborate, which is to say we will ‘work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something’. So, in the name of collaboration, lets change things up work together to create this video on collaborative workspaces.

Traditionally, huge amounts of workspaces have been dedicated to these: individual workstations and private offices. These individual spaces are great for focus work and some collaboration, but for the most part, these types of spaces don’t adequately support collaborative work.  

Many workplaces have meeting rooms of different sizes. But these are finite and with the increased amount of collaborative work needed in the modern workspace, we will likely find there are not enough reservable rooms available to meet our needs.  

Fortunately, there are a number of furniture solutions and design methodologies available to allow for and promote collaborative work throughout the entire floorplate… open areas, enclaves, touchdown spaces, common spaces, outdoor areas just to name a few. 

So, what do we need to consider when creating collaboration spaces? Here are a few things to consider:

• First, how is the space laid out? Are there multiple places to sit. Are people facing each other? Is the space welcoming, inviting and comfortable? 
• Is there access to power, shared surfaces, whiteboards, and displays for content sharing and virtual collaboration?
• To that extent, can we accommodate for remote participants through video conferencing and adequate visual and audio capabilities?  

We must also consider adjacencies (which is another way to say what other type of work is being done near our collaboration space). This will help to encourage collaboration, increase space utilization and ensure spaces designed for other types of work.  

Since collaboration spaces are almost always unassigned, we must consider how they will be reserved and managed. Technology innovations that leverage sensors, signage and integrations with booking systems will help to answer this need.  

Remember that collaboration spaces are on the rise as more companies embrace hybrid working in the post pandemic world, many teams will return to the office for purpose-based working and face-to-face collaboration and in-person innovation is one advantage that the workplace offers over remote working.