We’re all Millennials
One of the common assumptions we hear is that an office needs to appeal to Millennials to ensure a business remains successful. There is an element of truth in this, but the emphasis is wrong.
We believe that what sits behind the doors of all great organisations is a collection of individuals who are encouraged and enabled to perform at their best. Personality and individual preferences of how and where we work, create distinctive behaviours and cultures within any organisation. If organisations learn to harness these individual differences it can lead to greater productivity, higher levels of creative output, and assist with staff attraction and retention. Importantly these individual differences transcend generational boundaries. In a diverse organisation, designing for generational stereotypes is a fallacy. It doesn’t matter if you’re an X, Y, Z, Boomer, Millennial or Xennial. Your response to the environment and people around you is controlled by your own personality, and you may find you have more in common with those of a different generation than you think.
Clients, partners and HLW staff who recently attended our Exchange Session ‘It Just Got Personal’, held in Capital One’s new London Office at the White Collar Factory, were treated to some insights from our guest speakers who spoke of both individual control & awareness, and leadership & team factors which can help with harnessing our individual differences.
Dr Máire Kerrin, Director at Work Psychology Group & Visiting Academic at Cass Business School, City University of London, introduced us to research and personality models which can help aid our self-awareness of our own personalities and preferences. Understanding these can help us to navigate the people and situations we encounter in our work lives.
Andy Wilkins, Partner at Perspectiv LLP, Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School & Non-Exec Chair at Ladder to the Moon, introduced factors related to teams and climate. In his whirlwind summary of how to achieve organisational success, he introduced the audience to steps we can do to create a positive organisational climate (environment), to harness individual differences for greater creativity and innovation.
The work we do at HLW is focussed on the physical space, however when it comes to creating a great environment for employees within an organisation, the design of physical space is only one element you should consider. We encourage all organisations to follow our top 5 Tips for creating a successful workplace environment.
1. LOOK AT THE WHOLE SYSTEM
Don’t just focus on the physical environment when designing your workplace; also think about processes, protocols, leadership styles.
2. UNDERSTAND YOUR PEOPLE
Talk to them to understand who they are & their preferences.
Seek consensus on the behaviours you want to encourage in your organisation and provide spaces to support them.
4. EMBRACE DIVERSE PERSONALITIES
Encourage people to be themselves and for teams to get to know each other. It not only makes life more interesting, it can also lead to greater creativity and innovation.
Not all environments will suit everyone, or every task. Give people options of where to work and encourage them to use a variety of spaces.
If you’d like more information please get in touch by emailing hlwevents@hlw.com.
