The future office will look more like a clubhouse – they say…

For almost two years, to most people “the office” meant the couch, the kitchen nook or even a hut by the beach. Recently, former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria, suggests that the office for the future will resemble a clubhouse. 

Having had a glimpse of the advantages of remote work, most employees prefer arrangements to stay as it is. But there is no denying that some tasks require human interaction. A clubhouse-style office somehow reconciles these two ideologies. 

In his essay published in the Wall Street Journal Nohria said that the primary focus of the physical office is to foster social interactions. In a clubhouse-slash-office desks and cubicles are replaced by bars or cafe style spaces that are open and inviting.

He supports his forward-thinking idea by explaining that a significant portion of collaborative work happens over meals or coffee rather than huddle room discussions. 

Cross-industry interaction

Nohria said that clubhouses being a shared space becomes breeding ground for real collaborative work across industries. Say, an insurance firm, a tech giant and a consumer products company can all share the same working space, then, possibilities are endless. 

Many of the questions around the future of the physical office are being driven by the massive success of remote working. This phenomenon would not be possible without technology, says Nohria. 

In the midst of the changing work landscape, many opportunities arise–from remote work, to moving your staff miles across the globe, to employing a team that is working from different locations. The “office,” in our reshaped world, transcends the physical. It is being redefined as a group of people doing collaborative work from wherever they are. 

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