ENVIRONMENTS | CORPORATE INTERIORS

WHAT WE DO

The physical brand is an emotional experience. In a digital world, physical experiences are disruptive. How that experience is controlled and showcased in your environment is our focus. Our team will work tirelessly to integrate the critical elements of your brand voice in physical space.

Areas of concentration:

Corporate | Retail | University | Broadcast
Interior | Exterior | Campus | Wayfinding

SOLVE

How we solve: Discover, listen, research, survey, analyze, network, provide inspiration, focused design, collaborate, adapt, contrast and estimate.

Implement

The merger and management of design, production and build/fabrication, Includes: production planning & timeline management, production detailing, graphic production, technical management and integration, material selection, engineering, logistics planning, integration & supervision on-site, installation and follow through.

Project showcase

Design | Modeling | Concept

Phase One | Environmental Static Graphics

Phase Two | Seamless Dynamic LED | Experience

Cannabis Interiors

Production | Implementation

workspace | re-imagined

WHAT WE DO

Project 22 shapes how companies share and experience the emotional connection to the brand and the impact workspace has on company culture, creativity and productivity. The team at Project 22 is focused, intensely committed to your vision and ready to help.

Recent Work | Reservable Workspace

The office is not dead. Here’s why

The CEO of Workhuman argues that the critical need for human connection will guide the reinvention of the workplace.

BY LYDIA DISHMAN

Lately we’ve seen lots of obituaries for the office. The pandemic caused a massive shift to work from home (WFH) among knowledge and service workers. Teams are using communication apps like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to stay productive. Even though employees are working more hours, people like having more control over their work schedules. They benefit from less commuting, even as the boundaries are blurring between work and home.

I believe reports of the office’s demise are premature for several reasons, but they all reflect the critical human need for connection. Last spring, a large number of Silicon Valley executives made very public statements indicating their changed minds on the need for an in-person workplace: “We’re working so well from home that we might never go back to the office.”

Didn’t they realize that the reason they could transition to 100% virtual teams overnight was that they had spent years building a shared experience among employees? It was the power of proximity that enabled employees to make the switch. Those companies had invested in their cultures, which carried them through.

After almost a year of remote working, we’re seeing a slow decay of connection. According to Gallup, remote employees are 7% less likely to see their connection to the mission of a company. Staring at a laptop screen with six other faces is inherently transactional, less spontaneous, and less human than working in an actual room with actual people.

In response, leaders are stepping up their efforts to celebrate humanity at work, casting a spotlight on moments when employees go beyond their job descriptions to help customers, improve products or share new ideas. They are reminding employees that we’re in a stressful time and it’s okay to take care of themselves and each other. They are using all-hands virtual meetings and recognition platforms to share some of their own vulnerability and gratitude for the sacrifices and resilience of employees.

In a recent virtual event held by the Washington Post, Wharton School professor Adam Grant observed that virtual work has “benefits for productivity . . . [but] the big risks are collaboration and culture.” As we return to a new office setup, how can we maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks?

THE NEW WORKPLACE WILL BE DEDICATED TO INTERACTION

Speaking at the same event, Susan Lund, PhD, a leader of the McKinsey Global Institute, believes the return to offices will be about interaction. She said, “you’ll go into [the office] to meet with other people doing brainstorming and innovation, with more collaborative spaces, team rooms and maybe individual phone booths for [private] conversations.”

Architects, designers, technologists, and business leaders are putting forward an array of hybrid work arrangements, combining the best parts of WFH and face-to-face collaboration. There will be no shortage of new options. The question is, how can we make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime disruption?

TRANSITION TO A HUMAN WORKPLACE

A recent BCG study on remote work stated, “employees satisfied with social connectivity are more likely to maintain or improve productivity on collaborative tasks.” In short, strong work collaboration requires strong human connections. And that’s the key to rethinking the office for your organization. As a change management process, the 2021 transition to the “next normal” is an incredible opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to more than employees’ physical safety.

REINVIGORATE YOUR CULTURE

Every aspect of a hybrid office arrangement can contribute to greater human connection among people in a workforce blend of on-site, remote, full-time, and contract and gig workers. As a start, consider how each of these factors can strengthen ties among employees.

Physical space: You’ll be redesigning desks, collaboration spaces, safe conference rooms, and amenities (people will use the coffee station and the gym, but differently). Enlist employees in the redesign process, because they took a graduate-level course in collaboration last year.

Technology: Forge a new kind of partnership between business functions, HR, and tech teams so personal and collaboration technology are deployed in service to people as much as productivity.

Culture: Celebrate the human qualities that got you through the pandemic. It’s great to celebrate performance but we need to celebrate what connects us: kindness, dedication, integrity, resilience, collaboration, courage, and even love. Pause to appreciate one another, to show gratitude, to recognize moments that people were creative, adaptable, resilient, and selfless. Give everyone in the organization the tools they need to show gratitude to each other and truly live the cultural values of the company.

Data: Deploy data capabilities that measure how people are doing as well as what they are doing. At Workhuman, the language in our recognition data—generated from more than 50 million moments of recognition and gratitude among 5 million employees—can reveal unconscious bias which alerts people leaders that there are perhaps previously unseen inequities that can be addressed now. AI and advanced analytics are now capable of discovering so much. Keep experimenting and keep measuring the result in both business terms and human terms because today, they are inseparable.

Obituaries for the office are premature.

Eric Mosley is the CEO and cofounder of what began as Globoforce and is now Workhuman.