Steelcase conducted collaboration trials to address challenges of hiring talent, corporate pace, and effective collaboration. They tested various workspace designs along a spectrum from momentary to continuous collaboration, including phone booths, enclaves, meeting studios, and project suites. Drawing on lessons from their own pain points, Steelcase is now helping other teams generate more ideas, develop better solutions, and meet faster deadlines through increased empathy in workspace design.

1. Collaboration Trials and
Lessons
Danielle Galmore
Director of New Business Innovation
Steelcase, Inc.

5. Work Trends
• Third spaces
• Corporate athletes
• Better, faster decision making
• Inter-company collaboration
• On demand learning

7. Our Challenges
• Hiring and managing great talent
• Pushing corporate pace
• Overcoming presence disparity
• Increasing effective collaboration

11. Phone
Booths
Enclaves
Meeting
Studios
Project
Suites
Open
Workspace
momentary collaboration continuous collaboration
Spectrum of Collaboration

14. Increasing Empathy
Our own pain points informed better
customer solutions. Now we’re helping
other teams achieve their objectives:
• Generating more ideas
• Developing better solutions
• Meeting faster deadlines

17. “Real innovation—as opposed to
iteration—is driven by people
working together, collaborating
in highly active environments.”
—Steven Johnson

18. Danielle Galmore
dgalmore@steelcase.com