HOW DOES FOSBURY & SONS CONTRIBUTES TO CREATING A STIMULATING WORKING ENVIRONMENT…?
As an innovation Padawan I’m allowed to work at the beautiful serviced office location of Fosbury & Sons in Boitsfort. During my internship at 'Innovation Jedi' I was given the opportunity to experience the qualities of this serviced office space and how it forms a stimulating environment for many people. Their goal is to bring new life into the concept of 'work', encouraging partnerships between companies to create a valuable network. They make flexibility and entrepreneurship possible and offer an inspiring answer to today's gray office and work mentality.
Do you ever wonder what an office could be?
If it wasn’t an endless drip of mediocrity.
If you weren’t chained to your desk from 9 to 5.
Here's to a new era of Work. Here's to the Renaissance of Work.
The Office is dead. Long live the Office.
In this blog I would like to talk about what makes Fosbury & Sons unique in the gala of co-working spaces and how they specifically contribute by applying 8 key elements to create this environment… Be aware that Fosbury will open two new serviced office space locations in Brussels in the coming months. They manage to 'cultivate permission', 'Put creative tools in the way','Install a communal table or other gathering space', 'Use nature to support well-being', 'Make things moveable', 'Provide spaces for projects', 'Introduce some play' and to 'make life easy'.
1. Cultivate permission
Fosbury & Sons gives people the opportunity to add a personal touch to the workspace. You can blend things that you find inspiring with the rest of the environment. People also simply take their dog to the office to add the personal atmosphere to the workplace. It's important to create a calm, pleasant space because studies have shown that people who have a workspace they are allowed to personalize, experience less stress, are better able to concentrate and are more highly motivated.
2. Put creative tools in the way
The people of F&S trie to provide creative tools in every room, such as inspiration books, art and maps. They also offer people tools to make their life extra fascinating. There are useful professional services, educational lectures and fun events that increase your quality of life during or after work. Creativity in the workplace is absolutely important. If you can apply creative thinking to your everyday work life, you’ll find that not only will the day stop feeling like drudgery, but you’ll be unlocking more meaningful results. 3. Install a communal table or other gathering space
F&S has different places where people can meet. Coffeelabs, where you can have lunch, or Bar "Giorgio", where coffee breaks can be taken, ensure that people are connected. Community gathering spaces build social capital, connecting people to each other. These connections, even those made in a casual, social context, have tangible economic benefits in terms of business networking. Personally, I have experienced a lot of 'after work drinks' together with the members in the workplace. It is very nice to meet people in a casual atmosphere, and still get the opportunity to make business related connections 4. Use nature to support well being
Biophilic design brings nature into the office: plants, scents, sounds, light, seasons, etc ... open the mind and promote creativity. Plants can boost, in a well designed and personalised office environment, business effectiveness through improved staff productivity. People who are more satisfied with their lighting rate the space as more attractive, are happier, and are more comfortable and satisfied with their environment and work. 5.Make things moveable
Fosbury & Sons gives people the opportunity to add a personal touch to the workspace. You can blend things that you find inspiring with the rest of the environment. People also simply take their dog to the office to add the personal atmosphere to the workplace. It's important to create a calm, pleasant space because studies have shown that people who have a workspace they are allowed to personalize, experience less stress, are better able to concentrate and are more highly motivated. 6. Provides spaces for projects + 7. introduces some play
F&S provides spaces where work and projects can remain for "work in process", so that not everything has to be cleaned up all the time. As innovation jedi we can hang our project follow-up canvases in our tiny home. After an internal work session, it may happen that we leave the flipcharts on the floor with the team to think about our thoughts. The easy thing is that this is all possible and that members get complete freedom over this. It encourages good cooperation in various areas. Fosbury & Sons succeeds in replacing everyday office furniture and accessories with more playful alternatives. A chair or seat becomes a fun attribute. Sometimes this can distract your attention for a while, but usually it provides a very nice distraction, after which you can work efficiently again. Even the batches that you need to enter your workspace, are made with eye for detail. It says: You’ve got the key; you’ve got the secret. 8. Make life easy
Fosbury & Sons also focuses on transport. You can use a BMW shared car and there are shuttle services. Or cycle to and from the city with a Cowboy, the Belgian electric bicycle, and then jump in the shower because they are also provided. They have an app with which you can indicate with whom you sometimes want to drink a coffee, have lunch or play a game of pool. Ideal for networking! Fosbury & Sons creates a high-quality working environment that inspires before, during and after work.
Testimonial Mathilde Delien
I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of people in the last period. I asked one of them, namely Mathilde Dillien, to write a testimonial about her own experience. "I am a Tech Talent scout at Exellys, I currently work a few days a week remotely from the Fosbury & Sons coworking space. The other days of the week, I work from a very cool but a bit more classical office in Mechelen with the rest of the Exellys team. I personally only work in the shared space at F&S, where I can more easily bond with other members and share ideas and insights. The office is really nice, I often work a bit later there, because you can get cozy thanks to the dimmed lights, the plants surrounding you, the comfortable couches, and so on. What I like the most is the central place of the kitchen and dining table, fostering discussions with members from other companies who work in private suits. This is also how I got in touch with a few potential clients for our company, and that is when you know this place is really a shared and sharing coworking space!"
We've had the pleasure to welcome Jente as the first ever intern of Innovation Jedi in 2019. Not only did she do a great job and bring to the team and the projects but in addition she made the extra effort to share her experience in her blog. As we are not that good in communication (.. as in running innovative projects) we would like to share what she lived (and how she lived it) with you as it probably gives a better idea of what and how we do it rather than plenty of marketing blabla. Enjoy reading .. and thank you very much Jente!