DESIGN & INTERIORS
where and how they work. This means they can manage their need for privacy, to concentrate easily and work with teams without disruptions.
UNDERSTANDING
PRIVACY In developing solutions to the privacy problem, it’s important to understand the different factors involved. Traditionally, we tend to think of three dimensions of privacy:
• Acoustical – the need to escape from noise
• Visual – the need to avoid visual distractions such as the sight of people walking in and out
• Territorial – the need for personal space to think clearly and be comfortable
But a fourth dimension has also become apparent through our research - information protection. That is what an individual is willing to share with others and how they can protect themselves against constant streams of information, from mobile phones, emails and other sources. It’s having control over those two streams (incoming stimuli and outgoing information) that gives people a sense of added privacy.
REINVENTING WHAT
PRIVACY MEANS Building on the prior Steelcase studies that explored these spatial properties
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of privacy (acoustical, visual, territorial and informational privacy), Steelcase researchers recently completed a focused privacy project in North America, Europe and Asia that validated the importance of workers having private times and spaces to focus, reflect and rejuvenate during the workday. The research sought to better understand people’s psychological needs for privacy, both when working online and in physical space.
By administering surveys and conducting interviews and observational studies, the researchers concluded that the need for privacy exists across cultures, though it may be expressed differently, and within any culture, privacy is contextual to each individual – i.e. depending on personality, mood and task. Today’s workers therefore need both information and stimulation control to achieve the privacy they need, repeatedly shifting between revealing/ concealing and seeking/blocking stimulation.
The researchers identified five distinct types of privacy experiences that workers seek:
• Strategic anonymity: Being “unknown” or “invisible” for a while in order to avoid normal social distractions and restraints. For example, by spending time in a busy café.
• Selective exposure: Choosing what others see by being selective
about the personal information and behaviours that we reveal.
• Entrusted confidence: Sharing information confidentially within a trusting relationship, for example in a private meeting between colleagues.
• Intentional shielding: Protecting yourself from others’ sightlines to avoid being observed or distracted, or to develop a personal point of view without the influence of others.
• Purposeful solitude: Physically separating yourself from coworkers in order to concentrate, express emotions, rejuvenate or engage in personal activities
Because people experience privacy in these different ways, the key is to design a workplace that supports them all. Entirely open plan offices aren’t the solution, as they don’t provide enough privacy, while workplaces dominated by enclosed offices provide too much. Instead, the best way to support today’s workers is to give them the ability to move between individual time and collaborative time, with an ecosystem of different spaces for different kinds of work. Only by allowing people to select the right level of stimulation and informational control for them at the right time, will organisations see the true power of workplace in driving employee satisfaction, productivity and engagement.
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