- Lauren Pollack
- 2 min read
Struggling to keep a project on track through a reorg?
These days, reorganizations are happening more often—and when workplace teams shift under new leadership or departments, the continuity of a project can be at risk. This is especially true as organizations explore new directions in their workplace strategy and design.
So how do you preserve the ethos of a project when everything around it is shifting?
🌱 Start with a shared vision.
When a project’s vision is siloed within one department, it can be easily lost or redefined during leadership changes—leading to inefficient use of time and funds. But when the vision is co-created—with input from executive leadership and voices across the business—it becomes stronger and more resilient. A shared vision gives everyone a common purpose to rally around, even as teams and reporting lines evolve.
🌼 Onboard new leadership with care.
Take time to understand a new leader’s lens, experience, and potential knowledge gaps—not just related to this project, but to workplace design and construction overall. When we create space for mutual learning, we build trust and set the foundation for productive collaboration.
🌷 Keep governance and documentation clear.
Good documentation and open communication make it easier for new leaders to step in, get up to speed, and feel like valued members of the team—not outsiders. It also helps preserve the history and decisions that have shaped the project so far.
🌿 Support adaptive alignment.
New leaders can support momentum by learning from what came before, staying open to insights, and aligning with and building on the original vision set at project kickoff.
As reorgs and staff changes become more common, setting your project up to weather transitions helps reduce friction and keeps progress moving forward. Staying aligned to an original, shared vision —without veering off into new directions with each shift— not only maintains clarity and momentum but also saves valuable time and resources that might otherwise be spent revisiting decisions or duplicating efforts.
- Lauren Pollack
- 1 min read
Step into any high-energy, innovative office, and you’ll notice something right away—it reflects the people who work there.
Personal decorations, from company memorabilia to plants and artwork, aren’t just about aesthetics. They foster a sense of belonging, reinforce company culture, and transform an office from a sterile space into a home for ideas.
🌀 As workplaces shift from assigned to shared spaces, striking the right balance can be tricky. Too much uniformity, and employees feel disconnected. Too little structure, and unspoken ownership or clutter can take over.
🦜 A well-designed workspace goes beyond furniture and policies to understand the culture of the teams within an organization—designing spaces that allow for beneficial personalization while aligning with office policies on sharing, cleanliness, and aesthetics. When people feel at home in their space, they do their best work. 🦜
How is your company balancing personalization with shared spaces? Let’s discuss! #WorkplaceCulture #EmployeeExperience #OfficeDesign
- Lauren Pollack
- 4 min read
“Our CEO just issued a mandate to return to the office, but attendance hasn't changed.”
Per CRUX Workplace's recent research, we've noted that organizations are still struggling to gain adoption for return-to-office policies, with compliance rates remaining low.
Here are common barriers that contribute to low compliance:
1. When the Policy Doesn’t Align with the Overall Business Strategy
This barrier occurs when the policy conflicts with how the business operates and key performance indicators, making the request for increased office presence a source of strain rather than a benefit. Here are two common ways this could present itself within an organization.
The Purpose for Being In The Office Is Unclear: Employees may struggle to recognize the broader benefits of spending more time in the office, especially while many report struggling under increasing workloads. Employees may fear that coming to the office could negatively impact their productivity or work quality by disrupting their established routines. Without a clear link to broader business objectives, leadership support enabling employees to prioritize in-person work, and flexibility to maintain balance, employees are unlikely to spend meaningful time in the office.
Team Meeting Schedules Conflict with Coming into the Office : Employees with schedules shaped by global calls or meetings that fall outside standard work hours—like early mornings or late evenings—find it impractical to commute. Without adjustments to meeting culture or timing, they may feel that working from home is the only feasible option.
2. When Policies are Created Team by Team
This common barrier arises when decisions about time spent in the office are made only by team or division leaders, without overarching goals or guiding policies across the organization. Below are three common barriers to return associated with this approach.
Cross-Team Collaborations Are Diminished Without Relevant Overlaps: When return-to-office policies are set only at the team level, they often overlook the prevalence of cross-functional interactions. Employees may find themselves in the office with their team but disconnected from other departments they work with regularly, reducing the value they receive from being in the office.
Path to Achieving Strategic Benefits of In-Office Work is Unclear: While organizations may cite innovation, mentorship, or relationship-building as reasons for being in the office, activities and interactions that produce these results often require intentional in-person time that goes beyond an individual team’s deliverables or productivity metrics. Without a broader organizational strategy, teams are unlikely to universally devote time to this effort as necessary to facilitate these benefits. Additionally, these goals require intentional programming and change management to be realized—simply increasing time spent in the office does not ensure positive business outcomes.
Inconsistent Experiences Across Teams: Employees frequently note unwarranted disparities between teams with similar roles when in-office expectations are manager driven. In some cases, we've found, leaders wanted their teams in the office more often but hesitate to enforce policies without organizational clarity. Employees, in turn, have found the inconsistencies to be unfair, wishing the guidelines had more uniformity to ensure equitable treatment across the organization.
3. When the Office Environment Doesn’t Support Modern Workstyles
This barrier arises when the office design fails to align with employees' daily activities, either because it hasn't been updated in recent years or was originally designed without engaging employees. Here are some examples of how this can manifest as barriers to return within an organization.
Outdated Technology Infrastructure: Modern work relies on laptops, mobile devices, and flexible movement within the office or between sites throughout the day. Unlike older setups with stationary desktops and landlines, today’s workplaces need to support mobility with reliable Wi-Fi, docking stations, and accessible power outlets throughout the office for employees to work effectively.
An Office Layout That is Out of Alignment with Employee Work Activities: The shift in technology and growth of dispersed teams has introduced new needs, such as private rooms for virtual calls and collaborative areas for group work. Offices that fail to provide these spaces leave employees feeling unsupported in their daily activities, driving them to seek out alternatives like home offices to complete these tasks effectively.
Isolation Created by Low Seating Density: Traditional desk assignments, where each employee has a fixed spot, can create physical and social isolation and a perception that attendance is low. This can make the office feel underutilized and discourage employees from coming in, as they are not experiencing opportunities for meaningful connection with colleagues.
In Summary
To develop and implement effective in-office policies—ones that genuinely support the success of the company rather than simply ticking the box—it’s essential to identify and reduce barriers to adoption.
Policies that clearly link business strategies and employee activities as well as those designed to enable cross-functional collaboration will be most successful. Workspaces should be updated to accommodate modern technology and role-specific activities, supported by organizational guidelines that provide employees with clear policies aligned with the company’s culture and business objectives.
Understanding the barriers to adoption within your organization can enhance compliance with office returns and make the policies more supportive of overall business objectives. Workplace consultants can assist companies in identifying these unique challenges and developing tailored solutions to address them effectively.
CRUX Workplace