Gensler's upcoming 2008 Workplace Survey

Measuring the link between well designed space and productivity is the Holy Grail of architecture, design and the manufacturers who create office environments. We have heard stories, we know it has to be true - but few have ever seen it first hand.

In truth we have all seen the positive and negative impact of good and bad design, but never translated into a spreadsheet proforma or balance sheet.

But we are getting closer. Gensler will soon release their 2008 Workplace Survey for the United States. They are better defining work modes and present correlations between high performing companies and their internal assessments of their space.

Neuroscience offers a window to where this is heading. There exists a direct connection between the rapidly growing breakthroughs and usefulness of Neuropsychology and MRI technology.

With more accurate MRI technology science is moving from an understanding of basic brain function, to predictability and now to altering brain functions (enhancing performance). Advanced neuro-stimulators now recreate brain patterns to relieve Parkinson victims from the terrible shakes and tremors they experience. The next hills on the horizon are Alzheimer’s, depression and then your guess is as good as mine.

Here is the connection. For years we have understood that there is a connection between organizational performance and the space it inhabits. Reports like Gensler’s aid in understanding the basic components of an organizations “brain” functions. They have developed tools to better predict how one organization will perform compared to another based on how well the space supports the people who inhabit it.

The next step and breakthrough will lead to predictive design tied to a company’s proforma and traceable onto the balance sheet.

I’ll offer one more example. Apple makes some pretty awesome machines with the MacBook, iPod and iPhone. You can see, however, the migration placing more value on the software for functional distinction. Our industry has focused on the “machine,” the thing, the space but with tools and research from firms like Gensler we are discovering that the intelligence that improves the productivity of the people will become the new distinction.

This is my opinion, I think our shift toward the intelligence of space will result in simpler, more intuitive, open ended and adaptable design.

Other's rely on productivity gains the old fashioned way:

If the message matters - test it with an outsider

Have you had a solution for a company but struggled to connect with your prospect?

Or, a need for help but unable to convey it in a way to get the support you were looking for?

Have you found yourself needing to find different words to say the same thing?

Sometimes you need someone else (a stranger to your world) to read or hear your message. I'll often ask my wife to listen to a presentation or read an important document or a few friends that don't mind my calling on their help. If they like it (not just understand it) then I know it will connect with others.

I can also tell by the tone of their responses if I have to go back to the drawing board.

A friend shared about a marketing effort that was going nowhere. This was several years ago. A company was financing people purchasing gold and they profited from the appreciation. The original pitch went like this:

We will finance 75% of your purchase of gold. (This went nowhere even though it was a good deal)

The second pitch went like this:

Buy a $6 gold coin for $2. (The increase in sales was dramatic)

Our words and phrases can make a difference. Some have the gift or skill to effortlessly turn a phrase. For the rest of us - thank goodness for loving spouses and tolerant friends.

You will enjoy this clip from the Canne Film Festival. Kyle, thank you for sending it.

PS: My wife likes this one.

What does common sense have to do with it?

I had lunch today with a top strategic airport planner. We compared notes about the similar dysfunctions within the airport industry in planning and implementing and the commercial real estate world. We were both struck by the cost of these dysfunctions and how stuck each industry seems to be in repeating the same behavior over and over again.

Mindshift has proposed what seems to be a common sense alternative. Deliver a turnkey solution with an integrated team based on trust.  Two blogs ago we shared the story of a developer who built a LEED Platinum building and did it at a lower cost than comparable conventional buildings. They used an integrated team - makes sense.

I know airports and construction are complicated and layered with obstacles and land mines. However, I keep looking at people whose success is based on taking complicated challenges and finding key fundamental principles to focus on.

Here are a few examples of solutions and people tackling huge problems by finding a common sense lever.

Cool Roofs and Cool Pavement

If roofs and pavement in the 100 largest urban cities were changed to a white reflective surface it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases. It would offset 10 years of industrial use and equal more than a year's output from every country on the planet. These are called "cool roofs" and "cool pavement."  The article is from yesterday's LA Times.

The Pickensplan

Today the United States imports 70% of its oil. We use 25% of the world supply. We pay other countries $700 billion a year. World production peaked in 2005 at 85 million barrels a day. Rising economies like China and India have and will continue to compete for these limited resources. Boone Pickens proposes a common sense plan (Pickensplan) that provides a bridge of safety until more innovative energy sources are developed. Each of these sources is cleaner than oil.

• Wind
• Natural Gas

We will be able to reduce our demand for foreign oil by about 15 million barrels a day. The investment required is approximately the same amount that we send to other countries for their oil.

Consider the positive ripple of benefits to the economy, to the security of the nation, untangling many of our dangerous alliances and moving toward clean energy.

Thomas Friedman's new book; Hot, Flat and Crowded, makes a similar sobering argument.

Warren Buffet is the guru of financial common sense. He advises to stay out of debt, invest in what you know, get your money to work for you and be patient.  If you make it this far and have the time watch this video.  It gets to the heart of Mindshift's mission. It answers this question, "if you (whether owner or supplier) want a successful project - how would you chose your team?"

The lowest price? 

The slickest presentation?

The most comprehensive proposal?

The nicest prototype (mockup)?

When we major on the majors I think our decisions get easier and make common sense. When our focus is on secondary issues; low cost, best presentation... we typically sacrifice the majors and then life really gets complicated.

The Story of Psycho-Milt

How do groups get things done? Or more importantly how will groups in the near future get things done?

Clay Shirky answers this question in the most profound way - be sure to watch the video below. Here are some of my notes and thoughts after listening to it 4 times today. He articulates what I've been fumbling to say in my book and whenever I speak.

For 500 years when people wanted to get something done they formed institutions; businesses, churches, schools, governments, associations, clubs... You get it.

Communication costs have fallen to such a degree - that we are beginning to see coordination built into the infrastructure; Flickr, Amazon, Netflix, Ebay, Meetup... Okay?

Pause - think about this.

Institutions are driven to optimize the 80/20 principle. In fact if they can get 90 percent of the benefit from 10% of their efforts - all the better.

Psycho-milt changes everything (watch the video). If the barriers (costs) of harvesting benefit from the low producing 80% are removed - what would that mean?

Some companies like Proctor and Gamble are taking this approach to their R&D - open source collaborative platforms.

Mindshift was formed as one a collaborative platform. We're still old school in our thinking (we're boomers) and do better face-to-face than we do virtually - but we are inching our way to illumination.

This video by Clay Shirky might just take you all the way to illumination. Thank you professor Shirky!

I'm tempted to shave my head.

Green Mythbusting

One of our founding members commented that using "turnkey" teams and integrated project delivery is where Sustainability and Green were three or four years ago.

The 4 minute mile for LEED Certification, so to speak, has been to deliver Platinum level at a comparable cost to conventional construction.

Our team returned a few weeks ago from our summer summit and met with a developer who did just that. In fact, they delivered a LEED Platinum building close to 200,000 square feet at cost 3% less than comparable conventional Class A space. The operating costs are also 45% less than neighboring buildings. Oh yes - they have a fully leased building that is 21% higher than other buildings in that market.

They did so using a tightly aligned team and taking a turnkey approach. If you would like to find out more about the project send me an email.

Mindshift has adopted a "Do-Tank" strategy. We validating the mindshift model with live projects before we present with a clear roadmap to our colleagues and peers.

We want our industry to be able to sit in front of corporate decision makers with a new value proposition. This IBM ad captures the shift we would like to see.

The Cluetrain for YouTube

In 2004 I wrote the following introduction to Part 1 of the Millennium Matrix.

"Our communication tools have changed over time: from the spoken word, to the written word, to the broadcast-image word, to the digital multimedia word. With each change has come a new and different way of seeing the world. Here's what happens:

• When our communication tools change, our perception changes.
• Changed perception creates a changed understanding.
• Changed understanding changes our psychological makeup.
• Changed psyches change our interaction with the world.
• Changes in our interaction with the world change our relationships to one another.
• Changes in our relationships lead to changes in the institutions that facilitate those relationships.
• Our psychological makeup changes, and we reshape our world in our own image.

I thought all I needed to do is make a simple and profound observation about our changing world and everyone who read it would go - OMG - that is cool. I need to change everything!!

Well - only two problems. The message has only reached at the most 10,000 (if I'm really generous with all of my speaking, articles and book sales). Problem #2 - when you read that above paragraph did you pause, reflect and said - holy cow - this changes everything? I didn't think so. This blog gives you (and me) a second chance at that revelation. There is only 1 challenge - you need to watch a 60 minute video. I promise, if you do - you will be hit by the Cluetrain.

Michael Wesch is a professor of anthropology at Kansas State. I met him in 2004 at a conference at Fordham. I presented ideas from my book and he presented the impact of media on a tribe in New Guinea. Not much in common on the surface. However, I kept in touch because I was fascinated by his insight and understanding of the power of media to change worlds. A few years later I run across a YouTube video created by his class that explained how dramatically our education is changing. Then came the video on Web 2.0.

Both were so profound that they became phenomena on YouTube with millions of views.

Here is the third video that I highly recommend. Even though it is an hour - it will be one of the most informative hours you will invest if you believe that its important for you to "get it" when it comes to the YouTubization of the our culture.

This video is for executives - especially those who have the word marketing in their job description. This is not a video that you will immediately generate new ideas for campaigns (and please don't be as naive as GM - if you watch you will see what I mean). For those who do get it (the Cluetrain) - there are powerful implications for transforming how your company communicates with itself, its stakeholders, clients and the world. True to McLuhan's prophetic utterances it can release a level of innovation and connection that seems so hard to tap these days.

YouTube's sweet spot are the 18-34 year olds in terms of generating content.

Wesch's video explains how YouTube has exposed a new cultural tension.

• We express individualism but desire community.
• We express independence but desire relationship.
• We express commercialization or branding but desire authenticity.

We see connection in the current context as constraining - but this new medium allows connection without constraint.

There is a new dynamic - a new vibe - that we need to pay attention too.

mindshift has created an emotional connecting point for its members, changing our industry and improving our world. It has also created a platform for practicing participatory innovation. We call that being a "do-tank."

I'll be curious to see how many actually view the video. In many ways I'm jealous. I wrote a book and have spoken to several thousand with essentially the same message over the course of four years. These videos reach millions (in weeks) and provide a deeper level of understanding than 250 pages of writing. I'm old school.

Chopin and the Recession Impulse Theory

The video for this blog is a delightful insight into classical music but far more. The message I heard, and I think you will too, is a real mindshift.

If you listen closely I think you'll find a key to navigating the recession with grace and vision. Its not what you think. I'm not suggesting that you change your listening habits and become a classical music buff. I'm certainly not making the shift from Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The message behind the message is being able to hold down your impulses to play through your recession melody using a single buttocks. You'll need to watch to understand.

I'll see you on the other side of the video.



Now you know what a single buttocks performance is all about. The challenge with a recession is that we tend to play it note by note. We're missing the big picture. We miss the melody and therefore the drama of the song (and story). We labor but we are so focused on the execution of each decision that there is no link or unifying narrative to make any of it fruitful or meaningful.

Recession rookies behave like this. Managers who are afraid behave like this. Sometimes we all behave like this.

This recession is a song. It has common themes and if you listen it will telegraph where it is going. Just like this Chopin piece - the tension builds, it subsides, it looks like it is moving toward a conclusion only to go back into several stanzas of indecision.

I was with someone today and comparing notes about past recessions. He said, "I know where this is headed. Several weaker companies will get weeded out. I'll have to get back to some basics, watch my spending and raise my game and in a year or so I'll be in a stronger position."

What song would you pick to describe how this recession feels? The songs we pick and associate to specific seasons and times really doe make a difference in how we perceive those seasons and times.

Don't let the media pick the song you play in your head about this recession. Pick your own. Don't focus too much on each day or week but try to see the bigger picture. Combine your one buttock approach with a vision for where you would like to be when this particular melody is over.

Happy mindshifting!