Office 3.0 Project: Progress Report

It’s been two weeks since the start of “Office 3.0” (as we have inevitably (and predictably) come to call this project). We have offices in glass and brick and steel buildings; we have mobile offices in cars, planes and hotel rooms. But what about another kind of office integrated with the landscape and the changing seasons?

Center for Systems Innovation [c4si] has launched a project this summer to study such offices. Since we are headquartered in Chicago, we naturally chose to explore the opportunities for integrating our summer office with the dominant natural feature of the landscape here – Lake Michigan. Landscape offices do take some getting used to, but in the spirit of exploration, we’ve resolved to press ahead and share our findings in this important emerging area of research.

Initial Observations Regarding Inspiration and Innovation

A typical day at the office starts around 7:00 in the morning. I’m personally not a big morning person but we’ve found there’s an undeniable benefit to arriving early as the sun rises. The best description we can provide at this stage in the project is to report the presence of, as our marketing director puts it, “a mellow and inspirational vibe that often induces a state of mind where one can hear the Muse whispering in one’s ear.” We are busy collecting more data points and measurements so as to quantify this benefit and deliver relevant ROI calculations.

We find that because of this, the first few hours at the office can provide enough ideas and insights for us to spend the rest of the day analyzing and refining this material into surprisingly competent (and sometimes even brilliant) solutions to problems we are working on at the time.

Here are some early morning observations from our Lake Michigan landscape office:

Other Noted Effects and Concerns

Although this early morning phenomenon does have positive effects, it should also be noted there are other effects that one should be aware of. These other effects can induce behavior that may not always align with rigorous execution of quarterly plans and the pursuit of short term business objectives.

Several of our staff members (myself included) have noticed that as they contemplate the ideas coming to them (when the Muse starts whispering), they are filled with a sense of the timeless rhythms of the land, the sky, the lake and the water. The sound of the waves on the beach drowns out the incessant mental background chatter of fears, hopes, and worries normally present in one’s head and one perceives a profound simplicity that underlies and unites the world. One becomes aware of a higher power that clearly transcends the day to day demands of commerce and the economic cycles of recession and expansion that normally seem so important. One feels oneself begin to relax and… you see what I mean?