OPEN vs CLOSED / PUBLIC vs PRIVATE #1

The customer told me, “We want open space… to promote collaboration, creativity, spontaneous interactions that lead to better products, better customer service, more sales.”  But as the search went on and I met more of the executives, the “ideal” number of offices rose.  We went from seeking one office and a conference room to five offices and a conference room.  Each of them told me, half-jokingly, “I think I deserve an office.” This is common dynamic at work in all of workspace design.

The modern sensibility skews toward more open space.  But why? What’s the appeal?  It isn’t just because with more open space companies can cram more bodies into less space, though that’s certainly one aspect.  The boiler room has reappeared, only now instead of hazy, smoke-filled air and black Bakelite telephones there is VOIP and the smell of chai tea.  The superiority of open space is a deeply held belief by many companies in NYC, as much philosophy as business plan.  I was once out on a space tour with the executives of a company and after someone had made a comment that the sales team was noisy and the engineers were complaining, the CEO said, with steely resolve in his voice, “Nobody gets an office. If they don’t like it, they can work somewhere else.”    

Is it really true though, that open is better than closed?  I think it probably is.  I don’t think it’s just a fad, but it has its limitations.  Some people crave an office where they can close the door and shut out distraction with a physical barrier.  Other people can find solitude no matter where they are and don’t care if they have a closed office or are wearing a pair of Beats on their heads.  Different people can thrive in either situation. And businesses must necessarily combine both public and private space, but what's the ideal ratio?  

The CEO I describe above did banish private offices.  The company built a large open space filled with rows of desks and packed the place with people of all job descriptions working shoulder to shoulder.  When I visited the space, there he would be with his feet up on the desk, working on his laptop, utterly serene and oblivious to the hubbub around him.  But nobody went near him.  Nobody said a word to him.  He might as well have been under a cone of silence.  So the question is: had he created a vibrant community? Or had he just made a situation where he knew he would be okay and he didn’t care how hard it might be for everybody else? 

I’ll continue to explore this question in upcoming posts.  Thanks. 

Negotiating and "the tell"

Every negotiation is like a poker game.  Generally speaking, there’s no force to be applied.  But watching for subtle signs from the other party will help you know where the negotiation is headed and allow you to address the real issues or move on.  If you’re observant, sensitive and experienced, you will be able to read the other player’s “tell”; you will know what the other person wants without being explicitly told.   If, however, you are engaged in some form of wishful thinking and have decided how a negotiation ought to go rather than reacting to the cards as they are actually played then you won’t see the tell and you’ll always be surprised when bad news crops up.   

I recently had a negotiation where my customer, the tenant, was delayed in handing over their financial statements.  The landlord’s broker started saying things like, “there’s another offer that just came in and we’re considering it, so you’d better tell your tenant to hurry up.”  In a situation like this, you never know if it’s real or just the hard sell.  But late one Friday afternoon, the broker said something uncharacteristic.  He said, “If it were up to me, I’d tell the landlord to take the other deal.”  Well, first of all, it was up to him to give advice and secondly, if the other deal was better, or more secure, the landlord would have simply taken it and wouldn’t have been hesitating.  So I knew then that, at least for the moment, we were safe and I could relax that weekend. (This story doesn’t have a happy ending, but not because of the delayed financials.)

In a negotiation, before you can solve a problem, you must understand it.  Sometimes the problem is that the other party says one thing, but really means another.  Again, if you’re sensitive, you will understand the real stakes and will be able to respond correctly.  I once had another negotiation about electricity where the landlord kept saying, “I don’t know if I have the capacity,” but what he really meant was, “I’ve changed my mind and I don’t really want this company as a tenant.”  We moved on quickly. 

You have to grasp that you can’t always refashion a negotiation that is going poorly into one that weighs in your favor, but you can always be prepared with your best play simply by staying observant.