Beyond 50 Shades of 'Greige': Seven Ideas to Create an Inspiring Workplace

Gray and beige are two colors I see most often in many of today’s workplaces. I’m not the only one, either. A client at an advertising firm recently described their office as “kind of greige.” Yuck. It’s no surprise these bland workspaces are often empty or distinguished by staff struggling to find the right spaces to meet and concentrate. 

Environments are always “on” and saying something. Gray and beige may seem neutral, but they are uninspiring and a missed opportunity to express culture and reinforce how a space could be used. And color is just one small design choice of many that affect work performance. 

Achieving the right kind of workplace is challenging, but the following ideas can change your office from a mundane “greige” environment into something that inspires creativity and innovation. 

1. Define a vision that aligns with your objectives and desired culture. 

   To be credible and resonate with leaders, managers and staff, the vision of your workplace experience needs to align with your business goals and organizational values. 

   A great example of this is when Citi’s human resources decided to collocate several disparate groups in New York City. HR’s vision, led by their managing director and COO, Susan Catalano, and highlighted in Harvard Business Review, was to break down silos by removing physical barriers, encouraging staff to move around the workplace, and facilitating more interaction. 

2. Identify champions who will lead. 

   The success of initiatives in organizations are explicitly tied to their leaders and how genuinely and visibly they support these causes. 

   Citi is also in the midst of fully renovating their global headquarters in TriBeCa. Citigroup’s CEO, Mike Corbat is leading by example with a workplace model for him and the executive team that has the same principles as the rest of the organization. As described in the Wall Street Journal, the open office planning without any doors is supported by a range of spaces for meetings away from the desk. Equally important is that the executive team championed this significant change by being the first group to move into new space.

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