After several boom years in the tech sector, we've grown accustomed to seeing the next big thing in workplace design. From the now-quaint time of foosball tables, firemen's poles, and bouncy castles to the recent era of onsite, Michelin-starred chefs and certified masseuses, to the current wave of Starchitecture (Norman Foster at Apple, Gehry at Facebook, and BIG/Heatherwick at Google), Silicon Valley has been constantly evolving and re-inventing itself for the benefit of its workers and in the service of never-ending innovation - or so the story goes.

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As a business leader, many of your most difficult decisions are driven by how quickly your company grows. Decisions like whether or not to move to a larger office space are delicate balancing acts between investing in key resources too soon and too late. When it comes to office space, you do not want to invest in a work environment that you will not use in the near term or distant future. Nor do you want to create a space that is difficult to work in because it is crowded. So, how do you get the most out of your current office while you wait for the right time to invest in a larger location?

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Tech breakthroughs are making our lives easier — both in and out of the office.

Ever-improving Apple continues to launch new versions of the iPhone. Wearable tech now employs apps to tell us what stresses us out and what makes us happy. And thanks to technology, more companies are offering telecommuting options to employees, according to a recent SHRM study.

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First impressions last. For clients, customers, or employees, their first interaction with a business is the physical space it operates in. How important is this workspace in relation to business performance? Callie van der Merwe, CEO of strategy, design and build agency, Design Partnership, says different workspaces have different requirements. However, all are tailored as “machines for workings”.

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Want an office like Google?  Think again!  The open plan office versus closed debate rages on, and rather than running out of steam in the face of evidence and reasoned argument by many industry thought-leaders, it seems to have nine lives! New Tech offices seem to be particularly popular examples of why highly open and transparent workplaces do, or don’t work, especially headline-grabbing Google.

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It seems like we don’t have to wait more than a few days at a time before some or other organization is making its own prognoses about how we will be working in the future, especially at this time of year. The thing these reports about the office of the future all share in common, other than a standardized variant of a title and a common lexicon of agility, empowerment, collaboration and connectivity, is a narrow focus based on several of their key narratives and assumptions. While these are rarely false per se, and often offer some insights of variable worth, they also usually exhibit a desire to look at only one part of the elephant. The more serious reports invariably make excellent points and identify key trends, it has to be said. However, across them there are routine flaws in their thinking that can lead them to make narrow and sometimes incorrect assumptions and so draw similarly flawed conclusions. Here are just a few.

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With low unemployment rates and the necessity to attract talent at the top of many organizations’ lists, something as simple as an office redesign could make the difference. Millennials aren’t impressed by the isolation of cubicles.

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