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THERE'S NO "I" IN TEAMWORK - BUT THERE'S PLENTY OF FUTURE

The faster business moves, the more trends seem to come and go. In recent years, knowledge workers have thrived (or survived) with MBO, TQM, learning organizations, act-like-you-own-the-company, lean this or that, and many more.

Some of these strategies have legs, but one is simply irrepressible: collaboration. It’s beyond trend, really. Call it group work, teamwork, or collaboration, it’s a fact of life in offices worldwide and it’s not going away. It’s like your favorite sweater: hardly trendy, a little worn maybe, but you wouldn’t feel right without it.

Collaborative work has huge implications for the built environment and it’s a topic of discussion with every client, say designers, architects, educators, and researchers. “Teamwork is increasing even in corporate cultures that are physically mired in a much older generation of workplace,” says John Mudgett, project director in the Princeton, NJ office of CUH2A, the science and technology design firm.

“The workforce is all about ‘we,’ it’s more collaborative. Nothing is ever one hundred percent your idea,” says  Linda O’Shea, a practicing interior designer and associate professor of the interior design program at Kean University, Union, New Jersey.

“Collaborative work is definitely increasing,” says Lew Epstein, the California-based director of advanced product marketing for Steelcase who helps companies sort through their workplace issues. “There’s an increase in project work in all types of organizations around the world, and that drives an increase in spaces where teams can collaborate. What’s the reason for a renewed emphasis on collaborative work? Three reasons are cited most often: the speed and complexity of business today, the efficiency that results from collaboration, and tools that allow people to work together more than ever before.