The Emergent Workplace: Understanding and Creating Adaptive Workplaces

Today’s workplace is not just not keeping up with businesses, and their need to compete, it’s holding back companies and organizations reliant on knowledge workers to stay ahead. Falling behind in any competitive arena is a bad thing. Technologies and demographics have now changed dramatically enough that old workplace models no longer fit personal demands and business needs. The tech companies started the process. Now they are seeing the consequences in their own business models. They are no longer able to depend on users in fixed settings or comparable technology environments. Mobility and mash-ups are driving work today. The need for multiple, redundant and morphing social, physical and technological networks is clear. Relationships and processes are rapidly evolving…workspace is not keeping up, at least not yet. Who should care? Anyone who works in or runs a business or organization should care because the old workplace does not foster new work. Evolutionary success in organizations makes businesses more successful. In our experience, people and culture are central to that evolutionary success – people drive change that is necessary for adaptation. The emergent workplace is complex, but at its core it is about people and their community and creating support for successful evolution and change.

Paul Heath and Clark Sept are co-founders of Business Place Strategies, Inc. Paul Heath is an accomplished strategic planning professional, recognized in the facility and workplace consulting arena nation-wide as a leading expert in developing business-based workplace strategies and implementation. Paul has a B. Arch from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MA in Architecture and Urban Planning from UCLA. Clark Sept has a national reputation as a leader in the development of workplace strategies and workplace change management in both private and public sectors. Clark has a BA Architecture from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from St. Mary's College of California.