Newsletters

Featured study: Linking indoor environment conditions to job satisfaction
Jay Brand, one of the authors of "Linking Indoor Environment Conditions to Job Satisfaction: A Field Study," alerted us to this research. Jay wrote: "Here's another published research article for NewWOW enthusiasts; it links indoor environment conditions to environmental satisfaction, job satisfaction, and other organizational outcomes. It supports the value of an exterior view (view outside the building) from a seated position for office employees--among other findings.” A significant link was found between overall environmental satisfaction and job satisfaction, mediated by satisfaction with management and with compensation. One interesting area discussed was the possibility that employees view their physical environment as part of their compensation package. Check out our summary at: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1166

Symposium 7 update. Here's the latest information about Symposium 7, scheduled for June 7 through 10 in Chicago.

Research: The research topic for Symposium 7 has been changed from "Change Management" to "Systems Sensemaking and Design." Read Jim Creighton's explanation for the change and how Dr. Terri Griffith will work with staff at SMART Technologies to identify successful sensemaking strategies. See http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1151

Registration available online: Registration and hotel reservations for Symposium 7 are now available on our website (http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1154). Please reserve hotel rooms as soon as possible as June is a very popular time of year in Chicago and we have only reserved a limited number of rooms. If you want to stay at the Fairmount before or after the symposium, you will need to make separate reservations but still ask for our special conference rate by telephoning the hotel reservations desk (866-540-4408).

eco2Workplace status
Joe Ouye sent us the latest status report on the eco2Workplace tool (also known as the NewWOW sustainability calculator). The tool is available free of charge for use by New WOW members or on behalf of their clients. NewWOW is working on a way to make the tool financially sustainable as about $30,000 per year will be required for web upkeep, maintenance, legal due diligence, and tool enhancements. We are now looking at ways to raise these amounts, possibly through sponsorships or grants. To learn more about the project and to download a press release announcing the tool, see http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1146

April Tertulia: Emerging collaborative work tools and trends
Our next New Ways of Working Tertulia will be an interactive session with presentations and discussions around emerging tools and approaches to collaborative work. The program is hosted by SRI Consulting Business Intelligence research program, Virtual Worlds @ Work and will be held at their facilities in Menlo Park, California. Three speakers will give presentations to stimulate the discussion.

Speakers and their topics are: Eilif Trondsen, the role that virtual worlds -- 3D immersive environments -- may play in the future; Rob Edmonds, trends and developments in knowledge-based systems and knowledge-management tools; and Nicolas Ducheneaut, perspectives on the future of collaborative work based on 
research that he and his colleagues have done at PARC.

Audio conferencing and possibly videoconferencing will be available for remote attendees. If you plan to attend, either virtually or in person, please RSVP Al Stojanovich at al_stojanovich@comcast.net by April 9th.

More information on the program is available at: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1129#comment-777

Designing a third place for work
The latest issue of Steelcase’s 360 ezine showcases Workspring, a new facility in Chicago, designed specifically to appeal to those looking for a better "third place" to work. Dubbed a "2.5" space, Workspring combines the tools and support of a modern office with many of the comforts of home. Flexible furnishings, ergonomic chairs, wireless access, a bunch of tech tools to capture and display content, a cafe, and a “"curated selection of books and periodicals" set the mood. "Location matters to knowledge work," the article maintains. "A generic location will produce generic results." http://www.newwow.net/members/node/770#comment-771

Advance look at new research
Renate Fruchter, Petra Bosch-Sijtsema and Virpi Ruohomäki have invited the NewWOW community to review and provide feedback on their research report: Tension Between Perceived Collocation and Actual Geographic Distribution in Project Teams. Their paper describes an exploratory comparative study of knowledge workers and their challenges in high tech global project teams. It focuses on the tension between perceived collocation and actual geographical distributed project work as a function of: (1) the demand to distribute and shift attention in multi-teaming, (2) virtuality, i.e. number of virtual teams participants engage in, (3) the continuous adjustment and re-adjustment to new places where they perform their activity, and (4) the collaboration technologies they use.
Your feedback is requested: This is a rare opportunity for NewWOW members and colleagues to read and comment on this research. All three authors are NewWOW colleagues and will be checking the site for your comments and questions. Please use this space to provide feedback and share your thoughts and observations online in the New WOW discussion forum. And please note that this report should not be circulated outside the NewWOW community. Comments needed by: Friday, April 3, 2009. To download the report, click on this link: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1126

The end of Taylorist office buildings
The latest issue of Harvard Design Magazine contains an essay by Frank Duffy, where he explores the modern office and predicts future directions. Duffy maintains that offices designed around "scientific management" principles are unsustainable, "unsuitable for emerging ways of working and difficult to convert to new uses." In addition, these buildings "sterilize opportunities for embryonic enterprises and fail to accommodate inter-company transactions, mobile work, or overlapping activities." Duffy challenges architects to design ways to use information technology to "enfranchise people to use time and space in more fluid and environmentally efficient ways" but says that change is slow in coming unless a "demand chain" emerges. "Resistance to change is most strongly embedded in a calcified building supply chain that starts with investors and moves through developers, lawyers, real estate brokers, planners, architects, cost consultants, engineers, the construction industry, interior designers, furniture manufacturers, corporate real estate executives, and facilities managers until it unloads its products on end users." For more, see http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1121

Featured study: Well Connected?: The Biological Implications of 'Social Networking'
Eric Reichert forwarded an email from Heidi Pate with an excerpt from a paper published in this month's Biologist. The author, Dr Aric Sigman, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, investigated the health impacts of social "disconnectedness." He observed that there has been a dramatic decline since 1987 in hours per day of face-to-face social interaction as the use of electronic media dramatically increased. Sigman concludes: "A reduction in direct social connections is associated with a growing number of specific physiological alterations and significant health risks, including narrowing of major arteries, incidence of stroke, early death, high blood pressure, dementia, Alzheimer's, and even the common cold."

GSA assesses green building performance
NewWOW community members Kevin Powell and John Parman co-wrote, along with Kim Fowler, an article describing the General Services Administration's (GSA) study of green building performance. Researchers assessed 12 GSA LEED-certified buildings on a series of measures including environmental performance, financial metrics, and occupant satisfaction. According to the authors, this holistic approach has never been employed before in a U.S. study of building performance. They found that fully integrated green design delivers higher performance, greater user satisfaction and lower operating costs. Details at: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/923#comment-752

HP case study: Measuring the space you actually use
The latest issue of CoreNet's The Leader features an article on how HP measures workplace utilization. The authors, HP's Chris Hood and Herman Miller's Debra Cesaro, describe earlier methods used for measuring occupancy and point out their limitations. The bulk of the article shares results of a pilot program at a recently redesigned engineering center at the company's Houston campus. It used wireless technology--small sensors called "motes"--to collect user occupancy data. The study discovered that HP already had sufficient conference rooms at the pilot site. This was in direct contradiction to user-reported conference space scarcity. Based on the study, the company found it could reduce space at the pilot facility by 50 percent.
http://www.newwow.net/members/node/707#comment-743