Consulting  

Companies' main assets are people, technology and real estate.  

Business results are determined by how well these assets are linked together with the organization’s work processes. We help companies link these 4 business drivers to achieve greater results

Users help develop solutions (co-design), and then evaluate these new concepts via models or full scale environments. Such pilots validate concepts, reduce risk, and accelerate acceptance of new ideas.

To develop truly tailored solutions, we look across your organization to consider many factors that affect work and the work environment, such as real estate, technology, human resources and other key areas. We often collaborate with our clients’ other consultants in HR, IT, organizational development, and other fields. We also always partner with the design firm of record to meet client needs.

Services tailored to your needs.     

Depending on the company’s needs, specific modules are involved:

• Change management: Measures the organization’s capacity for change, ensures user buy-in and a successful transition to a new work environment, and builds change competency into the organization.
• Design strategy: Enriches the design process with strategic methods for connecting the physical work environment to business goals and measurably improving user effectiveness and satisfaction.
• Real estate strategy: Creates a plan for the organization’s real estate linked to the overall business plan, including economic, social, and environmental goals, with the flexibility to respond to changing business conditions.
• Measurement strategy: Develops a meaningful scorecard to track factors such as improvements in workplace efficiency, worker and workplace effectiveness, triple bottom line (economic, social, environmental) performance, and other pre- and post-occupancy measures.
• Standards development: Establishes workplace standards that simultaneously provide business efficiencies and more flexibility for the organization.
• Network analysis: Uncovers informal networks, maps their strengths and weaknesses, and identifies key network players, to enhance the organization’s capacity for effective process, communication, innovation, decision making, and learning.
• Alternative work strategies Determines appropriateness of telework, on-demand space, satellite offices, and other alternative work arrangements. Considers the economic, social, and environmental aspects of these strategies and how to effectively implement them.
• Workplace piloting: Tests physical spaces with users to measure behavior changes and how well workplace strategies deliver organizational value. Reduces risk and increases user buy-in with any new workplace.
• Business case: Determines the best course of action for a new or renovated facility by linking specific  economic, social, and environment factors to business objectives and conducting cost/benefit analysis.

Contact Us

We can help you measurably improve your business results. Feel free to contact us at info_uk@steelcase.com.   

Our Approach

We follow a comprehensive consultative process that is tailored to each client’s situation. Our research approach is founded on techniques pioneered by IDEO, the preeminent design consulting firm. We have adapted them for the work environment to engage deeply with users at every level of the organization. This approach includes 4 main steps 

1. Ask: We ask, probe, and listen. We seek to clearly understand current situations and future potential. Tools include surveys, interviews, and data collection.
2. Observe: First-hand observations, photo journals, video ethnography, shadowing, and other techniques create a detailed picture of the organization, user relationships, and behaviors.
3. Experience: We engage users in various experiences, from mapping present situations to envisioning the future. These events spur a shared perspective, provide deeper insights of the issues, and form the basis for user buy-in.
4. Realize: First-hand observations, photo journals, video ethnography, shadowing, and other techniques create a detailed picture of the organization, user relationships, and behaviors.