Office Design Tips

Let the Inmates Run the Asylum Allowing your employees to bring in personal items, family photos, or even their dogs costs nothing–and provides instant benefits. Not only do these artifacts brighten up a dull office but, by letting your team be themselves at work, “you really start to build a community,” says Kuske. 

Play Anthropologist How do you choose the environment that’s best for your team? Forget asking them and try watching them instead, suggests Kuske: “The problem with asking is, if people don’t know it’s an option, they’re not going to give it to you as an answer. But when you watch their behaviors, you see no one ever uses those four spots over there but the couches are always busy. Or hey, why do you leave every other day? That would give [a small-business owner] a lot of clues as to what’s right for their particular company.”