Following weeks of pandemic-related lockdowns across the globe, many employees are transitioning back to the office. Instead of “business as usual”, however, companies have been forced to adapt to social distancing requirements and other health-related policies put in place by local and state governments. Innovative solutions are needed for organizations to continue to adapt and ensure their workplaces, employees, and customers remain safe during these challenging times. In today’s post, we’ll explore how design thinking for the future of work can help businesses and organizations struggling to adapt to new workplace requirements and needs. 

A Changing Landscape

In our latest post, we covered four main trends shaping the future of work: remote work, reliance on the gig economy, need for productivity technology, and a focus on lifelong development. These trends aren’t going away anytime soon – and design thinking workshops can help you gain empathy, alignment, and ideas from your colleagues who make up the future of your workplace, in whatever form it may take. 

Design Thinking At Work

Using design thinking and innovation training principles, employees and HR management can come together to brainstorm how to move forward with their gradual reopening plans or permanent move to remote work. Simple changes to the physical workspace layout can help encourage social distancing among employees, while video conferencing tools like Zoom can be used to facilitate meetings virtually without gathering many people together in a physical space. Many organizations are also adapting to a more flexible workspace that comprises some in-person interactions and some off-site, remote work. Maybe during the lockdown period your organization has discovered that remote work is a lot easier than you thought and could be a powerful tool to use moving forward. Or, perhaps you’ve discovered just how important on-site interactions can be for certain task loads or projects. In this case, you’ll want to really analyze how to appropriately hold these interactions in a post-pandemic world. 

Design Thinking Workshops and Training

Design thinking training may be a valuable tool for HR and other management at your organization to craft a future of work specific to your unique composition. We could help you to run a future of work challenge through the design thinking process. Contact us online to get started designing your training session, or browse through our online courses now.