When planning, designing and building new workplaces, how much importance is given to the type of leadership of that organisation? In the ongoing search to improve workplace productivity, how much do we delve into what company leaders are trying to achieve and the type of culture they have?

These questions matter for two reasons. Firstly, we now are aware of what can be broadly described as ‘new-generation leadership’ emerging in the world of work, with new attitudes towards managing and motivating people. Perhaps these leadership strategies should be more clearly understood by workplace designers and current practice isn’t doing that enough. Secondly, there is increasing evidence that leaders are extremely influential when it comes to improving organisational productivity so it would seem logical for workplace designers to take this into consideration.

Following the Puzzle of Productivity – What Enhances Workplace Performance report which was launched last year in partnership with WORKTECH Academy and The United Workplace, Leeson Medhurst, director of sister company 360 Workplace shares his new opinion piece on Leadership and Design.
Looking more deeply into the relationship between leadership and design, this study had three aspects: first, an interactive workshop where we created workplace concepts based on a range of leadership models; second, an global survey of 70 clients; and lastly, a roundtable attended by 15 workplace professionals to debate the subject and reflect on the data.

The findings of the study are highlighted in Medhurst’s opinion piece, which you can download now.