the future of work.

There has been a lot of talk around the office about the future of work, what happens when we have so many generations working together and working very differently at that? How do we make an office environment that accommodates this? Will there even be an 'office'?

Being a furniture company, I'm sure we analyze this more than the average Joe, but these are interesting questions. In looking how our team currently works, there are some trends already emerging:

1. The young folks: We tend to come together and sit in the lounge type areas. Even if we aren't working on a project together, the thought of having someone nearby is a good feeling for us. Maybe we're so separated because of our use of technology that having someone near us fulfills our need for human interaction. Whatever the case, we congregate together in these areas and work really well.

2. The middle-aged: In order to keep myself out of trouble, I won't specify an age range (you can make up your own). We just got a whole new office of very open furniture and it took these folks a little while to adjust. The thought of having conversations overheard was a little unnerving for them and there were jokes tossed around quite a bit for the first few days. But, they have adjusted quite well all in good stride and now work diligently from their desks talking with others.

3. The oldies: I can't think of any examples from our office of anyone like this, but I know they exist. These are the types of people that keep traditional office furniture alive. They want their cubicle as a protection wall of their ideas and territory. They feel naked without that wall.

So how do we accommodate all of these types of people? I think it depends largely on company culture in terms of relating to people, but furniture can change the environment A LOT! Since we've opened up our space and I can see the heads of all my co-workers, there has been so much more dialog and people seem more approachable, which for a young 20 something like myself I find this very appealing. I think I've gotten to know my co-workers more in the past 3 weeks than the previous 6 months :)

a balancing act...

It has been a long time since I posted anything due to an equation of balance that has been ruling my life this semester:

internship + school = crazy life

I have always worked during school and it has been fine, but an internship is something different. I go to work and think and produce. I think about marketing things and strategy things and real world type things. I then go to school and they try to teach me the things I am learning at my internship already. It gets to be rather redundant but also a little crazy in terms of balancing the limited hours in a day.

I have two very different modes of operation that I am balancing. On Mondays and Wednesdays I wake up early and go to work. I obviously have to dress fairly nicely and be professional. After work I go straight to class to sit amongst students who are basically in their pajamas and still very much in the academic world. I'm bouncing from one world to the other and its a complete mind shift.

During October I went through a period of wanting to quit school and just work. I felt like I was learning so much more at work than school, what was the value of it? Now its December, school is wrapping up, and it has redeemed itself. Final projects are due and I see all the work and time I put into them and that the endurance required was also part of the experience, part of the learning.

So, there is a balance, a rhythm and flow to life. Sometimes I committed more of myself to work in a week, sometimes to school and it that's okay. Life, school, work, and relationships all ebb and flow, in and out. I'm seeking balance in these things.

travelling...

This past week I was able to travel with one of Turnstone's managers who works with dealers in selling our products. Now, I've been on numerous road trips before with family that usually involve many tasty snacks and stops along the way, but this was something all together different. The trips I took this past week were ones that ended up spending more time driving than being in the actual place and took the form of coffee in hand and black pants on rather than naps and candy.

We met bright and early Wednesday morning to drive to a show at a dealer across the state. Two and a half hours, numerous conversations about business and life in general, and a few cups of coffee later we found ourselves at our dealer. We had the front and center spot to show our product and chat with customers, designers, and dealers alike.

This was a whole new side of the business for me. Instead of sitting in the office looking at our product or talking with other co-workers about it, I got to see it shine. I got to see the customer's reaction to our stuff, not our own perspective about marketing it differently or changing this or that in producing it. I was able to see the story behind it and how it resonated with them. It was fresh and innovative and exciting for them, which made it that way for me.

I think so often in our work we see it and work with it everyday until it becomes stale and repetitive. We lose the insight that it really contains and the story and excitement behind it. For me, talking with designers about it brought back all of that excitement. It was wonderful to see designers envision this product in spaces they were working with and for it to do its purpose: solve their problems and make their spaces look great.

So, travelling. It's something I love. I love to see new communities and places and meet new people. I love to talk with them and see what they deal with on an everyday basis. On top of that, I was able to spend numerous hours travelling the same highway 3 days in a row with wonderful conversation and learning about the business with a co-worker. It was eye-opening, interesting, and brought back excitement to office furniture. Props...

getting older...

One of the things I love about Steelcase is the ability that I, as an intern, have to meet with top management and get to know people at the top. There is such an open atmosphere in that regard and I witnessed it first hand this week.

A few of my fellow Turnstone interns and I were able to set up a meeting with the president of the company, just because, and it was wonderful. I think my generation is prone to think that older men in suits are all business and no fun, but that simply isn't true.

As we were talking with the president, I asked him how he stays innovative and creative after being in the same position for so long, working 8-5, and let's be honest, with office furniture. I mean, how do you keep office furniture interesting?

He replied by talking about his biggest fear: getting old. He asked us if we thought 'old' was an age thing or a mindset. We all agreed it was a mindset thing, that you are old when you think you're old, and more than that, when you stop thinking, exploring, and trying new things. Being old is when you're stuck in the same pattern and when you make the decision to stop thinking about new things, to keep listening to the same music and to think you know all there is to know.

I can think of numerous people my age who are 'old'. They have traded the hard, invigorating work of exploring and learning for complacency and a staleness. Honestly, it may be easier to think you know everything, to do things you've always done, but it is certainly not as rewarding. There is something about finding a new way, learning a new song, finding a new routine that is so revolutionary that it was worth the time and effort spent learning.

This idea is so inspiring to me. I am 'young' and have ideas and innovations that I don't even know that I have. How can I challenge people and bring new ideas to keep those I'm working with from growing 'old'? Because, at the end of the day, isn't this what we're all afraid of? We're afraid of the day when we don't know why we have structured our life the way it is because we only did so since it was convenient. We're afraid of the day when a new technology comes along and we don't want to take the time to figure it out. Therefore we owe it to each other to keep one another young, to keep challenging each other, learning things about our world and each other, and ultimately keep innovation and creativity flowing, because that is the wellspring of wisdom.

fireworks from above...

I was recently flying into Boston, it just so happened to be the 3rd of July. Upon our graceful descent, there were fireworks bursting into the sky. I had never seen fireworks from the sky, only from the ground, surrounded by sticky popcorn, crying children, and ambulances in the distance. This was a different experience all together. Each firework would burst with no ho hum, no oo's and aah's but just simple colors bursting all over the sky.

As I was watching this, I realized how much in life I approach things from only one point of view. It was done this way before, it will be done this way again. Our system has worked this way before, it will continue to operate this way as well. Office furniture (or anything in life) has always been sold and set up this way, so it should continue.

I am realizing in life and work, that approaching things from this way is not only unproductive, its just plain boring. Jumping in to work as an intern here, I have been trying to learn more and more, soaking up knowledge and business, without questioning why things are done the way they are. Why do we look up things this way? Why do our ordering cycles go this way?

Instead of challenging these things, I have fallen into the cycle of doing, without thinking about why I am doing it this way. I have been in the middle of projects and suddenly stopped and thought, 'This is taking too long this way, why not try it this other way?' Often though, the old was is comfortable and familiar, and therefore I don't change the way my project is running or step back and do the hard work of starting over from a new perspective.

I've accepted sparklers, gooey candy, and ornery children without realizing that watching fireworks from above is pretty spectacular. I've made spreadsheets, gone into meetings, and started projects from only one viewpoint, without taking a moment to sit back and challenge and ask the difficult questions.

I suppose its all part of the learning process. Not only learning about furniture and how to properly spec it, understand it, and make it better, but also about how to think and use my skills in new and more useful ways, one of those being watching fireworks from an airplane.

walls...

I'm realizing more and more how much I learn about life from books and movies, which probably isn't a good thing. I see something that is 'normal' on the movie and that weaves subconscoisly into my mind as the way of life. For instance, according to some of my favorite movies, I am supposed to live in a plush New York apartment with romance always knocking at my door.

In some movies (especially those with that main plot centered around a journalist), there is the boss behind a glass door, completely walled it. In order to approach this boss, the employee must muster up large amounts of courage, the same amount of nervous sweat, and have something really important to 'bother' the boss with, namely a promotion or firing.

So, entering this corporate world, I expected some of these themes to be true. I expected, not nessarily an unappraochable castle that my boss would sit in, but that some sort of wall, whether that be physical or relational, would exist. The first few times I had something to say (even if it was some casual signature or request), I would sit and wait until just the right time to walk the ten steps to his desk, nervous that I wouldn't speak correctly.

It's funny to think that I thought this was the way things would be, and that I was nervous about it because since then, the levels of formality that I have been taught all my life (mainly from movies), have completely evaporated. I realize, as my co-workers have obviously done before me, that these walls and barriers we like to set up between us and people are not worth the supposed superiority they bring, but sharing and collaborating together is worth so much more. I'm realizing that superiority doesn't equal complete and utter formality all the time, but being real with someone is so much more important.

I'm learning that the business world isn't all about business. While getting business done, you must chat with people on a personal level, I mean, we're all people anyway. When this happens, business gets done faster. When beginning, I was afraid to chat with people about what was happening in my life, or show any type of personality at all, lest it take away from my work. Now, I realize this is utterly ridiculous.

All this to say, don't let walls get in your way. People want to be people, not stiff characters walking around. We all have personalities and lives waiting to be shared, and when this happens, business advances. We feel more comfortable with those whom we share our desk with and therefore more willing to share ridiculous ideas, and its those completely ridiculous ones that normally end up going somewhere :)

thinking time...

I deal with transactions every day. Whether I go to the grocery store, mall, or even call my doctor, I'm used to transactional interactions. You do what you have to do, complete the documentation and move on. I get my goods or services completed and go on to the next thing. rarely do I experience more than this in daily life.

All of my previous work environments have been this way as well. I worked as a barista, saying hello, making a drink, taking their money and saying goodbye. Done. Next customer. This cycle repeats itself over again throughout the day and week and month. It's a very linear type of thinking with many checks and balances to ensure consistency, accuracy, and overall satisfaction with the transaction.

Well, say goodbye to those days. For a person like me who loves to check things off the list, that type of job worked well. One customer after the other until everyone was happy. Not much of a challenge, but easy to think about, relate to, and do. Unfortunately, I can't just check things right off the list, I am more than just an element in a transaction. It's like I've discovered a new world where there is more than simple transactions. It's like the child who wants to be a teacher just because that is all they've ever known. I've only known transactions, until now.

This linear thinking is out the window. These days my mind jumps between numerous projects and documents and research. I still have it ingrained in me to input the research or numbers and move on, but there is so much more to it. There are numerous trails of thinking to travel down in order to arrive at a conclusion, and that conclusion may not even be possible. A day isn't watching the clock tick on, waiting until my shift is over, but rather doing things by length of projects. I can't just clock out and go home, these thoughts follow me home until I resume them the next day. Some days I have heaps of ideas and thoughts and motivations and fly through things. Other days it takes me hours to wade through some reading or documentation.

All the while, I have to keep in mind I'm here to learn. so, if I spend my time reading an interesting article on furniture or design, its not wasted time just because something tangible isn't produced. If I schedule a lunch date or sit down and chat with a fellow employee, it's not wasted company time but a means of networking. At the end of the day, every element of my day can't be documented and labeled because so much of it involves time thinking.

After about a month of this, I am still getting used to it. Each person around me is like a little hub of thoughts and ideas, all of us working on something a little different. When we meet to collaborate, we bring these little hubs together to hopefully make a bigger hub. I truly think the challenge is taking these ideas that we spend so much time formulating and making them into something tangible. No, its not a simple transaction, but an idea that if pursued correctly turns into a product or launch or program which ultimately improves the company.

So, my project timeline is long. instead of a few moments, it could be months. but all that said, thinking is hard work and at the end of the day, hopefully my thoughts will produce something proactive, even if it comes to fruition eight months from now.