There are three main points discussed in the document: 1. Organizations can better drive cultural transformation by aligning physical workplace changes with organizational changes. This means designing work environments that support new cultural values and behaviors rather than reinforcing old ones. 2. High-performance workplaces provide a diversity of space types to support different work activities and preferences. This enhances collaboration, focus, and mobility. Activity-based workplaces in particular allow employees choice without assigned desks. 3. The document outlines four workplace models on a spectrum from basic to high-performance. It then provides more details on collaborative workplaces and activity-based workplaces as two high-performance options that can better enable cultural change and drive performance

1. ISSUE 23 2016 | PP18302/11/2013 (033704) | ISSN 2462-1226 PUBLISHED BY ASIAN INSTITUTE OF FINANCE | www.aif.org.my
Feature
Talent, Technology &
Tomorrow's Workplace
Personality
Dato' Sulaiman Mohd Tahir
CEO, AmBank

3. Unlocking Cultural
Transformation through the
Work Environment
There is nothing more powerful than
the physical work environment to
represent and drive the culture and
values of an organisation. Nothing. As
Winston Churchill once said“we shape
our buildings and thereafter they
shape us. ”What does your workplace
today say about your culture, expected
behaviours, hierarchy, empowerment,
trust and recognition?This question
was explored by Peter Andrew of
CBRE.
oo often in organisations
those that drive cultural and
behavioural changes are not
aligned with the technology
and real estate functions that
create and maintain the environments where
people work. In the worst cases these functions
inadvertently work against each other’s purpose
and objectives.
Let’s explore how these functions can align
to drive organisational transformation and
generate greater value from investment and
then compare and contrast two new types of
emerging high performance workplaces.
Aligning physical and organisational
change
Asia typically has shorter real estate lease
terms (3-5 years) than the rest of the world.
In theory this gives organisations in Asia
more opportunities to align physical and
organisational change. Too often though the
real estate processes are disconnected from
organisational change and so the significant
sums invested in real estate and new workplace
design goes to waste.
Issue 23 2016 | Asian Link 11
TALKING POINTS
T
Peter Andrew

4. One way to look at this is that whilst a
new workplace will look different, to most
employees it just feels the same (figure 1);
reinforcing old behaviours, processes and
cultural symbols.
At the same time, most organisations
are looking to reinforce aspirational
cultures, values and behaviours.
Again significant sums are invested in
training, communications and other
organisational change activities. The
impact of these initiatives can however
be diminished by physical work
environments that are out of alignment
and scream messages to occupants
about old behaviours, expectations and
values. In these cases, the people feel
different, yet the environment looks the
same. Imagine employees returning
from a great personal development
programme, encouraging empowerment
and the flattening of hierarchy, only to
return to a workplace where the boss
walks into their office and shuts the door,
completely contradicting the messages
of the development programme.
Traditional workplace design
processes typically ask people“what they
need?” This is a sure recipe for getting
something similar as most people would
answer that question relative to what
they already know or have today –“of
course I’ll need an office, but I’d like a
better view”. A much better question
to ask is;“what do you do today and
what will you do differently in the
future?” Talking about work rather than
workplace solutions is more innovative,
more aligned to current and future work
practices and is able to drive cultural
and behavioural change. Furthermore,
engaging employees in these processes
builds their awareness and ownership
of the final solutions. It is much more
likely that the intended outcomes will be
achieved. This is the basis of creating high
performance workplaces.
High performance work
Before we can explore high performance
workplaces it is worth examining what
is meant by high performance work.
Productivity is no longer simply about
how many widgets per hour a person
creates or processes. In the world of
knowledge, work productivity is more
about innovation, rapid sharing of
Change real estate
Transformworkandculture
Now
Looks
different
Feels
same
Feels different
Looks same
Transform
Organisation
Space efficiency
Flexibility, modularity, adaptability
Managing volatile headcount
Attracting, motivating and retaining talent
Reinforce culture and values
Increase staff experience and performance
Increase innovation and knowledge sharing
Sustainability and wellness
Optimising Real Estate
Optimising Performance
Figure 1: © CBRE 2016. Developed from a concept originally published by DEGW in 2002
information, leveraging ideas, speed and
quality of decision-making, and even“fail
often, fail fast”. And work is no longer
simple and repetitive. It is complex, often
involves interaction with others and can
move between highly collaborative and
highly focused activities, the physical and
the virtual, the individual and the group.
The advent of artificial intelligence
amongst white collar and no collar
(creative roles in tech and media
companies) workforces will dramatically
accelerate these changes: the critical
skill sets for success will be creative
intelligence, emotional (or social)
intelligence and the ability to leverage
artificial intelligence.
The predominant, traditional
open plan workplace supports an old
premise of work – a premise that will
become increasingly irrelevant. The
alternative is to create workplaces with
a high diversity of settings to support
the variety of work that is happening
and the aspirations and preferences of
the people who work in them. These
workplaces will support the quiet
and the noisy, the introverts and the
extroverts. Companies should provide
the technology, change the processes
and empower people to be more mobile
within and outside the office. Then give
people the choice as to where they want
to work and how they want to work: set
clear targets so that performance is no
longer about turning up and being seen
to work. The workplace of the future will
have a diversity of people, a diversity
of opinions and a diversity of places to
work.
Benefits of high performance
workplaces
Well considered and well executed
workplaces drive many people-related
benefits:
Attract and retain talent
The most obvious way to build an
employer brand and compete for talent
is to create“a cool place to work”. But
beyond the superficial cool design
concepts and playful gimmicks there
are many other aspects of workplace
design that are critically important
to attract and retain talent. Create
environments that allow people to build
networks and accelerate their learning
and development; recognise people
as important and give them the ability
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12 Asian Link | Issue 23 2016
Transform work culture so that people
feel different, yet the environment looks
the same.

5. to get involved and contribute; build
community; and help create meaning,
purpose and fulfilment for people at
work. Curating delightful experiences will
be critical in future workplaces.
Enable high performance work
A diversity of different types of spaces can
enhance both collaborative and focused
work while enabling serendipitous
encounters. All of these are required to
drive innovation. Giving people a choice
about where they sit enables them to
find places they are comfortable with; be
that climate, acoustic levels, personality
type or even the mood of the moment.
Promote self-organisation – when people
can choose where they want to sit they
can also choose who they want to sit
with. Whether its work groups, project
teams, professional groups or even just
friendship groups, self-organisation
unleashes the ability for people to get
their jobs done in the best possible way.
Create a state of constant change
readiness
In traditional workplace environments
people get comfortable with where they
sit and who they sit with – so comfortable
that they decorate, personalise and mark
out their territories; so comfortable that
any change seems like a big effort. But to
survive and thrive in a digital world that
is unpredictable and rapidly evolving
organisations need to move away from
dragging employees through (just
another) large change management
programme and instead create a culture
of constant change readiness. A diverse,
self-organising work environment can
be a catalyst for this cultural and mindset
shift: hard to achieve but incredibly
powerful once achieved.
Four workplace models
Pick up a magazine and it seems that
every day there is yet another new and
exciting workplace solution. The diversity
can be bewildering. Real estate solution
provider, CBRE, created the Workplace
Compass© to explain the four workplace
models. It is called a compass because
there is no one singular right solution.
Every organisation needs to make its
own judgement call on what is right for
them today, tomorrow and further into
the future. The best workplaces have the
ability to morph and adapt over time.
The four workplace models are:
1. Traditional Solution (basic)
2. Hot Desking (basic)
3. Collaborative Workplace (high
performance)
4. Activity-Based Workplace (high
performance)
To determine which option is right for
your organisation there are two principle
elements to consider:
• Should people be assigned to desks or
be free to choose where they sit?
• Do you need a basic or a high
performance workplace?
If assigned desks is the right strategy
for your business, then you have
two options: traditional solution or a
collaborative workplace. The difference
is the diversity of work settings (and
therefore variety of work supported) and
the degree of mobility that employees
Issue 23 2016 | Asian Link 13
A diversity of different types of spaces can
enhance both collaborative and focused work
while enabling serendipitous encounters.

6. have to enable them to work from more
than one place.
If unassigned desks is the right
strategy for your business, then you
have two further options: hot desking
or activity-based working (ABW). Both
solutions offer the potential to save
space (and real estate costs) through
having more people assigned to the
space than there are desks. Both support
self-organisation of work and teams.
The primary driver of hot desking is the
ability to share desks and save money.
The primary driver of ABW is to provide
a diversity of settings and the mobility
that enables choices; and the potential
to share desks can create the funding
mechanism to create a better workplace.
The capacity to drive space efficiency
through sharing is remarkably high: the
global turn up rate to work in offices sits
just above 60%. Allowing for peaks in
turn up times/days these figures indicate
potential savings in the order of 20-30%.
Sharing ratio’s need to be very carefully
Figure 2: The CBRE Workplace Compass
Source: CBRE Asia Pacific Occupiers’Fit-Out Cost Guide. 2015
calculated to ensure that there is always
a place to work available. In the case
of ABW workplaces it is also important
that the full diversity of different types of
settings are available to choose from at
most times (quiet spaces, team spaces,
collaborative spaces and private rooms.)
Basic traditional and hot desking
workplaces are generally well understood
options (although high performance
collaborative workplaces and activity-
based workplaces are often mistaken
for basic hot desking environments).
It is worth diving deeper into the two
high performance options in more detail
to understand the differences and the
benefits. It is important to understand
that there is more than one choice – and
lots of“grey area”in between.
High performance collaborative
workplace
The collaborative workplace is
characterised by each person having an
assigned workspace. However, compared
to the basic traditional workplaces the
collaborative workplace allocates a higher
proportion of space to shared activities
to support collaboration and focused
work. This option recognises the human
need for personalised space and a sense
of belonging. However, one challenge is
that people get too comfortable within
their individual settings and, while excited
by all of the“cool”alternative spaces to
work, actually often do not use them
as often as might have been intended
(one reason why some tech companies
provide free food – to lure their engineers
to spaces where they have to interact
with others). Depending on design,
some collaborative workplaces can limit
the ability for teams to self-organise
themselves in the workplace.
High performance activity-
based workplace
An activity-based workplace (ABW)
enables people to share a diversity
of different ergonomic work settings
that support a variety of focused and
collaborative work activities. Private
“owned”enclosed offices are less
common; instead there are usually
sufficient small work rooms for all staff,
and not just leaders, to find enclosed
spaces to work for as long as they
need. Activity-based workplaces are
HUB
(assigned space)
CLUB
(unassigned space)
BasicHighperformance
Traditional Solution Hot Desking
Collaborative Workplace Activity-Based Workplace
Group/collaborative space Desk space Mobility enabled options
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14 Asian Link | Issue 23 2016
The best workplaces
have the ability to
morph and adapt
over time.

7. very responsive to business change, project needs
and allow staff to self-organise themselves, trading
off flexibility and choice for the ownership of their
own desk. Aside from work preferences these
environments also cater to introvert and extrovert
personality types – each able to choose the type of
setting that best suits their needs. When properly
executed the desire for ownership of a single desk
tends to diminish (although it’s invariably a big point
of concern when initially introducing the concept
to employees). Most organisations building these
workplaces are reporting that 80-90% of employees
would not go back to the old ways of working.
Unlock cultural transformation
Unlock and unblock your cultural and behavioural
change programmes by exploring and embracing
the symbolic and transformational opportunities
inherent in the conception, design and use of high
performance work environments. Build a resilient
organisation, enable your people to perform and
create fulfilment and meaning at work. Empower
your people to be successful by giving them more
choice about how they use space.
Alignment of cultural, behavioural and physical
workplace change is key and the next step is yours.
Peter Andrew is Senior Director, CBREWorkplace Centre of Excellence, Asia Pacific.
High Performance CLUB - Activity-Based Workplace
This illustration above is a representative image of an ABW. Space
types and names are included, but not limited to the below.
Enclosed meeting room
An acoustically insulated room to support
multiple work modes ranging from focused
to collaborative activities.
Enclosed office
An acoustically insulated room to support
focused work or light collaboration.
Work Cafe
Multi-functional space for social
interaction, team gatherings
and individual work.
Open shared table
Space for team
collaboration.
Ergonomic work setting
Unassigned desks to support
both work and light collaboration.
Open meeting space
Space for ad hoc activities and
informal meetings.
High-walled pod
Designed to support
focused work.
Focused touchdown area
An acoustically insulated room to support
focused or confidential work.
CBRE Workplace 360 office in Tokyo – an activity-based work environment built
in Tokyo in 2013.
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