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O P I N I O N
Living the principles
T his is the third installment of a three-part discussion on the topic of job success, which started with “How to Find a Job.” In Part Two, I addressed “After Landing the Job,” introducing the notion that job success goes beyond great design and producing the best work. Honoring your clients’ business success above all else will enhance your firm’s reputation and bottom line – without compromising design.
Edward Friedrichs
In this last post, I discuss the five guiding principles that defined my 34-year career at Gensler. Here are the five principles and examples to demonstrate how they worked in practice: 1)We’re in the business of using design as a busi- ness tool, not to win awards. Western States Bankcard Association: Gensler was hired to do a new operations/computer center. I was assigned the call center. This may seem menial, but it led to many other call centers after its successful completion. But first, imagine the existing facility. It featured long lines of 30-by-40-inch single-pedestal desks, lined up so each person was looking at the backs of the people in front. Employees worked a half-hour on and a half-hour off, punching a time clock at each rotation. At breaks, they went to the lunch room that featured a bank of refrigerators, each smelling of week-old sandwiches. Average longevity in the call center was a dismal 7.5 months.
I proposed to the manager that a business goal for a redesign would be to create a more pleasant working environment while increasing efficiency and reduc- ing the turnover rate. The manager said, “You can’t take one square foot of space more than we’ve allo- cated or spend one dime over budget. Good luck.” “We wanted to know how a physical space would affect behavior, and we encouraged anyone interested in this to become well acquainted with the subject.” Our solution used the prescribed footprint and came in on budget. ❚ ❚ We created three-sided surrounds for each desk using four-by-eight-foot burlap wrapped panels
See EDWARD FRIEDRICHS, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER May 7, 2018, ISSUE 1247
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