When it comes to moths, the scientific evidence is very clear: moths are attracted to light and tend to fly towards a source of light (such as the moon), especially when in danger. But what about humans and their relationship with light – specifically, their attraction to daylight? Intuitively, most of us would agree that…
I’ve only met Neil Usher once, but now I’d definitely like to get to know him better. In his new book ‘The Elemental Workplace’, Neil reveals himself as a natural writer with strong opinions – on a soapbox – but always authoritative and speaking to the reader as an adult. As I read the 200…
If we ask you ‘what is the function of a building?’, your answer might well include ‘to give shelter’, or ‘to provide space for certain activities’. Indeed you might well say it depends on the type of building; a factory is there to manufacture products, a school allows children to learn. And of course you’d…
The run up to Christmas is a timely reminder of the perils of too much choice. I don’t watch much telly, but I have already become aware of the annual barrage of perfume adverts, for brands which I honestly can’t tell apart. And that is before we mention the now traditional cute supermarket ads. All…
Last year in “Is open plan the collaboration magic bullet?” we blogged about the spatial effects on collaboration of an organisation that moved into a single floor open plan workspace from a highly partitioned office accommodated on two floors. Over the last few months we have delved a bit deeper into the evidence and have…
In our fourth and final blog in our series, we discuss the organisational reality of workplace data collection. The truth is organisations and businesses of all kinds routinely collect data. The most obvious being financial results. How many products have been sold this week? What is our total revenue for the year? How much have costs…
When you are, like us, fully convinced that data collection is worth the bother, and have decided what problem you need to solve, another question might be arising. Is traditional small scale data still good enough, or do you need to get your head around the emerging discipline of data science and collect Big Data?…
Hopefully you are convinced that there is virtue in collecting data as a means to aid decision making, especially if you have read the first part of our blog series ‘What data should we collect?’. Now it’s time to think about the core question: what data is it that you should collect and how can…
It’s time for a confession: we are data scientists but very frustrated ones. Data can shine a light on so much, yet there seems to be much confusion and even anxiety about it. In the face of mounting options of easy and automated methods of workplace data collection, we often get asked what data a business…
What happens when 21 people volunteer to take part in a live workplace experiment? An experiment that tests what factors govern the choices people will make when asked to find a work setting for a collaborative team task? A couple of weeks ago we embarked on what was in itself an experimental formula: a kind…
