There was a singer who had moved from the UK to a rented place in India. She acquired it from an old lady who had not kept it well. The walls had patches where the paint had peeled off. The singer was only able to stay for a month until she had to ask the landlady if she could repaint the walls with her own money. Once she did, her mood changed and her songs became better. She had never pictured herself as the kind of person who needed perfectly painted walls in her home but when she made the change, her work became better.
If we applied the same logic to a workspace, it would create better work too. We have to be very mindful of our environment and understand the value of aesthetics when designing your office space.
Good or bad space depends on your design.
At IndieFolio, we did a few things to make everyone feel better about working in our office. We’ll take you through 5 things that we did to transform our office space into a pleasant working environment. We hope you do the following too.
1. Analyse your lighting then declutter
We keep the office nicely lit.
One of the first things you need to do with your office is to recognise your light sources. How many natural sources v/s how many man-made sources are used during office hours? Are any areas poorly lit? These are the first things you need to check because, without light, our vision would be useless. You need to understand what is seen and what is hidden.
This is a ‘before’ picture. It was then decluttered.
Once you’ve realised this, you need to look at what’s unnecessary. Are there boxes or wrapping or old furniture kept inside when it should have been thrown out? Accordingly, remove all the ugly clutter and anything that’s unused and/or unappreciated. Now get ready for the additions.
2.) Use the whiteboards and pin boards
For those too young, way before Keanu Reeves was Neo or John Wick, he was Ted.
The advantage of whiteboards is that you can leave temporary messages and drawings for employees and colleagues. One way to go about using the whiteboard is to either be the last one out of the office or the first one in to create a message for the day for everyone else. When everyone walks in, they’ll be greeted with something pleasant.
If your workforce is surrounded by pin boards, either ask people to submit pictures that they want to see or print pictures of your choice and pin them on your boards.
3. Let The Walls Speak
The walls you’re in speak a lot about the environment and culture you’re trying to foster. The kind of words and visuals you use tell a story about your company without anybody even realising it. We encourage creativity and innovation so we printed out a way for people to have ideas. If you want to encourage brand recognition inside the office, hold a contest with a cash prize for whoever can render the most creative version of your company logo. Then hang it up in a prominent location.
4. Create a cool-down area
Many company owners don’t like the idea of a space in the office that doesn’t fulfil the needs of the organisation. However, having a cool-down area fulfils a human need. In some organisations, people only feel relaxed when they leave the office. Those organisations either struggle to keep good, growth-oriented employees or have poor intra-office communication. If you can have a bed for someone to lie down when they’re sick or tired, it will make a world of difference to workers.
5.) Encourage desk customisation
Everyone is unique and we all have our own interests and hobbies. Encourage people to customise their desks with toys, picture frames or any other small things that won’t inconvenience anyone else. This gives people a feeling of authority over their workspace which makes them feel more in control of their work. It also gives them a chance to show their colleagues what matters to them.
This blog can be addictive. We know you must be craving more so here’s more:
