Adaptive Path Blog

Team Spaces :
Second in a series of Bathroom Experiences : Bathroom Blogfest 2007

There are a lot of great cultural indicators and collaborative spaces in the Adaptive Path office. But my favorite is still the bathrooms. Bathrooms as culture? As collaborations? Um…huh?

The bathrooms at AP are humane, interesting, fun and attractive spaces. As a result, they’ve become places that showcase what we value: human-centeredness, design-awareness, accessibility, smarts, participation and play.

I believe that bathrooms are a key indicator of a team culture. Office bathrooms are spaces that are often ignored, where effort is minimized, where meeting the bare basics is deemed to be enough. What a loss. I think great team cultures create great bathrooms…and I suspect that the reverse is also true.

Want a great team? Start with exceeding expectations in the most surprising of places: invest in a great bathroom.

With apologies to Maslow, I’ve outlined a hierarchy of bathroom needs from the bare basics up to a fully-actualized office bathroom cultural experience.

The Basics

• toilet & toilet paper
• sink
• paper towels/ air dryer
• trash can
• clean, dry floor
• door
• ADA accessible

Basics +

• a good lock on the door
• mirror
• non-controlled toilet paper dispenser (you know…the kind that give you more than one square at a time…)
• toilet seat covers
• extra basic supplies (paper towels, toilet paper)

Quality space

• 2-ply toilet paper
• accessible storage for extra supplies
• coat rack/ purse hooks
• air-circulating fan
• completely clean and tidy

Quality experience

• supplies area with additional amenities: extra toilet paper & paper towels, first aid kit, pain-killers, air-purifying spray, feminine supplies, etc.
• someplace to sit other than the toilet
• full-length mirror
• color: walls painted non-institutional / non-boring colors
• residential-grade fixtures and finishes
• exterior window

Cultural experience

• plants
• art, especially art created by employees
• unique fixtures / furnishings
• toys / activities
• collaborative / participative work

Probably no office bathroom has all of these, and I’m sure there are some items missing from the list. The ones that are really special and reflect the unique aspects of the culture do it by focusing on the top of the pyramid.

The point is that bathrooms signal what’s important to the team culture:

• Does the bathroom feel more personal than institutional?
• Do you care about keeping the bathroom clean because you care about the other people that use it?
• Can you get a good look at yourself in a good mirror before that big meeting so that you don’t embarrass your team with spinach in your teeth?
• Do you enjoy seeing artworks created by your team members?
• And the big one…are you trusted not to misuse the supply of toilet paper?

As you move your bathroom design to the higher levels, the more humane, culturally reflective and engaging the space becomes. And that’s got to impact how people feel about working and being together as a team.

In our office, the stuff that get positive notice from visitors, clients and team members are always things at the top of the pyramid:

• the Eames House of Cards deck, and the custom set of staff face cards made to match
• strange art that happens from things lying around, like toys and tchotchkes
• paint colors and art on the walls
• Sticky-note collages that invitate people to post thoughts, opinions or other info
• commentary on team members, taking form as participatory art
• collaborative work that uses bathroom walls

So grab a plant, some art, some toys or some sticky notes and put ‘em n your office bathroom. See how the team responds. And let me know how it goes!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 10:01 am and is filed under Bathroom Blogfest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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