George Nelson, Herman Miller's former design director famous for the marshmallow sofa (among other iconic funriture pieces), said:

"Design is a response to social change."

Today, work is social. And smart companies know that workspaces are business tools that reinforce your core values and reflect your culture and brand.

Millennials have overtaken Baby Boomers as the largest generation in America. A recent study conducted by Dell and Intel, called the Future Workforce Study, found that Millennials are greatly shaping the workplace. Technology, the physical space, and even virtual reality are all playing an increasingly important role in workspaces today, and are shaping what’s to come. It’s predicted that traditional office design will someday become extinct.

The commercial real estate (CRE) process is complicated. Developers, landlords/building owners, legal representation, financial institutions, and multiple brokers are all involved, not to mention architects, designers, furniture providers, and the end users themselves, tenants. The project team, which can vary from project to project, typically consists of a tenant broker, landlord broker, architect, and last but not least, a furniture provider.

While the digital revolution has changed the way we work and build, the Engineering and Construction (E&C) sector has historically been slower to adopt new technologies than other industries. However, given today's factors like stricter environmental requirements, a shortage of labor, and clients who demand cost certainty, the Construction sector needs to evolve. And this crucial transformation will rely heavily on new advances in technology to do so.

Many jobs today require us to sit for prolonged periods of time. Science tells us that sitting all day isn’t the healthiest choice when it comes to doing our work, but sometimes it's inevitable. Research suggests that people who sit excessively have increased risk for obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a cascade of other health ills. The human body is made to move, but global studies show we sit nearly 8 hours a day on average.

Active learning is described as a “teaching method that strives to more directly involve students in the learning process.” This is contrasted with passive learning, in which students simply sit and listen to a teacher speak, or watch some sort of presentation or video. There is a place for passive learning, but more and more teachers are experimenting with active learning to boost their students’ educational attainment.

Marburn Academy is an independent day school and a visionary leader in the education of bright students with learning differences, such as dyslexia and attention difficulties. Their conviction is that every child is capable of succeeding. For the past 30 years, Marburn resided in a former elementary school in the Northland area of Columbus, Ohio. For the past decade, this space was overcrowded and cramped, with a configuration that was less than ideal for a learning environment.

Pelotonia is a grassroots organization that was founded in Columbus, Ohio to raise money for one supreme goal: to end cancer. Continental Office was one of its founding corporate members and pelotons (a “peloton” is a group of cyclists). In fact, you can see our original jersey on display in Pelotonia’s office. To date, we’ve ridden over 18,000 miles and raised over $550,000 as an organization to help end cancer. This is my 4^th year as captain of the Continental peloton and my 7^th year as a participant. Also, did I mention that I’m terrible at riding a bike?

Last month I attended a Creative Mornings Columbus event featuring street artist, Stephanie Rond. At first I was unsure what I could learn about street art that I could apply to my own profession. And I think that was largely the point of this event, and of this forward-thinking organization in general. We all have talents and knowledge to share with one another, to get our creative juices flowing, and we should be doing this much more frequently.

I’m currently reading a book entitled, “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, which talks about identifying and implementing one thing that in turn makes everything else easier. As a HR professional, I immediately began to think about what this one thing could be from a company’s standpoint. To me, it’s pretty clear that if the associate experience you provide to your employees is a positive one, everything else comes much, much easier, whether that translates to sales, happy customers, or any number of things. In particular, I believe there are three areas where the associate experience is especially important.