Through close collaboration with the client, project manager and design team, Teammates helped realize savings of over forty percent when compared to buying all new furniture.  These customers asked great questions early on in the process and discovered a real opportunity to update the existing furniture with fabrics, finishes and even different panel heights to support their employees needs.

If you find yourself considering a potential space that might have existing furniture included, seek out a furniture resource and have them take a look. You just might fall in to a real Furniture Find!

Teknion's unique hardcover book that explores the revolution that is happening in the places we work.  Humorous illustrations and conceptual ideas are sure to get the creative juices flowing!

To request a free copy, send an email with "COCREATE" in the subject line to dawes@team-mates.com (please include your name and mailing address).

Collaboration is thought to be the exchange of ideas and sharing of resources, formally or informally, to achieve a goal that one person alone could not achieve.  Of course, some people, haunted by nightmarish tales of experiences of "design by committee," may be less than comfortable with the concept. So, to give you a better sense of how it works (and help you get your clients on side), we lay down a few principles that challenge commonly held beliefs:

Great ideas seldom leap fully formed from the mind of a single creator

When creative sparks fly between people with differing perspectives, each person makes connections they hadn't before considered.  Their habitual ways of thinking are broken, and new avenues of possibility open up.  It's synergy at work.  Even Thomas Edison, who created over 400 patents in six years and whose name evokes individual brilliance, worked with a team of 14.

Collaboration does not mean attending a meeting

While 11 million formal meetings occur daily across the United States, studies estimate that 50% of this time is wasted and 91% of busy professionals admit to daydreaming during them.  Conversely, informal conversations at work, traditionally considered "wasted time," can actually be fertile sites for collaboration.  The bottom line?  Productivity and creativity can't always be scheduled.

Collaboration can happen anywhere with anyone

It's not about  management getting everyone "on the same page,"coordinating tasks and dividing labor to get the job done more efficiently.  Rather it's an exercise in sharing ideas that come from different points of view.  Collaboration can occur between people of different departments or even organizations; one needn't be a member of a designated "team" to make a valuable contribution.  It can happen in the cafeteria, online, in the hallway, or even on your way to the printer, when something on a white board or screen inspires you to step in to share your insights.  Creative collaboration, then, is an organic process, one that can't be prescribed or predicted.

Ping Identity is a technology company that provides cloud identity security solutions to more than 600 of the world's largest companies, government organizations and cloud businesses.

Teammates has been awarded a contract to furnish new space for Ping Identity in the heart of downtown Denver.

Read the Press Release.

The order in which activities take place in an office move is crucial. There are certain tasks the must be finished before other tasks can be implemented into the process. We've compiled a suggested list of recommended sequencing:

Set move date

• Work with architect, interior designers to develop a space plan
  • Provide proposed layout to set construction G.C.
• Set schedules
• Select vendors
• Order furniture in time for delivery and installation
  • Confirm with building regarding rules and regulations and times
• Construction completed
• Electrical work completed
• Computer cabling completed - Phase I (ceiling drops installed.)
• All finish work completed
• Carpet installed
• Building inspection completed
• Furniture Installed After everything else is done
  • Cabling Vendor - Returns for terminators
• Final electrical drops to power work areas

A company (office) move can be a high-stakes gamble – both for the company itself and for the person assigned to handle it. Simply put, mistakes in scheduling, a failure to plan for potential moving "deal-breakers" and poor technology management can result in downtime and thousands of lost dollars for companies already facing pressure from tough economic times.

 Frankly, the responsibility for an office move can make or break a busy professional’s career path. Do it well? You’ll earn kudos, maybe even a promotion. Do it poorly? And it’s a demotion to the mailroom, or perhaps a sabbatical to deal with stress-related illness.

Here are our picks for the Top Ten Moving Mistakes &avoid them.

Mistake No. 1 | Not enough planning or start the planning far too late in the process.

The counter-attack | Start your planning early.

Mistake No. 2 | Technical decisions lead to phone/computer failures.

The counter-attack | Assign someone with technical expertise and organizational/scheduling skills to handle this.

Mistake No. 3 | Minimal staff communication results in low morale.

The counter-attack | Communicate positively, regularly with employees.

Mistake No. 4 | Waste lots of money moving worthless junk.

The counter-attack | Schedule a junk purging day prior to the move.

Mistake No. 5 | Miss important deadlines which delay the move.

The counter-attack | Build and use a checklist and timeline of activities.

Mistake No. 6 | Exceed your moving budget.

The counter-attack | Don’t sign off on change orders you don’t understand. The more change orders you implement, the more extra costs you will pay.

Mistake No. 7 | Files and equipment are delivered to the wrong areas.

The counter-attack | Code each floor and distribute copies of this coded map to the moving crews.

Mistake No. 8 | Not enough communication with your vendors (leads to project delays).

The counter-attack | Understand the correct sequence of activities that must occur, track timelines and make sure vendors meet their deadlines.

Mistake No. 9 | Furniture and equipment doesn’t fit into the space.

The counter-attack | Have your furniture vendor to do a precise field measurement of the space down to the 16th of an inch. Use these field measurements as the "bible" for all vendors.

Mistake No. 10 | Make lots of enemies as move coordinator.

The counter-attack | Maintain your sense of humor and practice good diplomacy skills.

 Here's a helpful companion to the list above: 12 useful tips to a succesful office move.

Move Preparation Checklist 

We've been involved in countless moves over the years and have compiled this list of twelve useful tips to help you prepare for your next office move.  This list is not just about your office furniture, it covers all the critical components of a succesful office move. It's a partial list that should help prompt detailed discussions and help you to discover other important items to be considered.

1. Inform the following service companies, suppliers and utilities of your intended move.  Try to schedule new deliveries to your new address to reduce moving cost:

• internet and phone service
• copiers and office equipment
• computers
• vending machines
• coffee/water services
• janitorial/maintenance
• security system
• answering service
• office supplies
• US Post Office
• overnight delivery service
• plant/artwork/company 

2. Order new products and services from the list above plus the following:

• moving contractors
• new furniture
• furniture liquidators
• furniture refurbishing services
•  off-site storage/record retention
• stationary/business cards

3. Confirm the following vital information as soon as possible

• construction completion date(s)
• telecommunications installation date(s)
• telecommunication testing/ready date(s)
• certificate of occupancy date
• new address, telephone and fax numbers

4. Inform employees and suppliers of the move-in date at the earliest opportunity

5. Issue move announcements to clients.  This may be an appropriate time to consider rebranding efforts.

6. Plan shut-down/start-up date and time; evaluate cost/benefits of weekend move versus weekday move.

7. Assign move captains (by department) to coordinate move preparations and implementation. 

8. Prepare an employee move preparation plan including:

• distribution date of packing materials and instructions
• file purging program
• packing for personal contents, supplies, files and equipment

 9. Issue maps/directions to new location.

10. Develop list of restaurants, banks, dry cleaners, etc. to familiarize your staff with the new location.

11. Schedule telecommunications training for earliest date after move-in.

12. Have move captains at the new location during the move to ensure proper placement of items and get their departments operational before start of the next business day.

Before the design phase begins speak with your employees, get their input and research what is needed in their space. This requires extra time up front, but will assist in creating a highly productive work environment that employees enjoy.  There is no one size fits all solution when setting up a collaborative workspace, so this is a great opportunity to design a space to meet their work style. Employees that are involved and have a voice in the new space will assist in making a smoother transition.   

We've been in our "collaborative" space for only a short time and we'll be checking in soon with the "team" to see how things are going. But in the meantime we've provided a few key planning questions and considerations that will ensure that your "collaborative" workspace delivers.

Planning For the Individual

• How much time do employees spend on the telephone?
  • If they are on the telephone much of the day, you want to make sure they have enough sound masking. 
• Consider using glass panels at eye level
  • Employees can still see each other, yet won’t be disrupted by voices, radios, conversations, etc…
• Can redundant materials be combined and placed in an easily accessible area?
  • For example - Instead of you whole Sales Team having the same price books and brochures at their desks, move them to a central location that's close, easily accessible, and easy to keep current.
• How much desk top space is required to perform tasks?
  • Items cluttering workspaces that are not required to perform daily tasks should be removed.
  • Identify what is really needed.  
• How much filing space is needed?
• Consider the process work flow and training opportunities when positioning employees in the new area.
• Plan for small quiet rooms or areas where employees can make phone calls requiring privacy. These spaces are great for quick collaboration sessions..

In addition to ecoScorecard, National offers a take back program through a partnership with non-profit organization, ANEW (Asset Network for Education Worldwide). "Doing what's right with what's left^sm" ANEW works with organizations to collect, organize and repurpose furniture and other items for donation to the underserved resulting in landfill diversion, cost savings and social responsibility.

Start using the ecoScorecard

Learn more about ANEW and National's eye on Sustainability.

This animation depicts the installation of a complete meeting room, and then the reconfiguration and re-skinning of that room, turning it into an office.  The Altos walls are able to accommodate finish and function changes, as well as the addition or clerestory glass in areas that were once solid.  All of the frames can support furniture, enabling us to hang components at any location.