Question:
How can you see around corners?
When you focus on an idea to the exclusion of anything else, you could skew what could be a fantastic idea/benefit into a panacea. When electronic ink becomes as cost effective as paper and as ubiquitous then you may have paperless office. But, you'll still need some forms of paper.
"Office Space: The Next Generation"
"The paperless office is just one of many ways corporate executives, small business owners, architects and furniture designers, futurists and others believe offices will look like in the future."
and ...
"86 percent of Fortune 1000 executives said they will expect in 10 to 15 years for employees to stay more or less connected with the office while on vacation."
and ...
I doubt the first quote for a lot of reasons. The second is eminently believable.
But: here's what a company called Oticon has been doing for years,
Quote:"
At first glance, Oticon seems less than revolutionary. Its 150-person headquarters has an oddly deserted feel. There are plenty of workstations, but no one is sitting at them. In fact, hardly anyone is sitting anywhere. Listen closely, though, and the sounds of subversion begin to register: the quiet chirping of the company's "internal" mobile telephones; footsteps tapping up and down a three-story circular staircase; the rumble of wheels on hardwood, a signal that employees are moving their "offices" -- standard-issue caddies with room for 30 hanging folders, a few binders, perhaps a family photo -- and forming new self-managed teams.
"There's a paradox here," Kolind says. "We're developing products twice as fast as anybody else. But when you look around, you see a very relaxed atmosphere. We're not fast on the surface; we're fast underneath. ... So Kolind abolished the formal organization. Projects, not functions or departments, became the defining unit of work. Today at Oticon, teams form, disband, and form again as the work requires. Project leaders (basically, anyone with a compelling idea) compete to attract the resources and people to deliver results. Project owners (members of the company's 10-person management team) provide advice and support, but make few actual decisions. The company has a hundred or so projects at any one time, and most people work on several projects at once. It is, essentially, a free market in work."
