Life Sustaining Environments

	Life-Sustaining Environments
	An Enriching Work Experience for Organizational Success Art of the Future believes that work should be life sustaining rather than life draining. Work that enriches the individual will enrich the organization in multiple ways - making it a place that attracts the energy that sustains and reinforces it as a great place to work. "Humans need to work to become fully human.... Work is an essential part of your spiritual growth. Even if you have a billion dollars, you need to work to become a full adult, and to achieve your potential." Joel Barker Art of the Future's approach to workplace strategy integrates of the organization's purpose, with it's places and policies to support rather than inhibit the efficiency, effectiveness and innovation to accomplish this purpose. We call this approach Life-Sustaining Environments.
	Workplace Strategy Organizations that provide a great physical and social environment... support the work styles they want and expect of employees align policies, management styles and technologies to effectively support accomplishing tasks rather than inadvertently creating barriers reflect the organization's culture; providing a true sense of integration. These organizations will find that their employees... are engaged and productive; cynicism is truly the exception have a true sense of shared mission; together, they can accomplish something meaningful love working for the organization whether they come to a specific location every day or often work remotely. As a result, the work system... has power in its domain(s) of reference is “problem rich” within the context of the particular work culture; stimulating but neither easy nor overly stressful attracts recruits eager to join retains satisfied employees less likely to look elsewhere is life-sustaining and life-enhancing. Workplace strategy clearly differentiates an organization from its rivals or peers. There is no cookie cutter approach; each organization should have its own look and feel to express its unique qualities and purpose.
	Life-Sustaining Environment approach to Workplace Strategy Art of the Future brings a depth understanding and information regarding current, emerging and future work styles. We work with you to develop a set of possible scenarios based on the driving forces. The interaction of these drivers shape the scenarios, explaining how and why scenarios might occur. Drivers include demographic, cultural, geographic, and technical factors, governmental policies, educational developments, and more that apply to the client's specific situation.
	Life-Sustaining Environment Consulting Services Architects do programming prior to designing. The program identifies the clients requirements: size of building, number and size of conference rooms, workspaces (cubicles and floor-to-ceiling offices), etc. But how does the client generate these requirements? Should a workspace be provided for every employee plus a factor for growth, movement and inefficiencies? Or should there be fewer workspaces than employees if space sits empty most time due to remote work, vacations, business travel, and flex-time? If employees can work effectively at home and save commuting time, why do they come into the office? Increasingly, it is to be with colleagues to share information - both formally and informally. If this is the case, what is the right mix of private space and communal space (conference rooms, cafes, wide corridors, open stairs, etc.)? These are the types of issues that Art of the Future works with the client to address in a "pre-programming" phase of any major space change project. Clients complete workplace strategies prior to engaging an architect. Business needs/issues are identified within a range of relevant contexts and possible solutions are evaluated, paying particular attention to communication networks and work attention/concentration requirements. Working with the client, Art of the Future analyzes work process and identifies high leverage intervention possibilities designed to lead to engagement and performance improvements. Life-sustaining environment analysis provides critical input to the architect's program. Art of the Future also does post-occupancy evaluations to determine if the business' needs/issues were met and to determine any required modifications.
	Workplace Strategies - When and Why Workplace strategy is a way of initiating and responding to change in ways that make transitions exciting and engaging for employees and, therefore, successful for the organization. The process of Life-Sustaining Environment can be implemented at any time. It is most important to take this step when effective action is required to successful steer through the rapids of business growth and change. Here are a few examples of such critical junctures: 1. Life-cycle transitions a. The business has grown rapidly and it time to introduce professional management. You want to do this without a major disruption to the vitality, pride and sense of accomplishment that has characterized the staff's attitude up to this point. b. Your organization is moving from high growth into a more mature phase. How will you continue to attract the best and the brightest to maintain your competitive edge? c. Your mature business is posed to leap to the next growth curve – betting the business on new products, new markets, new directions, etc.. 2. The innovation challenge As the external environment in nearly every field continues change rapidly at an accelerating pace, how do you respond? Those organizations that survive and thrive, act with foresight -- creatively and dynamically. As a result, they are able to attract and retain scarce talent and maintain growth in sales and revenue. 3. Creating thriving communities If your organization is "stovepiped" and/or caught up in turf wars, you are not leveraging the full potential of your workforce. Life-sustaining environments fosters interconnections and networks that yield growth & energy 4. Changing composition of the workforce The impact on the social system of change in the workforce (size, gender, racial, cultural, geographic, generational, etc.) can be energizing or enervating depending on how the changes are managed. Life-sustaining environments can help organizations build a working environment that employees, customers, community and supplier networks are attracted to, understand and relate to naturally. 5. On-boarding process New members entering or existing members leaving affects the organization's social system. Life-sustaining environments introduces new members in a way that benefits both the new member and the existing system, paying particular attention to the integration of high creatives. It also helps the organization adjust to the loss of key members. 6. Merger & acquisition integration The integration of disparate cultures is often poorly executed in otherwise viable mergers and acquisitions. Cultural factors account for most of the failures in M&A activity. Life-sustaining environments can guide the new newly formed entity in truly becoming a whole.
	What makes for a great workplace strategy? A great workplace strategy enables organizations to create and maintain an environment that creative people strive to join and hate to leave. It strikes a finely-tuned balance between four key system forces: Differentiation and Commonality Differentiation = reflection of the complexity of organizational issues and environments, specialization Commonality = shared information, knowledge of how to do, structure that yields common behavior, language, cognition Integration and Individuality Integration = shared excitement and commitment to mission, values, sense of purpose Individuality = freedom of the whole human being to be him/herself in the workplace; an acknowledgment of the whole human being coming in the door rather than a one dimensional view that turns a person into an object
	Art of the Future Service Delivery Depending on your organization's culture, the criticality of the issue, time pressures and other considerations, we can tailor our services to meet your requirements. We are the experts – we do the work and give you the answer. This approach involves the least time commitment from the client's management team and workforce. It delivers solutions in a shorter time frame. We are educators - we teach key members of the organization to think as futurists and you emerge as anticipatory leaders with new skills and tools to confront a wide variety of strategic issues. This is the most enduring approach to organizational change. We train a team of participants while addressing a specific issue. This is the way that we prefer to work. It addresses a real need in a timely fashion while simultaneously imparting new skills, knowledge and insights into the organization.
	Read on about Life-Sustaining Environments... Why no one in the organization takes responsibility for providing the best possible environment for work. Understand the link between art and business results. Learn about the changing nature of work and the work environment . Read an article about Workplace strategy: what it is and why should care.
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An Enriching Work Experience for Organizational Success

Workplace Strategy

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