Open office plans are excellent for many reasons. From promoting easy collaboration to idea sharing and creativity spark for increasing business potentials, there are many reasons why businesses are considering the open office. However, a lack of walls can cause a 15% reduction in productivity levels due to the lack of privacy, higher noise levels, and frequent work interruptions. Therefore, you might want to consider these four ways to promote positive collaboration in your open office.
Be open to remote opportunities
If your business doesn’t encourage or embrace remote working, now is a good time to revisit remote working policies. A good remote work arrangement can offer your teams the peace of mind to get work done. However, remote working doesn’t always mean working at home, as you can create a working arrangement that allows your teams to come in as and when needed. For instance, you can consider scheduling half of your team or employees to work remotely from Monday to Wednesday while the other takes over the remaining weekdays.
Begin from the top
Changes in company culture should begin from the top. Business collaborative efforts will yield little results if the top leadership doesn’t prioritize it in words and actions. At this point, it is vital to arm yourself with the knowledge and know-how to improve team collaboration by helping them gain key skills to foster cooperative practices in the open office.
Review your gathering spots
Break and copier rooms are places where people usually stop to have a word or two about work projects, company news, and their weekends. While that is a good thing, it can be hard to get anything done when the room stays noisy. At this point, you might consider putting up signs to ask people to be quiet. You can also consider the open office concepts, such as the office pod. This allows staff to move their small meetings to designed areas. Likewise, loud employees can make calls in such areas without interrupting others. Your workers can also utilize the space for collaborative projects without occupying your conference or break spaces.
Bosses must coach and facilitate
Leaders should empower their teams to make their own decisions instead of issuing commands from the top. Business managers should work across ranks and departments to get work done instead of deferring or delegating work to those above and below them. That said, you and your business managers should emphasize coaching and facilitating instead of micromanaging. While this may require special training and new skills development, the adjustment period is worth the hassle since open office collaboration allows your working teams to feel heard and supported. Today, leadership built around command and control is ineffective, so keep this in mind.
The open office offers benefits for your benefits if utilized properly. However, it is essential to acknowledge that having an open office isn’t enough to make your business thrive. It would be best to build a collaborative and team-working culture to grow your business.