-By Leigh Stringer and Claire Whitehill

Robyn Kaiser, Director of Global Business Strategy, Global Real Estate and Procurement Services, American Express;
Jim Rottman, Vice President Human Resources, American Express;
Peggy Stritch, Manager, Workplace Research & Design, Cisco;
Martha Hirst, Commissioner of the City of New York Department of Citywide Administrative Services

There have been dramatic economic shifts over the last several decades that have profoundly changed the way we work. We have moved from an economy that was centered on factory production to one based on information and knowledge work. Many believe the next shift, post-knowledge work, will be built around an economy of creativity and new ideas. Driven by transformative technology, global access, and the need to survive the current economic situation as well as to maximize transparency, those with creative minds and the ability to synthesize and collaborate with others effectively will be the ones who succeed.

To showcase the best thinking around collaboration, HOK interviewed four experts on the topic: Robyn Kaiser and Jim Rottman from American Express, Peggy Stritch from Cisco, and Martha Hirst from the city of New York. Each works for complex organizations of 50,000 to 300,000 employees and are responsible for providing real estate, technology, and workplace policies for their organizations.

Drivers for Increased Collaboration

Three of the major drivers for increased collaboration, according to our experts, are transparency, globalization, and technology.

Transparency. Hirst noted that with the ever-present scrutiny on government, collaboration is critical to promoting and ensuring transparency across city agencies and the public. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, known for cutting through bureaucracy and reaching across lines to make things happen, has had a measurable impact on increasing collaboration in city government. Increasingly, the city of New York is reaching across bureaucratic boundaries and seeking private-sector partners to coordinate the delivery of government services. This collaborative spirit was exemplified in the development of PlaNYC, a city-wide sustainability initiative involving almost every city agency as well as a number of private parties aiming to green New York City's infrastructure over the next 21 years.

Globalization. Globalization has not only increased the amount of time dedicated to collaboration during a typical eight-hour day, but it also has stretched out the day altogether. Employees at Cisco report that they spend an average of 63 percent of their time collaborating in a variety of ways, and they are doing it both at the office and virtually from other locations, meeting with colleagues and clients across the globe. Roughly 38 percent of Cisco's population is outside of the United States, and this percentage is expected to increase, meaning the trend of collaborating during off-hours and meeting virtually is only expected to continue.

Technology. In 2008, Cisco's use of Telepresence (its own video conferencing tool) increased threefold, use of WebEx for meetings increased 15-fold between January and August, and use of "YouTube" as a knowledge management and training tool increased more than tenfold. Stritch credits this to global expansion, the need for speed, and travel restrictions.

American Express is using many of these same technologies both internally and with customers. The company developed Web sites dedicated to community building, creating open forums for learning about products and business travel ideas. Cisco and American Express executives use blogs to share informal thoughts and start conversations about topics at a global level. Cisco has even created an internal online network, similar to Facebook.

New York City has taken advantage of technology, data collection, and knowledge management to strengthen connections between citizens and government. Mayor Bloomberg launched the City's 311 Citizen Service Center, the largest in the nation, to encourage residents to call in with problems or request services. The requests—more than 15 million a year—are then tracked through the government to ensure services are delivered. In 2008, 311 began handling service referrals for public assistance or other government benefits, making the process more convenient for those in need. The city's Web site (www.nyc.gov) displays "dashboards" of statistics to disclose the government's performance on key service indicators, ranging from potholes filled to foster care placements. New York also has launched outreach Web sites to foster collaboration with citizens, such as the new NYC Service initiative, which allows New Yorkers to find volunteer opportunities.

The Impact on the Workplace

The changing nature of collaboration affects the workplace on many fronts. Consider these trends:

More space is dedicated to collaborative or shared space. Both Cisco and American Express report increases in the percentage of space dedicated to collaborative or shared space (conference rooms, break areas, cafes, team rooms, etc.) and relative decreases in the percentage of individually assigned offices or workstations. Cisco's "legacy" workplaces had dedicated only 20 percent of the total portfolio to collaboration, and this number is now 50 percent. American Express' office environments are also shifting towards 50 percent shared space from its current 40 percent. The impact of increased shared space does not necessitate an increase in building size. Often, shared space increases are accompanied by decreases in individual office size or adoption of alternative work strategies (such as telework).

This increase in shared, collaborative space—in addition to strategies such as lowering workstation panel heights to encourage communication between employees—leads to an increase in…surprise…collaboration! At American Express, this has happened not only between leaders and employees, but also across departments, a competitive advantage for the company.

In New York City, Hirst's agency has adopted planning guidelines for the office renovations it supervises to maximize the use of office space leased by the city. The new guidelines encourage clusters of small workstations with lower panels and a variety of shared meeting rooms.

Collaboration happens any and everywhere. The physical setting for collaboration is no longer just a traditional conference room. Hirst does some of her best work while walking between buildings with others in Lower Manhattan's "Government Center" neighborhood of municipal, state, and Federal office buildings and courthouses. One of the most popular meeting spaces is in New York's Department of Education headquarters, located in a repurposed 19th-century courthouse, where a large, open seating area with movable tables and a large fireplace now serves as a shared space for simultaneous small-group meetings .

To support diverse collaboration needs, Cisco has expanded the types of spaces provided in the workplace, creating dens, huddle rooms, e-cafes, project areas, and recreation areas distributed throughout its San Jose campus.

But it's not just about providing a mix of spaces—integrating virtual and physical collaboration tools has become crucial for effective collaboration. Kaiser and Rottman regularly send each other instant messages asking, "R U there?" that may turn into a phone call, WebEx, or a face-to-face meeting. American Express spends resources to supply the right collaborative spaces and the technology, but also to integrate these tools to ensure their effective use.

Office space is more open. Mayor Bloomberg dramatically changed the culture of his office by replacing separate offices with low-rise workstations and recreating the open atmosphere of a trading floor. The city now has copied this same concept in a number of other buildings, including the headquarters for its education and transportation agencies. While some occupants comment on increased noise in an open setting, communication and collaboration have increased and have effectively broken down barriers across agencies.

Collaboration Has Rewards

Work has become more collaborative, but it is not only the workplace that is changing as a result. Surprisingly, in the private sector, so is employee compensation. Cisco established a reward system for encouraging leaders to collaborate and share their experiences and ideas across multiple groups and departments in order to increase speed to market. Cisco's newly-formed "boards and councils" not only create ideas faster, but also are tests for Cisco communication technology. According to Peggy Stritch, "This change in collaboration protocol has helped Cisco shift from a command-and-control culture to one sensitive to change management, negotiation, listening, and facilitation."

Organizations everywhere see the benefit to sharing ideas quickly to arrive at creative solutions to complex problems. Rottman claims, "Using a sports analogy, we should track and compensate the number of assists in our organization as much as we track and support those carrying the ball forward." In New York City government, the drive to spur creativity has resulted in enhanced services to the public, ensuring that public dollars are spent as wisely as possible.

How collaborative is your organization? Do you use it as a competitive advantage? Are the spaces, tools, and protocols you use to connect with your friends and family more sophisticated and conducive to collaboration than those you use to connect with your colleagues? Whether your answer is yes or no, it may be time to invest in a more transparent, more global, more technology savvy workplace.