職場趣多多:辦公室緣份大作戰,爭取更多工作外接觸

Companies aren't leaving serendipity to chance.

俗話說，緣份天註定，但一些公司不這麼想。

Firms are thinking up new ways to encourage interactions among employees who normally don't work with each other. The hope is that these casual face-to-face chats among people with different skills might spark new ideas, lead to new solutions or at the least, increase workplace camaraderie.

這些企業正在思考新方法，鼓勵那些打算老死不相往來的員工相互溝通，希望擁有不同技能的員工通過面對面的交談來碰撞出新的思想火花，產生新的解決方案，或者退一步講，至少可以讓工作氛圍更和諧。

To make those connections happen, some firms are taking a scientific approach─collecting and analyzing data about their teams and mathematically computing the likelihood that employees will meet. In some instances, they are squeezing workers into smaller spaces so they are more likely to bump into each other. In others, they are installing playful prompts, like trivia games, to get workers talking in traditional conversational dead zones, such as elevators.

爲促進員工交流，一些公司正在採取科技手段──收集並分析團隊成員的個人數據，從數學角度計算他們願意相互接觸的可能性。舉例而言，一些公司縮小辦公面積，讓員工更容易碰到其他同事；另一些公司則安裝好玩的設備，如益智問答屏幕等等，從而讓員工在電梯等傳統的溝通真空區有話可聊。

But despite all the buzz around serendipity─several panels at the popular tech conference South by Southwest Interactive discussed the topic─it is hard to know for sure whether any of these efforts really work. The real challenge, companies and workplace scholars say, isn't merely connecting workers with their colleagues so much as it is connecting them with the right ones.

打破員工溝通壁壘的努力可謂盛極一時──South by Southwest Interactive時尚科技大會上就有好幾個專家小組討論這個話題──但很難確定這些方法到底有沒有效果。研究公司與職場管理的學者們表示，真正的挑戰並不在於僅僅讓員工們互相碰面，而在於把那些能夠相互契合的員工凝聚起來。

'The most productive relationships are difficult to engineer,' says Jason Owen-Smith, a University of Michigan sociologist who studies employee collaboration.

密歇根大學(University of Michigan)研究員工協作領域的社會學家詹森•歐文-史密斯(Jason Owen-Smith)說：“最富有成效的員工合作關係是難以設計並人爲促成的。”

Designs for Google Inc.'s GOOG -0.50% new headquarters, expected to be completed in 2015, set out to maximize casual employee conversations, which the firm says were responsible for innovations such as Gmail and Street View. 'We want it to be easy [for] Googlers to collaborate and bump into each other,' says a Google spokeswoman.

谷歌公司(Google Inc.)新的總部大樓預計於2015年建成，其設計初衷就是將員工之間的非正式交流最大化。谷歌公司表示，谷歌郵箱(Gmail)和谷歌街景(Street View)的創意正是來自這種非正式交流。公司發言人說，“我們希望谷歌員工能夠相互協作，有面對面的溝通和交流。”

Not surprisingly, the plans are driven by Google's obsession with data. One feature: Every worker within the 1.1 million-square-foot, multilevel complex is expected to be within a 2½ minute walk from each other. The firm and its architect, NBBJ, looked at how fast people can walk and measured the diameter of the space from multiple angles. (An 'infinity-loop'-shaped pathway slopes through the building, connecting employees to each other.) In addition, the floor plan is narrower than typical offices, keeping teams in sight range of one another.

不出意料的是，正是谷歌對於數據分析的癡迷在其中扮演了重要角色：在這座佔地面積110萬平方英尺（約10.22萬平米）的多層綜合型總部大樓裏，每個員工走到另一個員工那裏的時間預計不超過兩分半鐘。谷歌公司及其總部大樓設計者NBBJ建築設計事務所觀察員工們的步行速度，從不同角度測量辦公空間的直徑長短。（整座大樓有一個環形的步行通道貫通上下，將不同樓層的員工連接到一起。）此外，公司的辦公佈局也要比一般寫字樓更緊湊一些，從而讓不同的團隊能夠彼此看到對方。

Studies have found that having colleagues work in close proximity to each other does correlate with increased collaboration. Researchers at the University of Michigan studying 172 research scientists recently found that when the scientists shared the same buildings and overlapped in their daily workplace walking patterns─moving between lab space, office space, and the nearest bathroom and elevator─they were significantly more likely to collaborate: For every 100 feet of 'zonal overlap,' collaborations increased by up to 20%.

一些研究發現，讓員工在近距離範圍內工作有助於提升團隊協作。密歇根大學的研究人員對172名從事研究工作的科學家進行調查，發現了一個有趣的現象：那些在同一棟大樓工作、每天低頭不見擡頭見（在往返於實驗室、辦公室、距離最近的洗手間和電梯的路上相遇）的科學家，他們之間的協作可能性顯著增加。每增加100平方英尺（約9.3平米）的“重合區域”，其協作程度就會增加多達20%。

The more frequently you see and bump into a colleague, the more likely you are to eventually strike up a conversation, says Dr. Owen-Smith, the lead author of the study. 'If that person knows stuff you don't, that process can lead to information transfer,' he says.

這份研究報告的主筆人歐文-史密斯說道，你遇見一個同事的頻率越高，就越有可能最終攀談起來，“如果對方知道一些你不熟悉的東西，信息傳輸就這樣產生了。”

Online retailer Zappos is encouraging employee collisions in its new 200,000-square-foot downtown Las Vegas headquarters, which it expects to occupy this fall. Inspired by dense cities, which allow for more interactions than sprawling suburbs, Zappos will allot workers about 100 square feet per person, instead of the 150 square feet in its current suburban office. Break rooms will be 'really small, so people literally collide,' says Patrick Olson, Zappos's senior manager of campus development. (The smaller space per person is also a cost-saver, to be sure.)

在線零售商Zappos在拉斯維加斯市中心新建了一座佔地20萬平方英尺（約1.86萬平米）的總部大樓，預計在2013年秋季投入使用。因爲看到密集的城市佈局比稀疏的郊區佈局更容易促發人際交流，受此啓發，Zappos分配給每個員工的辦公面積約爲100平方英尺（9.3平米），有意增加員工在總部大樓中的相遇的機會，而其目前位於郊區的辦公大樓人均辦公面積爲150平方英尺（約14平米）。Zappos公司負責辦公地產規劃的資深經理帕特里克.奧爾森(Patrick Olson)說道，新大樓的員工休息室“非常非常小，人們真的就是低頭不見擡頭見”。（當然，縮水的人均辦公面積也能節約成本。）

The headquarters are also designed to put its 1,500 staffers in close contact with the city at large. The company is closing off a skybridge connecting the parking garage to the office building, so workers will have to walk a longer route to get to the office, passing pedestrians along the way. Zappos is also opening up its lobby as a free co-working space, like a trendy hotel lobby, so that employees can mingle with workers from other companies and visitors. In its elevators it hopes to install digital games, such as trivia challenges, to help break awkward silences, says Mr. Olson.

Zappos設計的總部大樓還有意讓其1,500員工增加與這座城市親密接觸的機會。公司關閉了停車場通往辦公大樓的天橋，員工只能繞遠走去辦公室，沿途要經過不少公共人行道。公司還開放了一樓大廳作爲自由的協作空間，就像頗具格調的酒店大堂一樣，員工們可以與其他公司的人以及來訪者在這裏溝通交流。Zappos還打算在電梯內安裝益智問答等電子遊戲，從而有助於打破讓人尷尬的沉悶，奧爾森說道。

'Those ground-floor connection points, we see that as magic,' says Mr. Olson, who switched from a technology job to a real-estate job after a chance conversation with his current boss and met his fiancé by bumping into her at a work event.

奧爾森說：“我們認爲，這些隨處可見的溝通節點是具有魔力的。”奧爾森自己就是受益者之一：他原先從事技術工作，有一次無意中與現在的主管交談，隨後轉而從事地產規劃；他的未婚妻也是在一次工作聚會中偶遇的。

Other firms are trying ice breakers to bring workers closer together. David Rose, a researcher at MIT's Media Lab, has teamed up with the design firm Gensler and exhibit-design firm Tellart to design a series of interactive installations expected to be set up later this year in the Portland and San Francisco offices of tech firm RM +1.09% and eventually in other companies as well.

另一些公司正在嘗試一些“破冰”工具以拉近員工之間的距離。戴維•羅斯(David Rose)是麻省理工學院(MIT)媒體實驗室(Media Lab)的研究人員，他與建築設計公司Gensler和展覽設計公司Tellart一起，設計出了一系列互動設備，預計將於今年下半年安裝在技術企業的波蘭和舊金山的辦公室中，並逐步推廣到其他企業。

Among the installations is a 'lunch button' kiosk, which matches up employees with common interests to have lunch together that day. And there is a 'conversation portal'─a two-way videoconferencing system attached to the end of a long cafe table─to help 'spark informal conversation' among diners from offices around the world, Mr. Rose says. Another is a 'conversational balance table' where an animated floral display provides instant feedback on whether someone is hogging a conversation.

羅斯說，在這些互動設備中，有一種名爲“午餐按鍵”(lunch button)的顯示設備，能把擁有共同興趣愛好的就餐者配對起來共進午餐；還有一種名爲“交談門戶”(conversation portal)的雙向視頻對話系統，安裝在長條咖啡桌的末端，促成全世界不同辦公地點的就餐者“談天說地”，。此外，還有一款“平衡交談桌”(conversational balance table)，如果有人喋喋不休，不讓別人說話，桌子附帶的屏幕就會跳出一幅動畫，給予實時反饋。

And workers in 's Portland office may eventually enter and exit through 'voting doors,' in which a question is displayed such as 'Cake or pie?' or 'Is your work tapping into your inner genius?' for which staffers must choose a 'yes' or 'no' door to walk through. declined to comment on the plans.

波蘭分部的員工可能還會體驗一種名爲“投票門”(voting door)的設備。通過這道門時，他們必須以“是”或“否”的方式來回答一個問題，如“要蛋糕還是派？”，或者“你從事的工作是否發揮了你的內在潛質？”等等。不願對此計劃予以置評。

Efforts don't always have to cost a lot of money. In the last two years National Public Radio has held six 'Serendipity Days' in which about 50 employees from different departments, including digital, engineering, HR and news, volunteer to come together and think of new ideas and projects over a two-day period. One idea behind the program is to 'work with groups you wouldn't ordinarily work with through the course of your week,' says Lars Schmidt, NPR's senior director of talent acquisition and innovation, who says in past sessions he has helped develop a new social-media training program for staff.

增加員工溝通協作並不一定要花很多錢。近兩年來，美國國家公共廣播公司(National Public Radio，縮寫NPR)舉辦了六次“緣份碰頭會”(Serendipity Days)，每次邀請50名來自不同部門的員工志願者，包括數碼、工程、人力和新聞部門等，在兩天的時間裏一起思考新的創意和項目。NPR負責人才招募和創新管理的資深主管拉斯•舒米特(Lars Schmidt)說，這種機制的一個初衷是“讓平時沒機會一起共事的人形成一個協作團隊”，通過這幾次的碰頭會，他已經爲員工協助開發出一個新的社交媒體培訓項目。

At Boston marketing agency CTP, employees swap desks and offices each summer. The company started the initiative to encourage more cross-departmental contact between creatives and account executives, who don't normally sit near each other and interact much.

在波士頓一家市場營銷機構CTP公司內，員工每年夏季都要互換辦公桌和辦公室。公司的這一舉措是爲了鼓勵策劃人員和客戶經理有更多的跨部門接觸，因爲他們通常不坐在一起，也缺乏足夠的交流。

Attempts to engineer serendipity aren't entirely new. Steve Jobs famously designed the Pixar headquarters with central bathrooms so that people from around the company would run into each other. And firms have increasingly adopted open plans and even unassigned seating to get workers mingling more widely. In announcing its recent telecommuting ban, Yahoo Inc. YHOO -1.74% noted in a staff memo that incidental encounters in the hall or around the cafeteria can lead to new insights.

打破員工溝通壁壘的舉措算不上是什麼新鮮事物。史蒂夫.喬布斯(Steve Jobs)執掌皮克斯動畫工作室(Pixar)期間，對總部大樓做了一項令人矚目的設計：把洗手間從分散轉爲集中，促使全公司的員工在幾個中央洗手間裏碰面。越來越多的公司採用開放式辦公佈局，甚至不指定工位，從而促進更廣泛程度的員工融合。最近雅虎公司(Yahoo Inc.)宣佈禁止遠程辦公，並在一份員工備忘錄中指出，員工在大堂或咖啡廳的偶遇有助於激發新的想法。

But most companies are 'still really primitive at this,' says Greg Lindsay, a visiting scholar at New York University who studies interactions in the workplace. 'They compress people in the same space, put in a coffee machine and just hope that something good happens.'

不過，大多數企業“對此還處於懵懂狀態”，紐約大學(New York University)研究職場互動的訪問學者格萊格•林賽(Greg Lindsay)說，“他們壓縮人均辦公面積，在辦公室裏擺上一臺咖啡機，然後就期待出現什麼神奇的轉機。”