The fastest, easiest way to shift culture toward engagement and productivityChange Your Space, Change Your Culture is a guide to transforming business by rethinking the workplace. Written by a team of trail-blazing leaders, this book reveals the secrets of companies that discovered the power of culture and space. This insightful guide reveals what companies lose by viewing office space as something to manage or minimize. With practical tips and implementation details, the book helps the reader see that the workspace is, in fact, a crucial driver of productivity and morale.
Change Your Space, Change Your Culture was born out of recent studies that expose truly outrageous "Oh, my God" realities:
More than 70 percent of the workforce either hates their job or they are just going through the motions. Half of all office space is wasted. Those shattering facts exist because office space is generally regarded as "overhead" or "sunk cost." Most buildings today clearly communicate the low priority placed on people-friendly design. Poor workforce engagement is baked into the culture. This book provides guidance on turning this around, by rethinking and reshaping space to align with the way people work. Specifically, this book moves from the high-altitude view down to the details on how to:
Discover the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way to shift culture Add square footage by using space more effectively Boost employee engagement and vitality by the creative use of space Learn how space can become a powerful productivity tool We all know that design, space, and flow have a powerful effect on the human psyche. Our homes, museums, sports arenas, places of worship, and even airport terminals reveal that. Environment can inspire dread or enthusiasm, distraction or focus, collaboration or isolation. That's why the office must be designed to inspire the desired culture and workflow - if it's not properly designed, no program, training or rules will be effective over time. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture is the practical guide to office space, the foundation of an engaging culture.
REX MILLER is the principal and thought leader for MindShift, a future-focused consultancy and organizational performance firm. He is the author of The Commercial Real Estate Revolution, The Millennium Matrix: Reclaiming the Past, Reframing the Future of the Church, and Change Your Space, Change Your Culture, all from Wiley.https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
I was very excited about reading this book, as I had recently moved my CPA firm to a new location. I wanted some ideas on how changing the work space could change the office, and while this book promised that sort of answer, I felt it came up short. This book read more like a textbook for a class than as a business-themed narrative. I was disappointed, but it's entirely possible that I didn't investigate the contents enough before purchasing. I think if you're looking for a discussion on culture, then you'll be happy. If you're looking for advice or stories about how changing your office layout and dynamics can change that culture, you may be disappointed.
I need to digest this a bit before giving a more specific review, but for now I'll just say I couldn't glean a particular message from this book. The author bounces around from topic to topic while telling the story of a collective he was a part of (or leader of?) without coherently explaining the purpose of the collective.
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Yeah, I was right. The takeaways I found were hidden, and sometimes just alluded to. The summaries and epitaph didn't really bring the full content of the book together, and it didn't really pose an interesting or cohesive thought. The whole book seems to be confused with what to tell, how much of it and in what order.
The book makes a great case for WHY changing work-space and progressive thoughts on offices are worthwhile and should be considered, but there is no HOW to make these changes. Examples of success stories abound, but it's truly the deep dive in to the types of office space that are missing. Still, it was helpful in focusing as my company moves towards a new, semi-open, contemporary office plan.
This is an interesting book, but not quite what I expected. It talks about some of the challenges in designing spaces and provides a lot of examples of companies and people who've improved their workplaces, but I thought it would be more of a "how-to" book. I was looking for more tips on how to assess your workplace design and how to work out what changes would be beneficial.