Management Tip of the Day: Spaces that encourage teamwork

BOSTON (Reuters) - A few simple steps can create a work environment that enhances the collaborative workstyle so much in vogue for white-collar professionals, says Harvard Business Review.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org (http://www.hbr.org). Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

"Business today requires collaboration, but we rarely design our workspaces to support this.

Here are three ways your company can restructure your office to better support people working together.

1. Vary the types of workspaces. Employees need group spaces for co-creation, but there should also be areas for concentrated work (unassigned individual workstations), emergent social exchange (free-flowing hallways), and learning (rooms equipped with technology and tools).

2. Provide the right tools. Make sure meeting rooms include tools like whiteboards that allow employees to record ideas and create a visual, side-by-side review of alternative solutions.

3. Give project teams a dedicated space. Returning to the same workspace each day, keeping meeting notes on the board, and leaving work on tables between meetings can help teammates maintain a shared mindset, sharpening their focus and speeding up the collaborative process."

- Today's management tip was adapted from "Better Teamwork Through Better Workplace Design" by Anat Lechner.

(For the full post and to join the discussion, see: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/better_teamwork_through_office.html)