Boost your team's productivity with an open collaborative zone

An open collaborative zone in the workspace offers several benefits that can positively impact the team's productivity, creativity and overall work culture. 

There is a stark difference between working together in a meeting room and collaborating in an open space. Unlike a meeting room enclosed by four walls with a formal and serious atmosphere, open collaborative zones are relaxed, comfortable, casual, and conversational, allowing more bandwidth for the free flow of ideas. 

You can create collaborative zones anywhere in an office space. They can be set in the middle of an open plan area, between two seating zones, around the corner, or near the kitchenette space. 

The idea behind having such a setup is to have the freedom of hosting a meeting on the fly, ready to go at a moment's notice, instead of rearranging your quick catch-up due to the unavailability of meeting rooms. 

Here are eight reasons why your workspace needs an open collaborative zone and how it can help your team:

1. Huddle promptly: With the collab zone, you can huddle quickly to discuss a topic, brainstorm ideas, demonstrate, share progress, and more. 

2. Transform your meeting style: Change your meeting layout to enhance your thinking prowess. Informal but comfortable seating, space to demonstrate ideas, remove the walls and introduce a bit of natural lighting into your meeting zone. 

3. An unstructured play zone: Construct an environment where you toy with ideas, experiment with your thinking ability, and create an unstructured play zone for your team to connect and innovate. 

4. Foster participation and efficiency: Collaboration builds strong interpersonal relationships as it provides an opportunity for organic interactions with team members. It increases the team's efficiency, participation spirit and overall productivity. 

5. Make the zone your facilitator: Create a zone with no desks or chairs, put-together couches, bean bags or soft seating, and a round coffee table where the conversation is in free flow and facilitates autonomy of thinking and decision-making.

6. Building meeting rooms are expensive: Building a meeting room is a costly affair, plus when you move to new premises, you must make good of the space for it to be leased to the next company. 

7. Eliminate dead space: An open collaborative space is welcoming, is frequently used and boosts engagement. Increased footfall to the zone eliminates dead space and makes your workplace more vibrant. 

8. Create a collab zone in an existing space: You can create a collaborative working area in your existing office space with innovative design room dividers and partitions that create excellent acoustics and can be moved around as needed.

What do you need to create a collaboration zone for your team?

• Media Hub: The most efficient and popular setup for collaboration is a media hub. The media hub is a freestanding station comprising a tabletop with a wall designed to hold a screen. The table can host 3-5 people, and the unit features a power box with up to four power points and a provision for data. The units have an in-built cable management system to keep the space tidy and organised.
  

• Break up the area: Divide the space with units such as Grid 40, which comes in various options. These room divider units can come with storage spaces, a planter display wall creating a vertical garden, shelves, and an open display wall for a screen or a whiteboard. 
  Image courtesy: Accent Group NZ Ltd.

• Connect Zone Divider: These multi-purpose freestanding dividers can be placed anywhere in an open-plan area to create flexible meeting spaces or a separate zone without building a permanent wall. These simple fin and acoustic panel zone dividers can be reconfigured and relocated as your needs change, allowing natural light to pass through and reduce noise between areas.
  Image courtesy: Accent Group NZ Ltd.

• CommBox Series: The all-in-one interactive display comes with an in-built video-conferencing system. If you have the CommBox S4 version, add a VC camera rather than buy a new S4+. Several in-built apps replace the need for an external laptop. You can log in and access your files from the cloud. They can be placed on mobile or motorised stands with wheels and moved around per your collaboration zone needs. The Commbox display has an in-built digital whiteboard and other apps, such as Teams or Zoom, for video conferencing or hybrid collaboration sessions.
  Image courtesy: CommBox NZ

• Monsoon Media Unit: Monsoon Media Unit is your answer if you have a super busy office and you need to sneak a quick, focussed catch-up with your team. They come with seating for four and can provide privacy in their high acoustic design. The units come with a worktop table and wall space for a display panel enabling technology and comfort for collaboration.
  Image courtesy: Europlan NZ

• Switch Flip Leaners with bar stools: The flip leaners are designed for break-out spaces, office kitchens and collaboration zones. They are simple, mobile, and easily moved for your needs. You can also get flip leaner tables with writable whiteboard tops. Use bar stools for sitting or standing, hosting quick meets, bouncing ideas off one another and collaborating.
  Image courtesy: Accent Group NZ Ltd.