“Hubs will occupy the ground floor of every other block in the future”

Pati team attended Rework’15 conference which was arranged by HUB13 at YLE in Pasila on the 13^th and 14^th of October. The first day consisted of key notes and insightful panel discussions on the future of work and workplace, and an evening pitch night where startups in the field aimed to gain funding and inspire people with their groundbreaking gadgets and services. 

The speakers ranged from future researchers through workplace managers to CEOs and from workplace researchers through business developers to HR professionals. All the lectures suggested a larger inclusion and engagement of the employees to workplace changes that are, in essence, not about the spaces per se but rather about work practice changes and removal of cultural barriers created in organizations along the organizational path.

To illuminate the main points, I hereby list a bunch of phrases that the presenters used to describe the future of work and workplace:

Ola Sundell gave insights on Hub13 concept and described the background for the whole event.

“We build for startups and larger companies and give support in growth – we feel that the large companies can learn from the small and vice versa.”

Gunilla Ohls wanted to lead by example not having her own desk in the organization anymore.

“My work is in my backpack today: I sit where ever I find available, different, small spaces.”

Ilkka Halava painted with a future brush the relations between old and new organisations and their perceptions with surrounding environments.

“A building is a forecast. Some claim that they have such good forecasts, that it is worthwhile constructing a building for a specific purpose for 30 years. Forecasts fail.”

“Constructing cellular environments is the thing – environments that open up possibilities. The role of cities is to produce stimulus – it should be manifested in the built environment as well.”

“Spiritual places have always attracted people to the world of games. How come we don’t see those kinds of spiritual places in our work environments? Or will we?”

“Sharing economy challenges organizations”. 

Satu Huber from ELO gave insights from a CEO perspective and highlighted the role of leading from the front and identifying the organizational potential in the individuals.

“If you have 500 brains in the organization, it is important to find ways of utilizing that brain power.”

“A human being is an entity: If you think about it, what is the reason that gets you out of bed in the morning?”

“More open spaces support the well-being of human beings – nobody is left alone.”

“The three c’s of change consist of communication, communication, communication.”

“The young digital natives and the old veterans can support one another.”

Tytti Bergman from Alko emphasized the role of communication between HR and Real estate units inside the organization challenging the consultants that come and go.

”Your role is tricky in changing the working practices. You focus too much on the spatial dimension and you don’t have a clear enough idea of the internal organization.”

“We need certain prospects for building a communal spirit – the HR has taken ownership of an IT project.”

“The relation of space and time must change at the office – we need courage in testing quick and dirty solutions.”

PATIs own Suvi Nenonen discussed workplace changes from point of view of individual and wellbeing. She referred to identity, fear of loss and presence at a workplace.

“Tila edellä puuhun”

“Am I even allowed to eat consolation candy at my work desk?”

“Whatever ties you to your table prevents the work practice changes from happening.”

“50% of the workplace changes is purely emotional”

“A collaboratively planned is half done”

“The spatial team in Ruusupuisto came together every two weeks throughout the

 2,5 year project – its main task was to build trust."

The first panel discussion gave insights on regulation and how it creates barriers for flexibility in organisations and consequently, work practices in Finland. The panelists consisted of Petteri Uoti, Elina Lepomäki, Rasmus Roiha and Riitta Lumme-Tuomala.

”According to Tilastokeskus, over 60% of Finns work in knowledge intensive tasks. The work time law has been tailored for the purposes of industrial society and it refers to workspace. In reality work is the thing you do, not a space you go to.”

“We are moving from analogical towards digital and networked where everyone plays with everyone else with different kinds of tools – we need a huge cultural change.”

“The work time law bases on an assumption of timely divide: there is work time and other time. If I get a work-related idea naked in the shower, is it work time or the other time?”

“The work time law does not support differentiation even though an organization would like to make changes for employee’s sake.”

“Companies such as Reaktor and Futurice succeeded extremely well in the Best place to work competition. The authorities got interested, checked their hiring practices and started a hazzle: Goddamn, you can’t do it like this!”

“We would require individual regulation that should not be connected to time nor place but to the task under conduct. What we need is courage to release some regulation locally and provide responsibility.”

The lunch time provided time for networking and the afternoon continued with good talks from representatives of OP corporation, Martela, SOK and IBM.

“Our working culture needs to live with time. We enter the customer’s world where Vallila’s office is a pilot.”

“The next revolution after the industrial and digital ones will be that of wellbeing.”

“Hubs are activity-based offices for entrepreneurs and their difficulty lies in scalability – in the beginning you don’t actually know who is going to use the hub.”

“About 45% of global workforce today is unemployed or work in odd jobs. At the same time, there are jobs on the market. There is seemingly a gap between an employee and an employer which is why there is an increasing war of talent. The employees have an increasing amount of power.”

”The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

“IBM Watson can process 2 million pages of information in 3 seconds, has a sense of humor and understands irony. What are we good for when Watsons take over?”

The official program was wrapped together by a panel discussion lead by Kontoret Konsult’s Tommi Ruohonen. The panelists were: Kalle Sogblom, Henri Helvarinta, Kati Barklund, Sanna Lindner and Mika Okkola. The whole panel discussion handled the issues between organisational culture, HR, physical spaces and IT. A common understanding was that a more holistic understanding and a more integrated approach is needed whether it is lead by HR sector or any person who is inside the organization and understands the humane aspects, individual and communal work practice challenges, opportunities and potential implications of their changes.

“Technology can not be implemented without cultural and managerial implications”

“The productivity of work can be improved by quitting from doing stupid, unnecessary things.”

“We tend to focus on technological dimension, not the work practices.”

“Is there a need for a separate HR or should HR be the ground for everything that is done?”

“The slowest knot of the whole change chain is human.”

“How could the human-believing human beings be taken on board the technological changes?”

The evening provided interesting pitches from startups such as Briim, 720 degrees, Lukoton, Fingertip, Agile Work and Apped. The next day's workshops touched similar issues but engaged the participants to reflect on their own working habits. More information on analyses of the PATI workshop coming up later on in the upcoming blog posts. Altogether the ReWork'15 was an insightful blast of work of the past, today, tomorrow and further. PATI team wants to thank HUB'13 and the organizers and hopes that the ReWork'16 will gain even more momentum than the first prototype.

And again, the discourse over the two days made PATI team feel ever more confident of being on the right track in its research focus.