“Culture eats strategy for breakfast and operations excellence for lunch and everything else for dinner“ ~ Bill Aulet, MIT 2013

Introduction

Many design articles call for “Engaging workplace design that doesn’t stop with a response to technological and real estate needs. It must go further, supporting the creation and integration of a company’s culture, brand identity, and overall community.”

We’ve taken up that challenge. We want to draw out the distinction between “space”, which is the physical part of the workplace, and “place”, the social aspects of a work environment.

Genesis of the concept

It all begins with “purpose”. What is the purpose of the workplace? What is the purpose of those who perform their work in that place? And how do those two relate to each other? It is our contention that we are currently experiencing a shift in cultural narrative/story from the “Old Story” to a new one.

The purpose of work and where it gets done is changing quickly. We are talking about purpose in the context of work, where many of us find our highest purpose. However, we live in an increasingly purposeless world filled with purposeless work. The Old Story and its attendant social institutions were designed to promote continuous growth. These institutions are no longer life affirming, nor supportive of personal well-being (integration of body, mind, and spirit), let alone human wholeness (integration of individuals into a greater whole).