The colours on the wall, the comfortable seating options, casual setting is sometimes all it takes to help people work and think better. For many start ups, this works the best. There is no set framework that says "this is how your office should look" and gone are the days when offices had plain white walls and boring furniture. So, what can one do to jazz up their office, while not digging too deep into their wallets? 

Design with a vision

An open air office, no cubicles or boxes where your team sits in is one place to start off at.  There should be enough space for people to walk around, run around, and well, celebrate birthday parties at as well. You can have a white board where people share a quirky thought, or an idea at the start of the day, and by the end of that day, you deliberate, mull over and decide on what happens to that idea.

There can be a space for music, entertainment [especially in offices where long hours are needed] and comfortable chairs, sofas placed randomly will add to the atmosphere. Charles who runs a small Ad agency quips "in our office we don't have any sofas, we have a few funky looking chairs, and that is it. We do have a room with a TV where we take turns running to catch the cricket match score. There is also a long clothes line of sorts in the living room with pictures from the latest project we have worked on [infact this is what you see the minute you step in]

Senthil Nayagam of Railsfactory says "If you see our office, you might be amazed, there are no walls, no formal attire and it is quite the chilled out space to be in"

Get Creative

Deep red walls, blue and yellow coloured tables and furniture, a workstation that doubles up as a meeting desk, lockers along the wall like school, you can do just about anything. Think outside the box, and let loose, it is your office. Narayanan of Effect Works and NFN says "our office is fun from the minute you enter, we have bean bags where we sit and work on, there are no straight jacketed working stations, it is all casual, colourful and i believe this brings out the best in each of us".

Allow each of your team members to add something new to the office, take turns so the space does not get cluttered. It is upto them and their imagination as to what they bring in. it could be a poster, a toy, a clock, mugs, anything.  And remember, just because you are being creative, doesn't mean you have to spend a lot.

 Go Crazy

Being motivated and driven on a daily basis is difficult, for anyone, more so in a start up. The team is small, the work is gradually increasing and so the team needs to have something that keeps them going. You could have a "Talk like Captain Jack Sparrow" or "Every 10minutes, do the chicken dance" kind of a daily theme going, something to get the team excited. The person who walks into the office 1st gets to decide on this, post it on the wall and the whole office will have fun through the day. 

Be spontaneous

What is behind Door no 2? Is it a meeting room? If possible, you could juggle the rooms. These days everyone works on a laptop or the tablet, so moving to a different space is not difficult at all. A person might feel like changing the colour of their work area, and they should feel free to do that. But there are limits laid down, a line that doesn't get crossed so there is some sanity retained in the office. 

One day, you could just decide to set aside work and clean up a particular space, maybe the kitchen, maybe the fridge. Similarly, you could give out award stickers or fun masks to those who have performed well, or accomplished what you thought was impossible.

So, now that you have a few ideas, build on them and have fun!!

smementor@moneycontrol.com