Agora
Accenture
Project Overview
The workplace and working culture has changed. While the physical space still exists, the overall idea of what a workplace is and what it is for needs to be reimagined.
Envision the changes that will shape our work in the next 5 years, and find a way to build a strong team culture.
My Role
In this project, I was involved in the whole design process, and equally participated as two other teammates. Since this is an open-ended design thinking project, team work was the most important way to get to a good solution.
Challenge
Technology has transformed the way we meet, share knowledge, access training, and plan tasks and projects. Workers are demanding more freedom and flexibility. Looking through the signs of today, how might we design a better way of working?
Specifically focus on building a strong team culture.
How new trends and technologies will improve the way we collaborate with each other? How new rituals can leverage the sense of belonging, trust and team support?
Design Process
1. Discover
Trend Research
Interview
2. Define
Trend Sorting
Scenario Mapping
Vision Mapping
Opportunities
How Might We
3. Develop
Ideate
Solution
4. Deliver
Conceptual Design
Discover
Trend Research
In order to have a sense of the future of work, these were the 3 main topics to research :
– what is a team culture?
– what has already been done?
– what is next?
After figuring out the patterns from the findings, the trends were mapped out. And base on it, we looked up to see how the other companies are doing with these trends.
Interview
- Interviewing 3 Accenture workers, to gain insights about the team culture of the company.
- Interviewing 3 design students, who represent the future works, to gain insights on how they think about the design team culture in an office.
After figuring out some patterns, the needs and expectations of the current team culture were pinpointed. There are some similarities between workers and students:
- The physical office is still needed for connecting with colleagues.
- Focus is higher while working from home.
- Benefits for employees are good motivation.
- Lack of human interactions and office environment resulting in lack of sense of belonging.
Define
Trend Sorting
Now focusing on Accenture itself, how does the company go? And what would fit their needs the best?
With all the findings and insights, we decided to work on 6 particular trends :
1. Technology in Physical Spaces
2. Hybrid Work is the New Normal
3. Physical Well-being & Mental Health
4. Use of Collaborative Tools
5. Monitoring Tools
6. Team Building
Scenario Mapping
1. Future Wheel
Future wheel was helpful in thinking about deeper, indirect consequences and changes around the trends from previous research.
2. Scenario Canvas
By creating a scenario canvas, it was easier to imagine how these trends of team culture would play out in the future.
Vision Mapping
With the vision map, it was easier to take from the current situation and vision the future of team culture in a bigger and more complete point of view.
Opportunities
Identifying 9 opportunities with all the findings above, to give ourselves a clear mind to come up with the solutions.
How can we personalize appreciation for every employee separately?
How can we help employees familiarize themselves with other employees?
How can we boost the sense of belonging for employees even with remote work?
How can we introduce activities during working hours without interrupting the results?
How can we re-imagine the hybrid model to make it efficient for people working from the office and remotely?
How can we enhance remote working quality without having interruptions from the living situation?
How can we recreate the ways employees communicate their feelings regularly without getting personal?
How can we have a way to align the employee’s work progress without breaching privacy and micromanaging?
How can we re-imagine the office to enhance human interaction when some people are working remotely?
They can be narrowed down into 4 categories.
Convenience for both on-site and remote work.
Grow sense of belonging.
Shorten the distance between employees.
Grow motivation.
How Might We
From the 4 opportunities, the challenge was defined with 3 “how might we” questions.
How might we recreate and strengthen the sense of belonging for employees?
How might we help employees familiarize with other employees?
How might we re-imagine the workspace to enhance human interaction?
Develop
Ideate
Based on the how might we questions, many solution ideas popped out, by prioritizing them with their possible impact and effort, it was clear to see which ones were worth developing.
Solution
Creating a multidisciplinary physical space for Accenture community to connect, share, and interact.
It helps to reinvent the employee experience using technology, also feed into the employee’s sense of belonging to a community.
Deliver
Concept
This agora includes 7 spaces.
– Entrance
– Gallery
– Workspace
– Foroom (pun intended)
– Event Space
– Social Space
– Cafeteria
Entrance
The entering employees are identified by a facial recognition technology.
Here also displays info about all the rooms.
Gallery Room
Employees can discover the latest projects launched in the exhibition area. They can look into projects from other teams, other cities, and even other countries.
And in the archive area, AI technology can recognize the employee and then uses the keywords to search for projects that related to the employee. So that the employee can check out others projects and get inspired for their own.
Workspace
Here, the teams can work together physically and virtually.
In the middle of a round table, there’s an advanced 3D projector, which allows employees to have virtual collaborative ideation.
Foroom
This space serves as a physical forum for discussions, which can be transcripted with technology onto a digital platform where every employees can access.
Employees can come here to get feedback and test out their ideas.
Event Space
The event space is open for Accenture employees and for the public as well. It’s a space to exchange knowledge and host formal and casual events.
This will feed into to concept of Accenture Academy to up-skill, re-skill and share knowledge.
Social Space
Here is a space for fun. Employees can come here to play games and do some team-building activities.
Cafeteria
Employees can come here to have something to eat and drink a cup of coffee. This space is for relaxing and chit-catting.
