An Office Environment without Chairs or Tables?

1) FUTUREPROOFING THE WORLD OF WORK:  The Workspace of the future?

The idea of standing desks isn’t new and they are becoming commonplace in some organisations.  But the idea of an office environment without chairs or tables is most certainly a breakthrough concept.

At the end of 2014, Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands put out a call for local designers to think about new versions of shared office spaces under a brief entitled The End of Sitting.  The result? An Art Exhibition and experiment combined, the Looiersgracht 60 exhibit space in Amsterdam is now host to a series of boulders and surfaces that are designed to replace traditional office furniture which are designed to promote supported standing.

We love the ambition of this idea and whilst there are practicalities that need to be ironed out (like where do I put my coffee!?), it’s a great initiative which is aiming to drive transformation in the workplace through increased movement and well being.

To read the full article, click here

2) BREAKTHROUGHS IN OUR CLIENT ORGANISATIONS: Unlocking the potential of Middle Managers in Organizations’

Following our recent Breakthrough Middle Management Workshop at the HR Vision Conference in London, we’ve pulled together our client insights into a thought leadership article all around Middle Management and the powerful role this layer of management can play in an organization when it is harnessed to its fullest potential.

Please click here to view the article.

3) AND THE WINNER IS… Jakob’s Colours Author, Lindsay Hawdon, is listed in the Huffington Post‘The Ones to Watch’ - Best Debut Fiction Coming in 2015 list

In our last blog, we wrote about our colleague and friend Lindsay and our support of her adventures overseas as she and her boys travel to seven different countries to find seven different colours, raising money for the charity War Child as they go.

We are delighted to share that the debut novel linked to the trip, Jakob’s Colours, has been listed in the Huffington Posts ‘The Ones to Watch’ - Best Debut Fiction Coming in 2015 list!

Read the list on the Huffington post website here

And you can enjoy the exceptionally beautiful story of the quest of Lindsay and her boys as they seek out their second colour, Green, by clicking here

4) INSPIRATIONAL ENTREPRENEURS:  Famous “failures” who will inspire you

In a recent article in Entrepreneur Magazine, the author looks at the work of motivational speaker Jake Ducey when asking “What do Sylvester Stallone, J.K. Rowling, Abraham Lincoln and Jay Z have in common?”

In this charming piece, we learn that Hollywood Actor Stallone wrote scripts that he could not sell, that esteemed author JK Rowling considered herself a failure because her marriage failed and she had a child to care for but no job and so she was living on benefits and the story of how profiled rapper Jay Z sold CD’s from his car when no one would offer him a recording contract.

The piece offers many parallels with the Breakthrough work that we live and breathe every day with our clients and colleagues.  It poses questions around the decisiveness of context, the mindset needed to overcome breakdowns and set backs but most importantly it serves as a beautiful piece of writing around the power of breakthrough thinking at work and its inherent power to be truly transformational in the lives of individuals and the futures of organisations’ alike.

Read the full article here and maybe ponder on its closing question, “What would have to happen in the next year for you to look back and say it was your most successful and fulfilling year?”

To read the full article, click here (Image credit: NRK P3 | Flickr)

5) EMERGING BREAKTHROUGHS IN BUSINESS:  Air BnB reinvents industry conventions … AGAIN!

Having already turned the hospitality industry on its head, community asset organisation Air BnB have created yet another industry breakthrough – this time it’s with the reinventing of the Call Centre.

A recent Wired magazine article spoke of how the organisation have invested in a Customer Experience team which is growing exponentially and playing a key role in the trajectory of the organisation.  And this customer services team is one with a difference.

Article Author Margaret Rhodes writes,  “Picture a Call Centre: Rows and rows of gray cubicles, everyone donning headsets, sitting at their beige desks for hours on end, like an unfunny Dilbert comic come to life.” The Air BnB space debunks these traditional approaches, instead opting for a space that’s built around understanding behavior patterns and one that promotes live coaching to colleagues whilst taking difficult calls.  The team are encouraged to solve problems in a hierarchy free setting.

We were inspired by their approach and we hope you will be too!  To read the full article, click here

6) STORY FOR INSPIRATION:  Meet Zeus – the Dog who made the seemingly impossible very possible indeed

We have a somewhat quirky story to end our first blog of 2015 which made its way in for the sheer pluckiness of the dog in question who goes by the name of Zeus.  This story serves as an example of making the seemingly impossible … well possible.

Zeus is a dog.  He was rescued by his owner and at this time, he was almost completely paralyzed.  His new owner set about making a series of seemingly impossible goals for Zeus and his recovery and had visions of him “being able to walk and run, climb stairs, climb on and off furniture, get in and out of the car, learn basic obedience commands and have a family that would love him forever." Over a series of months, Zeus went from being immobile to swimming, from using a bespoke wheelchair to finally being free to move and climb on his own.  And all because his new owner ignore theconventional little voice that said “this can’t be done” and instead took committed action to release the fullest potential that she saw in her companion.

As for Zeus, he is now a local celebrity in the USA and living the dogs’ life!  To read more about Zeus and his story, click here.

Have you got an extraordinary story that you would like considered for publishing on our monthly blog: 6 Impossible Things? Do get in touch by contacting karen.neal@achievebreakthrough.com.