The Cultures in the Cubicles

The Cultures in the Cubicles. The Power of Cultural Diversity in the Global Organization! By Robert A. Simpkins & Behnaz S. Pakneja.
Table of contents

We are seeking more life integration where flexibility enables us to really live our lives and not just work until we drop.

Blocked/Доступ ограничен

Technology now offers us the opportunity to be much more flexible in how and where we work. Fear that we may be seen for who we really are with our imperfections revealed. Yet the emerging zeitgeist is people are looking for more real connection and more authenticity. Advertisers are known for spearheading trends and are now seeking much more genuine connections with their customers at a deeper level. We are all people — the mind is the language of our brains and the heart is the language of our bodies.

We have learned to use our brains to perform, to measure, to assess risk. Is this good for our brain and good for business?

The Cultures in the Cubicles

Are we training our brains in the right way; being more present, more mindful and are we tuning into our bodies, listening to our heart, to our intuition and creativity that makes us human? Are we truly happy at work and do we feel like we are being and giving the best of ourselves or are we stuck in a way of being that we have learnt that no longer serves us, where even though we may enjoy what we do, we end our day feeling exhausted? Exhaustion, not just from workload, but by wearing our masks, by fighting daily battles and by being pulled in so many directions. Very sobering figures indicating that we have a big problem to solve out there.

Year on year we have to deliver even more shareholder value than previous years; generate more income and shave our costs.


  • Mangosteen the X-Factor.
  • Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero?
  • Seek the Lover Within: Lessons from 50 Spiritual Leaders.

But how much more can we get out of ourselves, or our people, without us all going crazy. Figures taken from the Labour Force Survey also show that such absenteeism has increased by 25 per cent over the past year. Do we actually want to go to work?! My whole focus the last few years has been having conversations with organisations from front desk to the boardroom to look at how we solve this conundrum? The common view seems to boil down to one vital thing — how do we make workplaces more human?

Historically, philanthropists have recognised that if we cared for our workers and showed we valued them they would be healthier and happier. Now living in the increasing age of automation and digital connectivity, the multi-screen grey cubicles have become the new looms or steel presses as we increasingly use our brains in agile ways and do much less our hands.


  • Cassini at Saturn: Huygens Results (Springer Praxis Books);
  • Special Sections.
  • Enough of the grey cubicle? | Thrive Global.

Not only do we need to look after our brains better and use technology developments to aid efficacy and flexibility rather than create overwhelm, we also need to realise that what makes us human beings is not just in the work that we do. I believe if we create more compassionate and more inspiring psychological, as well as physical environments where people want to come and stay, we are a long way down the road to making the workplace human.

Places where people feel really cared for, appreciated and valued for what they do. Where they feel inspired by their fellow workers and their leaders and are trusted to do great work. Those of you who have seen Daniel Pinks research will know how autonomy, mastery and purpose plays a huge role in motivating us and that pay is largely a hygiene factor. So we must create environments where people can take control of their own work and destiny, where they can learn and where they can connect to a wider purpose. Over the coming weeks I will be exploring what putting the human at the centre of organisations means and how we can build more compassionate and inspiring work cultures by making this central to our culture strategy and by developing practical solutions.

The Thrive Global Community welcomes voices from many spheres. Believe it or not, there was a time when the cubicle represented not drudgery and sameness, but freedom and individuality. Panel-based office systems - later called cubicles - first rose to popularity in the mids as a reaction against the completely open, furniture-based office floor plan that dominated the American workplace from the s onwards. The original open offices that dominated the pre-war landscape up through the s were vast expanses of floor space filled with identical desks with little or no privacy.

All desks faced the supervisor, who sat in an office where he always a he could oversee his underlings and ensure efficiency and productivity.

Why putting the human at the heart of business is so important!

These designs might have been efficient, they were not conducive for work that required individual engagement and information sharing. As a reaction against these "white collar factory" environments, Herman Miller originated the first panel-based office plan, then called the "Action Office. According to Herman Miller's Global Brand Director, Sam Grawe, "Action Office was all about enabling the flow of information as jobs transitioned from being about repetitive, task-based work, to being about sharing and distributing information more broadly across an organization.

In comparison to office designs that came before it, the panel-based cubicle system really was a forward thinking idea. Instead of all workers having a desk alongside potentially hundreds of others on an open floor, each worker had their own individual space that put them in touch with the tools, technology and information they needed to do their work. It was a revolutionary idea in office design; one that was about shaping the environment to meet the needs of people, rather than forcing people to fit the environment. Unfortunately, as business needs changed, some of the focus on people was lost.

Originally, the Action Office panels were intended to be fully movable. As more workers came to rely on technology - computers, telephones and the like - the panels needed to be electrified, and became more fixed. The needs of the organization once again trumped those of the individual. That is, until recently. Today, office designs are evolving again to meet changing needs. Because so much work today is done in teams, rather than individually, spaces that allow for a sense of teamwork are better suited both physically and culturally for the modern world of work.

Passar bra ihop

Innovative companies are seeking spaces that are better at fostering creativity, collaboration and teamwork. Designers are now returning to a more open environment that fosters creativity, without squelching the individual. To find the right balance, designers at Herman Miller begin by focusing on purpose, or your company's "why," as one of the driving forces that can shape your approach to office design. According to Grawe, "Purpose is both a fundamental human need, as well as the driving force that guides an organization or individual.

The idea behind the Living Office is to connect a company's people to its purpose through design. Says Grawe, "Living Office begins with human needs but also engages with what is unique to each individual and organization; balancing common purpose with the individual activities being performed, balancing belonging and the need for autonomy. It recognizes the duality involved in modern-day collaborative office work; it allows organizations to identify what kind of environment that is right for them, and build around that.

So how do you decide what design will best support your organization's purpose, or why? This is where the "how" comes in. That's the difference between purpose - why you do what you do, or what drives you - and culture.

Kundrecensioner

So a good place to start is by really understanding what kind of culture you have. Just as no two individuals are exactly the same, neither are all office cultures are the same.

World's Greatest Workplace: Vishen Lakhiani at TEDxAjman