Tune into your office “dynamics”; make a good space great using Workplace Strategy.
If someone asked you to describe the day-to-day experience of your workplace, what words would come to mind?
Across years of research and practice, Dr. Eileen Sim – Our Workplace Strategist at Concept – has encountered responses that span a wide emotional spectrum. For some, the workplace feels lonely, disconnected, or toxic. For others, it is energising, friendly, and characterised by genuine camaraderie. In many organisations, the workplace functions like a shifting playlist – its “soundtrack” changing across days, weeks, and teams.
Despite common assumptions, these experiences rarely originate from the physical environment alone. While design and technology form critical components of the workplace, they are not the sole determinants of how people feel or perform.
A floor plan does not create loneliness.
A paint colour does not generate camaraderie.
A new office does not, by itself, repair disconnection.
The true “soundtrack” of a workplace is shaped by the behavioural environment – the cultural dynamics, team rhythms, personal work patterns, and organisational norms that shape how work is experienced.
This understanding is what anchors Workplace Strategy in three fundamental questions here at Concept:
Understanding these deeper cultural and behavioural dynamics enables organisations to shape the workplace intentionally – and only then can design support the desired way of working and elevate people’s best work.
The Role of Acceptance in Workplace Effectiveness
In her doctoral research (Sim, 2020), Dr. Sim examined why some workplaces thrive while others struggle, even when similar design principles are applied. The findings point to the critical role of acceptance at two levels:
1) Organisational Acceptance
This includes leadership alignment, clarity of process, and the effectiveness of change management. Without these foundations, even well-designed workplaces fail to gain meaningful traction.’
2) Employee Acceptance
This reflects the psychological interpretation individuals have with their workplace:
- Affective: How people feel about their environment
- Cognitive: What they understand and believe about how it supports them
- Behavioural: How they use the space, including adaptability, habits, and territoriality
These two dimensions of acceptance strongly influence not only how a workplace operates, but how it is perceived, experienced, and ultimately adopted.
Why Use Music as a Lens for Workplace Strategy?
Over the coming months, Dr. Sim will explore workplace strategy through the lens of music, integrating academic insights with real-world practice. Music offers a powerful analogy: like a musical composition, a workplace has structure, rhythm, flow, tension, and harmony.
For those familiar with music, the parallels may feel intuitive.
For those who are not, this lens offers an accessible way to understand the complexity of workplace experience.
Every workplace already has a story.
It already has rhythm and melody.
Ultimately, we must ask: Are the melodies of your workplace in harmony, clashing or competing noise (working against each other)?
Ready to discuss how Workplace Strategy can be used for your next project?
Get started here, and our team will be in touch.
Coming up next: The Composition of the Workplace
The next article in this ‘Workplace Strategy’ series will examine The Composition of the Workplace, examining how the elements of space, culture, technology, and behaviours amalgamate to form the overall experience.
Written by:
Dr Eileen Sim (LinkedIn Profile)
Senior Associate Workplace Strategist at Concept
Education Fellow at University of Melbourne
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Property
Resources:
Sim, E. (2020). Organisations’ and employees’ acceptance of Activity Based Working (ABW) offices: An examination on the throughput and outputs (PhD thesis, The University of Melbourne). Retrieved from https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/scholarlywork/1534617-organisations%E2%80%99-and-employees%E2%80%99-acceptance-of-activity-based-working-(abw)-offices–an-examination-on-the-throughput-and-outputs
