Is a “tailor-made” office a good idea?

A “tailor-made” workplace seems to be every organization’s dream. However, this clothing-related metaphor hides a subtle trap, and understanding what it is can make us look differently at the process of creating an optimal workplace.

People don’t really want to buy a drill, they want to have a hole in the wall as the business saying goes. Therefore, the goal that the product is designed to help achieve is the key, not the physical product itself. If that’s the case, what is the purpose of a well-designed work environment? There are two possible approaches to this issue.

I: Risk of a perfect fit

The first approach is rooted in the ”tailor-made“ metaphor: the workplace should perfectly ”fit“ our organization. Like a well-tailored suit, it should emphasise the strengths of our organisational “silhouette” while at the same time masking any imperfections. However, such a perfect fit carries a non-obvious risk: it doesn’t make the imperfections of our organizational “silhouette” disappear. A tailor-made office only masks these imperfections, and sometimes even makes it worse, by carving them in the physical space of the office.

Example of a risk

Let’s illustrate this problem with an example: imagine a heavily siloed organization in which every team is a separate “kingdom”. The teams are reluctant to cooperate, focus solely on their interest, and often compete with each other for the same resources. A work environment ideally suited to the specifics of such a company would perfectly reflect this siloed structure. Team zones would be clearly defined and separated from each other. Support spaces, such as canteens or meeting rooms, would be assigned to teams, and the use of “someone else’s” space would be frowned upon or even prohibited. Consequently, the physical space would reflect and facilitate a siloed way of functioning, which could even end up worsening the problem of organizational divisions.

II: The work environment as a tool for change

However, there is a different way to approach the issue of creating a well-designed work environment. Instead of perfectly reflecting the company’s current situation, the workplace could be designed as a tool for organizational change. A work environment designed in this way doesn’t “fit like a glove”. On the contrary, it might feel quite uncomfortable. However, this discomfort is intentional – it is there to gradually push the organization in a certain direction. Viewed from this perspective, the workplace should resemble an orthopaedic corset, more of a tailor-made suit.

Example of a change

As for our siloed organization, from a strategic point of view, it would be much more beneficial to create a space that, while taking into account the functional needs and current characteristics of the company, would also provide the impetus for a gradual change. Instead of designing enclosed and separated team areas, the new workplace could provide open, or semi-open zones. Support spaces could be unassigned, and the rules of their use could be created together with the representatives of all teams. The neighbourhood structure in the office could be designed so that the teams who need to cooperate on a daily basis are located close to each other.

Can the office help the organisation evolve?

At first, functioning in this type of space could be somewhat challenging for a siloed organization. This is because such an environment wouldn’t fully reflect its current way of working. Over time, however, it would become apparent that the way the company operates is evolving, and that evolution has some tangible benefits. Such an environment wouldn’t fit perfectly at first, but over time, the organisation would gradually adjusts to their new reality. And after a few years, when the time comes to once again assess the workplace needs, this would be a completely different organisation. When that happens, it will be a good moment to update the key challenges, discuss the long-term strategy and design a new corset.