The workplace of the future will be defined by hybrid spaces. Here's how to take a holistic approach to reimagining ways of working forever. 

fow_design-mind_header_compressed

FOW_Design-Mind_Header_Compressed

Designing the Future of Work

Before the pandemic, the workplace was most often a physical location. Post-pandemic, remote work and virtual collaboration have become normalized more than ever before. Hybrid workplaces, which are those that involve some blending of digital and physical tools and spaces, are rapidly becoming the norm. How can leaders create space&#8211;virtual or otherwise&#8211;for ideas and collaboration to drive innovation?
In a new report called &#8216;<a href="https://go.frog.co/reshaping-the-workplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reshaping the Workplace</a>&#8216;, we ask four frog experts&#8211;Florence Guiraud, Zach Morgan, Laura Baird and Jeffrey Sharpe&#8211;how to prepare for the new world of work ahead.

<a href="https://go.frog.co/reshaping-the-workplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download the report</a> to learn about the four pillars framing the future of work. You&#8217;ll also find out why taking a holistic approach to reshaping the hybrid workplace of the future is essential for empowering your entire organization.

fow_report_mockup

FOW_Report_Mockup

Authors
Florence Guiraud, Senior Designer | Places 
Zach Morgan, Senior Designer | Places + Experiences 
Laura Baird, Executive Design Director at frog, Head of Design frog ATX 
Jeffrey Sharpe, Principal Director | Global Lead Places &amp; Experiences

Jeffrey Sharpe

Author

jeff_sharpe

How companies can unlock the creative potential of their greatest tool—their workplace

performative-workplace_hero

Performative-Workplace_HERO

Workplace as Performative Environment

Moving through the world today, there is an expectation that our physical places should be as immediate, responsive and adaptive to our needs as the digital tools and virtual realities we have constructed. It’s evident in the way consumer expectations and habits have changed in retail, but also in how companies are looking to develop new ways of working that will allow them to respond to the mounting pressures to deliver engaging products and services to their customers. Companies across every industry are struggling to improve employee engagement and create environments that empower their staff to be creative, collaborative and innovative.
In order to get the most value out of the workplaces of tomorrow, it’s imperative to understand that environments are active tools—not static vessels—that should be designed for the people that work, shop and reside within them. By colliding technologies, data and architecture, we can transform the relationship of how people and space interact.
Technology alone cannot create a responsive environment. To do that we must put the experience first, rethink how architecture and interiors are conceived and planned, and consider how tools, media and data support the overriding experiences we’re trying to achieve. This does not replace architecture’s fundamental elements of light, texture, proportion, movement and function but rather becomes a superimposed layer of story and content within the experience—visceral and performative—enabling the space to move in seamless choreography with its users.
In order to deliver a Performative Environment for employees or users, we see three fundamental focuses:
Integrated Intelligence 
Integrated intelligence can increase productivity and collaboration, and improve efficiency and effectiveness by tracking usage and energy consumption. Integrated smart systems provide a pragmatic understanding of how a space is utilized to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Most environments are already full of data streams (geo-location from mobile devices, RFID entry systems and building management systems) that can be leveraged to better understand how an existing space is used—or not used—in terms of efficiency and utilization. This data exhaust (which can be anonymized) informs designers and owners on both the design of new spaces and the immediate improvement of existing spaces. For example, through data tracking, we’re able to understand the utilization and effectiveness of the tools, applications and spaces within a laboratory or workplace to better understand if we had the right idea in the first place.
User Behaviors 
User behaviors, preferences and aspirations can be collected to help better anticipate their needs and prototype new experiences. Understanding staff and user behaviors and anticipating their needs is one of the most important tools an employer has to improve the workplace and build a human-centered, creative culture. Through thoughtful consideration, we use behavioral archetypes to help think about how space, tools and social interactions empower all staff and create a culture conducive to collaboration and innovation. This approach puts people, not roles, at the center of the organization and becomes the foundation for all planning and design. Not all engineers, managers or project leads are created equal. For example, in a retail setting, we can leverage mobile applications to sense a myriad of customer interactions including visits, digital activations, social buzz, learning activations, demos and transactions. When designing for organizations and enterprises, we borrow these same approaches to put the needs of the employee at the center of the experience.
&nbsp;
Narrative 
Imagery, narrative and information layered into the space personalize experiences and immerse users in the atmosphere, expectations and identity of the place. Ultimately, we are striving to create environments that are sentient, intelligent and part of a continuous and interactive narrative. Beyond tracking, heat maps and mobile applications, the opportunity to develop spaces that are continuously tuned based upon our habits, preferences and needs of the day results in a place that moves with its user. We’re talking about concepts and atmospheres generally reserved for theater and art installations; the intersection of light, sound, story and information. When designing a leading genome research institute, we ensured the space and scientists are connected. As a researcher walks through the space to their table, RFID-activated storyboards recognize the person and share the latest journal updates, project reviews and status. The researcher can quickly scan, accept, save or disregard, allowing them to share ideas with colleagues that don’t get lost in a messenger platform or email thread. Space becomes fluid and performative, an active character in the play.
The richness and promise of architecture is its presence, its marking of time, and its reflection of society and its technological advancements. It drives behavior, for good or bad, as it reinforces our beliefs about ourselves as a community, an organization or institution. Developing performative environments that move with and adapt to its users is the next epoch of design.
Historically, our physical environments have not been adequately designed with the ability to easily adapt—despite our rapidly changing needs. These facilities have handcuffed many organizations and institutions to their future; a future that is already outdated. While many of these places were designed with efficiency and low initial cost as their goal, the investment to renovate or even abandon and build new is an extraordinary and massive undertaking for any organization, not to mention the incredible strain this continuous cycle of construction has put on our global resources. As a result, these ineffectual and static facilities drive staff, students and customers to adapt to the space, rather than the other way around, leading to a negative effect on efficiency, creativity and output. This short-sightedness has created a dystopian landscape of wasted resources and lost human potential. Need proof? Just look at the ineffectual classrooms and office parks that litter our landscapes, and the myriad of underperforming organizations struggling to keep up with the next big thing.
The time is now to embrace the workplace as the most impactful tool a culture has to improve work, learning and engagement. By leveraging technologies and by designing agile spaces, we can create environments that are responsive to the rapidly changing ways of work, anticipate staff needs, and elevate the experience to meet people where they are and where they want to go. This is not just about being more convenient and eliminating the time lost setting up a video conference (although that undoubtedly could save thousands of hours around the world)—it’s about using data to amplify the effectiveness of the entire system and creating deeper and more purposeful experiences.
The key to success is being committed to constant improvement and having a mindset for iteration and discovery, and a desire for breaking away from the status quo. A multi-disciplinary approach to design—one that brings an enterprise’s IT, facilities and experience teams together—creates the opportunity to bring dynamic and responsive environments to life that evolve with the organization and their staffs’ needs. An organization’s readiness is fundamental to the ability to maintain and grow these experiences. Together we develop the tools and measurement criteria to help our clients maximize the value of these efforts to turn the environment into an active, high-performance tool that helps them better serve their staff, customers, and community. As companies invest in a future that is being written, Performative Environments put human capital and creativity at the center of the experience and are integral in shaping the future of work.

frog is a global design and innovation firm. We transform businesses at scale by creating systems of brand, product and service that deliver a distinctly better experience. We strive to touch hearts and move markets. Our passion is to transform ideas into realities. We partner with clients to anticipate the future, evolve organizations and advance the human experience.

architecture-and-places-header

Architecture & Places

<div class="span6 widget-span widget-type-rich_text copy" data-widget-type="rich_text" data-x="0" data-w="6">
<div class="cell-wrapper layout-widget-wrapper">
<div class="span6 widget-span widget-type-rich_text copy" data-widget-type="rich_text" data-x="0" data-w="6">
<div class="cell-wrapper layout-widget-wrapper">
<div class="span6 widget-span widget-type-rich_text copy" data-widget-type="rich_text" data-x="0" data-w="6">
<div class="cell-wrapper layout-widget-wrapper">
It is clear that tomorrow’s problems will not be solved by today’s outdated methods or models. Instead, the future of architecture needs a new paradigm for design, one that takes a holistic approach across disciplines and experience. frog’s Architecture &amp; Places practice posits that experience is bigger than the building. We create purposeful and emotive experiences that connect people to their work, to their lives and to each other.
</div>
</div>
<div class="span6 widget-span widget-type-rich_text copy" data-widget-type="rich_text" data-x="6" data-w="6">
<div class="cell-wrapper layout-widget-wrapper">
Download the Report to learn more about:
<ul>
<li>A new paradigm for architecture and design</li>
<li>Why experience is bigger than the building</li>
<li>frog&#8217;s Places practice in action</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

architecture_design_960-1

Architecture_Design_960 (1)

As Principal Director of frog&#8217;s Architecture &amp; Places practice, Jeff Sharpe leads a team of multidisciplinary designers in transformational strategic design for clients, including many Fortune 500 companies. His work blurs architectural and digital space, leveraging the fundamentals of theater, film, technology and media to set the choreography of experience in motion. Jeff has received numerous awards for his work in architecture and design, and has been a speaker and contributor for many conferences and publications in the field.

Authors

When it comes to building intelligent retail experiences, the brand is experience and experience is the brand.

intel-retail-1440-1

Retail Spaces as Brand Builders

The ease and speed of online buying has made it almost entirely unnecessary to enter a physical store. Yet, consumers still want a relationship with the brands they love. They want to see themselves in these brands and be part of a community. They want this without compromising convenience and personalization. To fulfill these evolving needs and meet their customers wherever they are, be it online or off, brands are looking to create experiences that both express their promise and meaningfully engage their customers and their broader community.
Connection of any kind makes us feel more human and feeds our need for self-expression and belonging. We’re not just talking “Millennial fad” here, but a basic need regardless of age. In a world of increasingly isolated and virtual interactions, consumers of all generations are thirsty for meaningful experiences beyond transaction. And while a retail interaction cannot fulfill these overarching needs in the same way as our more intimate relationships with friends and family, partners or co-workers, these small interactions can build meaningful connections to a brand and its values.
Connecting brand touchpoints 
Whether it’s a digital interaction, a traditional brick and mortar store or a temporary brand experience located in a target neighborhood, companies must connect with their customers across multiple touchpoints. Because every experience is an opportunity to reinforce your brand. Every single touchpoint inside and outside a physical location must be intentionally designed and supported to reinforce a consistent brand experience regardless of how, where and when those interactions happen. Beyond convenience and transaction, we must leverage the entire palette of materials—virtual, physical, human—to create places that matter, that support our relationships.
Imagine capturing the smile and the exchange of pleasantries with the local butcher layered with technologies that provide the ultimate in convenience, whether you’re in the shop or planning dinner from the comfort of your own kitchen. Good design meets the customer where they are and creates an emotional connection that brings delight, ease and trust, which in turn builds loyalty and increases engagement.
Data-powered brick and mortar  
While intelligence is needed to get those engagements right, it’s not just about tracking customer data anymore. In fact, collecting customer profiles is table-stakes. Rather, brands need to use that knowledge and data to create trust, ease and delight across every touchpoint the customer has with the brand. To do this, brands need to start with intentionality. They must ask themselves: What makes our customers different? What does our brand stand for? And, how can we help meet our customers’ aspirations? Intentionality is the necessary foundation to build a lasting relationship with your customer.
Additionally, customers now expect businesses to understand them as completely as they are understood by any of the apps on their phones. They expect to move seamlessly across channels to complete a purchase or even try something on. Customers don’t think or care about these so-called channels—they only care about getting the products they need and discovering new ones that improve their lives.
Increasingly, customers expect to walk into a store and be able to find the products they want, talk with an expert when needed, and feel like they are truly a part of the brand they love. As with their experience online, they expect a store to recognize them and adapt to their needs. Recognizing your customers as they move through your store and empowering your associates to serve their needs is the initial threshold between our digital and physical worlds. Associates become the cast members of the experience, choreographed with data and personalized advice. But transparency is key in these interactions in order to stay away from the uneasy perception of the creepy stalker salesman.
Technology in service of experience  
By leveraging technologies that go beyond data collection and focus on supporting a curated experience, be it a self-service journey or a full immersive brand moment, we’re able to reduce the ever-present friction between online and in-store experiences. At frog, we are creating systems that help our clients support constantly evolving customer interactions, guiding new offerings to meet customer needs and expectations. By designing applications that live in the background of the broader experience, we can redefine a customer’s relationship with your brand. We weave technology through the tissues of the environment to empower great service that is the magic of the experience.
But just in the same way “intelligence” must be considered and designed, technology must also always be used in service of the broader experience—not become the entire experience. Technology is not only the app and backbone behind the scene but can be the platform for sharing the ever-changing narrative that is your relationship with your customer. By using technology as another material on our palette, our architectural practice, <a href="https://www.frog.co/services/architecture-places" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Places</a>, can sculpt a theater of experiences that sets the stage for a richer customer relationship. We are designing places that use data to power audio and visual interactions that bring products and services to life. For instance, in our work for a luxury sports car brand, we were able to help the brand share their heritage and expertise through AR experiences that model their mechanics’ surgical precision, feeding the excitement and desire of both current and prospective owners.
Similarly in our retail work with beauty and luxury brands, we are creating fully integrated digital, physical and architectural experiences. Unlike traditional architecture firms and digital consultancies, we are able to design and execute environments that bridge the gap between our physical and virtual lives. It’s not only about adding more monitors and displays into a store but about creating a richer experience through the thoughtful use of technology that enhances the interactions between the physical and digital. We are launching a new experience for a global beauty brand that integrates in-store RFID technologies with the locally accepted mobile application to allow for browsing, testing and purchase of products. At the same time, the design of the store reinvents the brand expression with material, lighting and media. By using theatre and stage design techniques, the tone and atmosphere of the store itself can adapt to a wide variety of functions, events and fashion shows.
Today, we are crafting experiences that merge story, brand, community and interaction together to redefine retail. We are at the precipice of the retail revolution, and intelligent brick and mortar stores will be critical for those who wish to move from transactions to relationships with their customers. Through our multi-disciplinary practice, we’re helping our customers redefine how consumers and brands connect.

Architecture & Places: Experience is Bigger than the Building


architecture_design_web_960-2

Architecture_Design_web_960 (2)

As companies seek to be more innovative, they must first learn to foster creativity in every aspect of their organization—from their people to their workspaces.

lc_frog_oganizationalcreativity_cover_gif_3

LC_Frog_OganizationalCreativity_Cover_GIF_3

Organizational Creativity: Building a Path for Innovation

Organizations in every industry are scrambling to respond to the rapid technological advancements and changing consumer expectations that are challenging their relevance and ability to deliver innovative solutions. From startups reinventing or creating new markets seemly overnight to increasing expectations to deliver responsible and relevant products and experiences, enterprises are looking both inward and outward for a path forward. It is essential across industries to unlock new ways of working so that organizations can bring innovative products and services to market, and stay relevant with their customers and employees.
In response to this need to be more innovative, companies take various approaches, such as creating positions like Chief Creative Officer or VP of Innovation, as well as adding new teams and in-house creative groups dedicated to the task. One of the most popular methods is the off-site innovation center, which many companies have established in the hopes of bringing ground-breaking ideas to bear. However, most of these solutions fall short. For organizations investing deeply to unlock their path to innovation, a bold shift in perspective is required to create lasting impact.
&nbsp;
<h6>Focus on Creativity, Not Innovation</h6>
Multiple studies name “organizational well-being” as an essential ingredient in creating an agile and innovative business. Individual and organizational creativity is at the root of that well-being, and fundamental to creating the purpose-driven culture where innovation thrives. Creativity is a defining human characteristic and foundational to human expression. Creativity and purpose are fused and inherent in our need to find and express our voice, and to drive past obstacles and toward new perspectives, methods and outcomes.
In order to build a foundation that unlocks creativity, we must focus on four fundamental human needs: permission, empowerment, engagement and vulnerability.
<ul>
<li>Permission: Allow your employees and teams to work in the ways they know best.</li>
<li>Empowerment: Give your employees the agency to make the decisions necessary for a given task, and allow them to work where and when they need to.</li>
<li>Engagement: Value employee purpose and wellbeing to foster greater staff engagement, which results in reduced absenteeism and higher productivity.</li>
<li>Vulnerability:  Foster a diverse, inclusive and empathetic culture that encourages and protects people to make mistakes, push into unknown territories, find their own voice and be human.</li>
</ul>
Concepts like vulnerability and empowerment are not often included when considering the bottom line, but we’ve seen that fostering creativity and creating a healthy and innovative culture can lead to outcomes that directly influence business objectives. To reach the goal of bringing more relevant new products and services to market faster and more efficiently, companies must:
<ol>
<li>Create a learning organization committed to continuous intellectual and emotional growth.</li>
<li>Put organizational well-being at the center by creating purposeful and relevant experiences for employees.</li>
<li>Foster an agile and nimble mindset that prepares the organization and staff for rapidly changing context and business conditions.</li>
<li>Attract talent—an organization with creativity at its center is able to recruit and retain talent as they are best positioned to exceed new employee expectations and support continuous staff growth.</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
<h6>Activating the Organization Around Creativity</h6>
A systemic approach is necessary to build and nurture creative organizations. If an enterprise is an organism made up of interconnected and interdependent components, it is critical to consider the system holistically, and not focus on its parts in isolation. For years, organizations and enterprises have approached innovation through narrow lines of sight and disparate silos of design, resulting in efforts that are incongruent, never fully connected and unsustainable—simply “off the beat.”

“Centers of innovation” are intended to be the testbeds for new methods, tools and workspaces. But they should also be designed as the stage for unlocking employees’ sense of purpose, their creative voice, and as a launchpad for organizational creativity. This attitude navigationally adjusts efforts toward being a catalyst of change, thus establishing these initiatives as assets of the organization. But for the initiative to be successful, it requires a redefined structure; a shift in behavior and a focus on people.
&nbsp;
<h6>When it Comes to “Innovation Centers” We Must Redefine the “Center”</h6>
Defining the relationship and position of the innovation center to its broader organization is the first stone in the foundation of creating real impact. Fundamental to this question is the very definition of the word “center.” When it comes to innovation, center as “the point around which everything revolves” is not the desired spatial or gravitational relationship with the host. The organization does not revolve around the center metaphysically or literally. It is important that these efforts aren’t positioned in such a way to inadvertently put an emphasis on the “cool kids with the cool new toys.” We also must be careful not to position these initiatives as “the place from which our future comes,” as it ignores the collective creativity that already exists within the organization. This perception can short-circuit the effort before it has a chance to build momentum.
Instead, we must reframe our conception of these places of innovation as “points of concentration” existing just outside the body of the organization. These multiple, dense structures of energy and learning connected across an entire enterprise act as a kind of “organizational acupuncture,” inserting points of innovation to activate and pulsate throughout the rest of the organization.
&nbsp;

lc_frog_oganizationalcreativity_inset_4-1-2-1-2

LC_Frog_OganizationalCreativity_INSET_4-1-2-1

To achieve this, organizations must build a micro-culture in these innovation centers that foster a mindset and belief system of experimentation and rapid iteration. This mindset is crucial to melding staff and context together into one organism, and in turn, creating a fusion of intent that will push out ideas, results and impact throughout the organization. As staff and the supporting environment continue working together, they begin setting their own choreography of how they work. If the relational position of these initiatives is the foundation, the mindset is the current that runs through it. Together they form the stage to ignite individual creativity and spark the often-dormant potential residing within the larger system.
To be most effective, these innovation teams must be free to develop a new way forward, outside of the rules of the mothership. Because even pirates have their own rules, just as the Navy has theirs. This commitment and structure to the concentration of creativity binds both the team and its executive sponsors outside the group, allowing the team to explore, learn, change direction—to truly be creative and innovative.
But separate cannot mean isolated. To ensure lasting impact across the organization and delivery of relevant products and services to your customers, it is essential to create a dedicated and strategic location for these teams. The location of this group is paramount to its effectiveness and future success. Whether you build an innovation hub on the front porch for all to see and experience or go off-site, it cannot be in isolation. These places have the power to build excitement and curiosity around the energy and work being produced, and in turn, that excitement will effect change within the organization. These places of innovation can shift the mindset of the broader organization and allow for learnings and ideas to push back into the whole of the enterprise, fueling transformation. Tied directly to the charge and goals of these initiatives is a parallel effort of <a href="https://www.frog.co/services/org-activation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">organizational activation</a>. This effort brings the methodologies, processes and systemic learnings from the initiative into the organization to guarantee a creative and innovative culture takes hold, grows and drives continuous impact. It takes the right team and the right leadership to protect and champion the efforts, and an intentionally orchestrated activation plan to bring the learnings deep into the organization.
&nbsp;
<h6>Designing Learning Labs</h6>
An intentional and holistic design brings together every component to create an interconnected system that works together in service of the organization’s vision and commitment to innovation. This system must include the space, methodologies, curriculum, social rituals, tools (both digital and physical), and must bring the communication and engagement back into the broader organization to enable lasting impact and eventual transformation. This approach doesn’t mean you have to invest in every component upfront, but rather focus on intended outcomes and vision, then define a framework in which tools can be added or changed as requirements evolve and learnings dictate. This framework allows for constant adaptability and change as ideas, methodologies and tools are tested. To achieve this, we at frog bring an agile software development approach to an architectural and system scale for design, testing and improvement. This means every component we design and build—even the space itself—is adaptable in order to minimize risk and maximize learnings.
To amplify engagement and to empower staff, it is paramount to provide a broad range of options that allow people to work as they need. Creating a tapestry of tools and spaces to support different types of work and personal needs is essential. Within frog’s architectural practice, <a href="https://www.frog.co/services/architecture-places">Places</a>, we design systems that are inherently agile and adaptable for reconfiguration to meet the needs and learnings of the space. Measurement is critical to the on-going learning in any workplace; with instrumented technologies, we can determine the effectiveness of tools, furniture and spatial configurations and very quickly adjust for maximum impact. This demands a different expression of architecture and design, one that is not final, but always in a constant state of discovery, a ‘State of Becoming’ (to paraphrase Walt Disney).
Having a mindset that thrives in a constant state of change is more important than ever. People need permission and the feeling of safety in a place to move freely throughout this continuous evolution. This vulnerability is the fuel of re-discovering our creative force. We are creating these points of concentration, these places that are part laboratory, part playground, part classroom and theater. They are vehicles of continuous development and invention, fostering curiosity and creativity that fuel transformational change throughout their host organization. Our work with <a href="https://www.frog.co/work/equinor">Equnior</a>, the Norwegian energy company, is just one example of how an organization is taking the first steps toward realizing the future of work. They have achieved levels of improvement including a 40 percent increase in employee engagement and with accelerated results, implementation, and adoption of tools and methods into the greater community. Together, we designed the system to set the course for their organizational future—one with human creativity at the core.
The most effective initiatives become the physical and spiritual manifestation and a demonstration of the enterprise’s commitment to its future and its belief in its people. It’s hard work and it takes a framework to support and provoke the behaviors and rituals necessary for collective creativity to blossom. If we are to solve the global challenges ahead of us and elevate the human experience, unlocking our creativity is the only way forward.

Jeffrey Sharpe

Featured

Workplace as Performative Environment

Articles

	Global		EN
	France		FR

	Global		EN
	France		FR