Green Eggs and Ham


Tuesday, August 26, 2008


Office design is going to evolve as our world becomes "green". I wish I had a crystal ball but, in my lifetime, I have never seen such a sensitivity about our planet and what we are going to leave for generations to come. In a relatively short period of time it seems like, rather suddenly we are interested in or worried about:

  • Global Warming
  • Total ecosystems
  • Shredding our rain forests
  • Fish populations
  • Energy Sources
    • Oil
    • Wind
    • Nuclear
    • Solar
    • Hydrogen
  • Plants and animal life cycle changes
  • Recycling of most materials
  • And on, and on

So, what does this mean for interior environments? Quite a bit.
It means we must be concerned about how light and solar energy is used. It means we must be concerned about air quality. We must think about healthcare too and the human body. We are affected by lighting, seating, sound, ergonomics and other factors that affect the health of humans.

We must consider all the products we use - are they recyclable? Are they re-usable (a la carpets). Do they give off emissions which can be harmful? Where are they built? What materials go into them? What sources of labor do they employ? How do they affect sound? How do they use light, positively or negatively?

Those of us who plan and furnish interiors are part of the entire family of factors that directly or indirectly will have an impact on our world. Just think of the atmosphere - did you know that it is so thin if you wrapped a basketball in saran wrap, the atmosphere would equal the depth of the saran wrap? Anything we use in interior environments that "off-gasses" directly affects that ever so thin layer of air we depend on for life. Yes, even paint can be a negative contributor - something we never would have thought about ten years ago.

We have a lot to learn if we are to be good stewards of our environment and we are just learning about the tip of the iceberg. I know personally I have very little knowledge about all of the green, sustainable, cradle to cradle issues and opportunities. I am aware of many things, but not knowledgeable. We all must move from awareness to knowledge in order to meet our professional duties. Keep learning and sharing, we must help each other learn in these suddenly new and important topics if we are to leave our planet better than what we inherited.



posted by Scott Messmore @ Tuesday, August 26, 2008   0 comments



Work Anywhere


Monday, November 19, 2007


I have seen the debates and predictions over the last decade about how people are going to work out of their home, how people are going to "hotel" in spaces their company provides or rent-an-office, how cubes will go away and offices will be totally open. Well, it appears some of the predictions are sort of true and some are off the mark.

The fact is that people are working in their own office space less but when they are not working in their "office" they are working everywhere! Work is becoming mobile, but the need for an office space still exists. I think some need for people to interact in a unified space is here to stay - we are simply social creatures stimulated by the contact with each other and when contact decreases too much, it appears organizational performance suffers.

When not tethered to our office space however, technology is enabling us to go most anywhere and do work - particularly phone calls, email and other computing work. The internet is now pretty much ubiquitous, so a laptop, a smart phone and voila, you can be at work. This mobility is great but we do not yet know its overall effect on productivity.

I do think the notion of mobility applies also within the office walls. People, when not tied to their own desk/chair, are working more and more all around the office in all sorts of spaces - if the spaces are available. One of our missions at MBI is to determine the amount of mobility in an organization's culture and work process then provide the right spaces and tools to support that work and predict how much it will change in the future. With technology tools now at the center of many work processes, we will certainly see technology adapting to our ways of working instead of us adapting to technology limitations - we will see those changes as technology continues to advance.


posted by Scott Messmore @ Monday, November 19, 2007   0 comments



The Rate of Change


Wednesday, October 17, 2007


My ethereal thoughts this month about how to manage change and think about problem solving lead me to the notion that I read recently in a book:

The rate of change in the world today is not increasing at a linear rate, it is increasing at an exponential rate.

And, just as importantly, the rate of change for the last couple of thousand years has been at an exponential rate, we just don't think about it as much. What this means for all of us however is an increasing demand for us to adapt.

Let me explain a bit. If we look at history for the years 1000 to 1500 A.D. for instance, we see some changes that were important, like sailing ships and printing and many other things that changed people lives. But, compare that amount of change to the years 1500 to 2000 A.D. It is not even close about how much people's lives changed and how people had to adapt.

If you just look at the amount of change from the years 1800 to 1900, then compare that to the amount of change from 1900 to 2000; it is astonishing how much faster change is occurring in today's world. Twelve years ago we could not have predicted how much the internet, as one factor of change, would change our lives.

What exponential change means is that something that would have taken 9 years to change in the past will now take 3 years to change, for example. It is predicted that the knowledge of all the people in the world will double in the next 14 years! Another way to look at the rate of the change is that in the next 20 years we will make the same amount of progress as we did in the 20th Century. Just look at some of the changes that are in our future:

  • DNA and genetic medicine: the ability to treat us medically as individuals vs. generic medicine. This is particularly true for diseases like cancer, muscular dystrophy and blood related diseases. Work is being done today in medical labs to take the genetics of people and match the DNA to medicines and treatments that will have far better efficacies for individuals.
  • Live streaming video and images as fast as sound. The Internet II is already built and in use by labs and universities. The amount of data that can connect between computers is about to increase exponentially. In the near future, you will be able to transmit images and movies as fast as you do voice and data today. You will not only hear people on the phone, you will see them.
  • Information - any where, any place. With satellite and wireless technologies, you will be able to be anywhere in the world and communicate with anyone at anytime.

What is even more compelling is the ability of computers to think. Artificial intelligence combined with computing capabilities will allow computers to become more and more like humans at an astonishing rate. It is predicted by some notable, reliable scientists that the computer will be able to match the human brain in thinking abilities by approximately the year 2022. Which is not very far off! That is a "tipping point" at which we will be able to utilize computing power far more dramatically than anything we can comprehend today. Think about the adaptation that will be required by us to live in that world!

So, what that means for me as I think through planning for myself and our business and other things is that it is becoming far more difficult to predict the future. We are very used to thinking linearly, thinking exponential change is not very easy for any of us. And, things we would like to predict with accuracy, we cannot.

So, next time you are in a business planning meeting, think about this rate of change. Next time you may be planning space or tools for people at work, think about the changes that are forthcoming for workers, particularly technology tools. The way we work, live and play is about to change more dramatically than we can predict. The most important thing for all of us is to be cognizant of these facts, to be aware of the rate of changes about to take place in our future. This is the first step for improving the way we look at the future and improving our ability to adapt.



posted by Scott Messmore @ Wednesday, October 17, 2007   0 comments



Pattern Thinking


Tuesday, August 07, 2007


I recently read a book entitled "How Doctors Think" (I recommend this book if you are interested, it was written for laymen too). I took away some great understandings from the book, especially the fact I don't think I could be a physician!

One aspect of being a good doctor who treats patients is a real conundrum; that is - to be a good doctor you not only have to care for the patient, you have to care for the patient. I thought this was a great line and wraps up a lot of the human interactions doctors have to bear. The book also helped me realized that doctors are real people too; with real emotions, flaws, biases, tendencies, and the same quirks we all have. Their challenge is to overcome these patient by patient in order to get a good diagnosis and to provide great ongoing care.

One, out of many, thinking flaws a doctor much watch out for, for example, is "pattern thinking". This is best described by putting yourself in the shoes of a doctor, say a G.P., who is seeing many patients on a daily routine. Insurance nowadays is requiring these doctors to see more patients so they average around 15 minutes per patient. Suppose there is a usual cold or flu virus in the community and lots of patients are coming in with the same symptoms. What if a patient comes in with 9 out of 10 of the same symptoms? The tendency would be to diagnose that patient with the same flu.

However, that one symptom, whether it be overlooked or missed altogether may be the symptom that totally segregates that patient from the others and may indicate something like pneumonia. And, if this patient had another condition already and was more at risk than most healthy patients, say diabetes, then the doctor, by overlooking that one symptom could put that patient's life at risk. In the rush to complete rounds or hit quotas, it is so easy to evaluate a patient less thoroughly and make quick decisions. In fact, most doctors make a stab at a diagnosis within seconds of seeing a patient, before the patient ever presents the symptoms!

This "pattern thinking" doctors must guard against really had an impact on me, because I do it too! I thought, if I do it, I bet others must do it. We see this in its most insidious form in racism and personal biases - ascribing characteristics to groups of people. We also see it in our day to day decisions about work....how many times has someone said, or thought, "I've seen this a million times"? That is exactly pattern thinking and can miss the smallest little piece of information that may totally change the diagnosis and/or the best decision possible for the situation.

We often talk about "thinking outside the box", which also goes hand in hand with pattern thinking. This means, trying to think differently about a situation, think creatively. So it seems that if we both avoid pattern thinking and think creatively, then we have a new powerful way to view the world and the situations we face. As humans, we tend to use such a small part of our brain and I would suggest pattern thinking is one way to use less. Thinking outside the box and avoiding pattern thinking are ways to use more.

Next time you face a situation that you have dealt with many times and it involves complexity, stop to ask the questions: do you have all of the information you need for a sound decision? Is it a fair decision to all involved? Is there another outcome possible? Have you asked all of the questions you could have of your "patient"? If you do this regularly for a while, I bet you will come across several instances of a situation that will change your mind about your normal decisions and you (and probably someone else involved) will come up with a better solution. Try it and see. Better yet, read the book! "How Doctors Think" by Dr. Jerome Groopman.



posted by Scott Messmore @ Tuesday, August 07, 2007   0 comments



This and That


Monday, July 16, 2007


Small Offices vs. Large Offices
Are "small offices" different from "big offices"? Of course they are, so at MBI we are opening MBI - MarketPlace: a way to address the needs and expectations of people who work in smaller offices.

It's easy to say "of course small offices are different than large offices" - the interesting thing is to drill down on that and uncover some of facts about small offices.

One of the most interesting things we uncovered in our investigations of this market is just how many small offices there are. When we look at the office market, we look at how many "white collar" workers there are in a given organization. In Memphis and the surrounding area, there are about 45,000 organizations! That number in itself is much larger than we expected. Beyond that, we found that over 40,000 of those organizations are fewer than 50 white collar workers. And the bulk of those organizations are under 10 white collar workers. They say nationally that small organizations are growing; we just never quantified the growth in our local area!

The needs of this market are quite different too. Smaller offices are more personal choices, have fewer cubicles, less complex communication patterns, spend less per person (on average) and do not have a facility manager, per se. We feel MarketPlace will be a great resource for these smaller offices - for both design help and product. Different services for different clients!

Exponential Change is here
I am reading a great book on the future of technology in our world. The most interesting fact is the rate of change our world is experiencing. We tend to think in linear terms, i.e. that if X amount of change has occurred in the last 5 years we can expect the same rate of change over the next 5 years. That simply is not what is happening. Over the course of the last 4,000 years or so, mankind has experienced exponential change that is X squared.

It is especially poignant when you look at the last 10 years - we have gone from the internet to where things like: phone service, yellow pages, television, newspapers are all on the extinct watch list. In addition, computing power has doubled every year - which makes the change exponential. In addition, knowledge (information and new discoveries) is doubling every year now. The world has never changed this fast. In the next 10 years we are likely to see the applications of artificial intelligence in many applications, computers doing our work for us in some cases, and a strong move toward computers almost thinking as well as humans. That is, if we stay on track with political and world stability. Technology is going to take the place of things we cannot even ponder right now, just like 12 years ago when no one could envision the internet having the impact it has had. Stay tuned in, change is happening very fast and we have more to learn every day than we have ever had about our world.

Outcomes in Life are largely based on your attitude
Another book I just read, which is inspiring, discusses the "Secret", which I'm sure many of you have read. The bottom line to this short book, (to give away the "Secret"!) is that what happens to you in your life is largely based on what you wish for and think about. Being a control freak, I tend to agree with that statement - what you wish for plus attitude. There is nothing that can replace a positive mental outlook for us. So, cheers to you if you are reading this, make today a great day and always think about the things you wish for - if you do, they will probably happen!



posted by Scott Messmore @ Monday, July 16, 2007   0 comments



Two Heads Are Better Than One


Thursday, June 07, 2007


Dyadic work - the work of two people is almost always more powerful than the work of one.

Have you ever participated in a team problem solving exercise? I remember one in particular that challenged the solver to identify certain items they would need on a life raft if left in the middle of the ocean; like a compass, a fish hook, a bucket, a knife, etc. The idea was to select a certain number of items from a list and then to prioritize them in order of importance. Everyone filled out the information as best they could individually then we broke up into groups of 4 and, without failing, the group work was always better than the individual work. People do better work when working together almost every time.

In organizations, it is the same. Almost all "productive work" that is done, i.e. work that adds meaningful value to the organization, is done in groups. And most group work is done in groups of two - more than 50% of the time. There are exceptions of course. Some creative people need time alone, some work is best done alone. When it comes to real breakthrough work, that is usually accomplished in small groups.

Now, our business at MBI has one simple mission: "To Help People Work Better". Because of this, this fact about how work is best accomplished is very important to us. One reason it is important is the simple fact that most organizations do not use the tools and space we have to optimize the work potential of the people in the organization.

There are two important factors when optimizing the work done by two people:

  1. The physical space where they work
  2. Where they get their information and how they use information

Most space planning that is done accounts for two things: individual work space design and large work group design (i.e. conference rooms and the like). We exalt the individual and the large group but we do a poor job usually of granting the right spaces to the work of small groups, especially groups of two. In your organization right now, where would two people go to work on a problem together for an hour? This question will become more significant addressing the second factor above - using information.

Where does most information come from when two people work together? Today, most of us would say paper - information printed off the computer, reference materials or notes. We also know how important the internet is along with other information sources (files, folders, presentations) which reside on the computer. As we improve technology, use of computers to get to information is only going to increase. So, if two people are now working together in the space you thought of earlier, how do they conveniently access and work with the computer together?

What we are trying at MBI is to provide spaces where two people can work together conveniently with a computer that both people can use, and/or a screen or monitor that both people can see together. If we can make dyadic work easier with convenient internet/computer tools for both parties, then we should see a significant improvement in real value-added work. We should also see improvement in the attitudes of workers and their satisfaction with their work space and work tools. In addition, other learning will probably occur - like where web sites might exist that weren't known; document sharing or real-time data updating on servers; sharing of important information faster with the larger groups.

We all know two heads are better than one so, let's work toward making it easier for those two heads to meet and use the tools of today better. Planning the spaces for small groups and providing the technology is a simple and easy way to improve organizational performance.



posted by Scott Messmore @ Thursday, June 07, 2007   0 comments



"Oh, My Aching Back!"


Tuesday, May 08, 2007


About half of us have had back troubles during our lives. It is the number one cause of injury that leads to lost work time in the United States. Recently I had surgery to repair my back and when I share it with people, about half say something like "I can relate to that, I had a similar problem with my back......!"

It's no wonder we have back issues when you look at our lifestyles and, shame on us, how little we do to work out and stay in shape to support our back while we sit so often and misuse the back lifting things. Our spine just wasn't meant to take the lifestyle we impose upon it!

There are two things we can all do to help our back though that is really easy - get a good office chair and adjust it correctly! Those two things can save a lot of pain and aspirin! So, let's take them one at a time. What is a good chair?

A good chair is one that provides lumbar support and adjusts to fit (i.e. curves along the lumbar area with the spine as opposed to a flat back that doesn't support our natural curve). It also has adjustments to tailor itself to the individual. Even great chairs on the market will adjust to only 90% of the population - if you are too large or too small, you will need to get a particularly exceptional chair to "fit" you. Adjustments in the height of the seat, the tension on the chair leaning back, the height of the back relative to the seat, the height and width of the arms are all important in tailoring the chair to fit our bodies. They are also important because one of the worst things we can do is sit in the same position all day, changing positions promotes better blood flow and decreases muscular tension which all reduce pain. So, get a good chair. And, the more you sit during the day, the better the chair you need! Usually the executive gets the great chair but it's the administrative individual who NEEDS the better chair quality. So, if you are reading this and your boss has the better chair or if you are the boss and your assistant has a chair of lower quality, it is time for a heart to heart talk!

The next step is to adjust and use the chair properly. All new, decent ergonomic chairs have adjustment mechanisms, the problems are usually finding out where they are and how they work. If you don't have a tag with your chair showing how to use it, the next step is to flip it upside down - all good manufacturers have a label underneath with a model number and you can usually look it up on the internet and get instructions.

Barring that, there are several adjustments which are common to all chairs and critical if you want comfort all day long. The first is the chair height and most new chairs have a pneumatic mechanism that allows you to easily pull a lever and allow the chair to rise or apply downward pressure to lower it. Chair height is critical, as it properly distributes your weight between the floor and your seat to allow for better posture and weight distribution.

The second most important adjustment is the tension on the back. Most chairs allow you to adjust the reclining tension and - this is important - the tension should be "just right" allowing you to lean back halfway and not have to use pressure to push back or have the tension so high that the chair pushes you forward. You should be able to lean back half-way and "float" there. Once that sweet spot is found, don't change it! Lean back and forward during the day and change your sitting angle often to improve blood circulation and reduce muscular tension, but don't change the tension very often.

Other adjustments on the chair depend on the make and model and may include things like arm rest adjustments which allow you to change positions during the day - particularly important if you are using the armrest and typing a lot. Use the arm adjustments to both be comfortable and to change height and position - this will reduce your chances of carpel-tunnel syndrome (along with a good keyboard tray adjustment which should also be moved often). Staying in the same position for tasks for a long time is the culprit for most aches and pains.

Seat depth, which changes the seat pan relative to the back support, is another mechanism good for you but only available on some better models. Getting that right will help support your lumbar curve dramatically. Some models have a tilt mechanism for the front of the seat pan that will reduce the "pinch" chairs can produce under the knees and reduce blood circulation. Get that right and it will help too. Other options you may not be aware of can greatly reduce comfort, like having fabric that is glued to the foam - stay away from that if you can - it will increase the heat of the chair by not allowing air to circulate properly. Gluing the fabric to the foam is a cheap way for the manufacturer to produce the chair but you will pay for the price on warm days.

The best advice I have for people buying an office chair is this: it is the opposite from buying a chair for the home. At the residential store you sit in chairs until you find the one that is comfortable. In the office, you should sit in the chair long enough until it becomes uncomfortable....all chairs will eventually be uncomfortable and, since you are in your office chair more than any chair in your life, stay in one long enough to test how long it takes to create discomfort. The test drive is much longer for this product!

You never knew seating could be so deep, did you? It's a lot of information but then again, it's your aching back we've got to take care of. You're in your office and seated for up to one-third of every day! So, take your time to buy that chair that is right for you. If your back aches, take this article and test out those adjustments. If you sit for a long time and don't have the proper lumbar support and don't have the adjustments, call me or e-mail me and we'll get a chair that is right for you. After all of my personal back physician bills, I have become an expert, especially since it's our business!

Email Scott: smessore@gombi.com


posted by Scott Messmore @ Tuesday, May 08, 2007   0 comments