03 Sep A Psychologist Take on Activity Based Working (ABW)
Knowing that people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds, I’ve summarised the highlights below. You’re welcome.
– Environmental Psychology looks at the relationship between people and their environment
– I am an Environmental Psychologist
– There are limits with open plan offices (concentration, sickness, presenteeism etc., etc.)
– So, Activity Based Working (ABW) is being discussed as a new style of working
Environmental Psychology in a Nutshell
Environmental Psychology looks at the relationship between people and their environment. My interest as an Environmental Psychologist is how to improve productivity and well being through workspace design.
This type of approach aligns with the positive psychology philosophy; focusing on heading towards higher levels of health and well being, rather than simply moving away from dissatisfaction.
Source: Every Moment Counts www.everymomentcounts.org
The popular open plan office brings with it many limitations. Empirical and anecdotal evidence can tell you this. While having conversations with friends over dinner, they’ll talk about frustrations at work – not being able to focus because of someone three or four rows over is having a conversation, or noting they should get their flu shots because now they’re getting sick in open plan. We soon move on to other equally important topics (such as which Bachelor is our best match or the Nutella-donutty goodness that is My Donut Box opening up down the street) but the issue remains: why aren’t workplaces healthy for us?
The Activity Based Working (ABW) Approach
One approach to address this is Activity Based Working (ABW); providing staff with zones that are appropriate for different types of work. In short, library areas for quiet concentration, café areas for casual meetings, Wi-Fi-enabled phone booths for phone conversations. Activity Based Working is typically not riding around on hoverboards through hallways while dodging ping-pong balls and having a Skype meeting on your tablet. Although it could be. If this would work for your organisation.
ABW follows the thinking that employees are adults and able to manage their time efficiently. We trust university students to undertake assignments wherever and whenever they like, and as long as it is submitted on-time and to an appropriate standard it doesn’t matter whether it was written the night before from the couch or a week before from the beach. The output is the only thing measured – not time or location (or amount of random internet surfing).
We know that 76% of people avoid the office when they have important work to complete. This statistic alone tells us there’s something fundamentally wrong with how the workplace is designed and we need to look more closely at Alternate Working Strategies (AWS) – such as ABW.
HUBB are workspace consultants who can undertake a health check of your organisation. We ask whether your employees are happy and productive with their current workplace and style of working, or whether there are facilitators to effective work which are missing.
If you would like to have a chat about HUBB, Activity Based Working or Environmental Psychology, My Donut Box is open from 10 am.
And doesn’t close ‘til 9 pm.
You can thank me later.
Amelia
@AJP_Psych