Michael Brill: Demonstrating the Importance of Workplace Design
Profiles by Diana Mosher
from Facilities Design & Management Magazine-
The Workplace of the Future (Special Comemorative Edition) - December 1999 page 30
Noted interor design and architecture educator Michaell Brill, a stand-out in the facilities management lecture circuit, is easy to spot because his trademark red suspenders. But it takes more than an individualistic dress code to be a leader in the profession. Professor of Design in the School of Architecture at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Brill is also president of the Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation Inc. (BOSTI Associates). a workplace research firm. Whatever hats he happens to be wearing, Brill is always viewed by colleagues, students, and clients as an authority on workplace design and an expert whose professional achievements have raised an awareness of the relationship between facilities and employee productivity.
Thirty years ago I was a regular type design architect and a professor of design," explains Brill, "when it began to occur to me that there was alot more to design than aesthetics, that design really effects peoples behavior and through that, the behavior of families and whole institutions." Brill adds that he wanted to understand, in some deep way, what those effects are and how strong they are in order to make design and facilities and management more relevant to people and institutions. "So," he says "I shifted perspective from being a designer to trying to understand what design's effects are. I stumbled onto a life of research an consulting."
All of BOSTI's research shows the most powerful factors affecting employees are the ability to do distraction free work (acoustic privacy) and the ability to have frequent interaction with others in, and outside of, the workspace. "Those two things are really are the critical design issues that consistently have the most powerful effect on peoples's performance." says Bill.
"This is the most interesting time to be in the facilities business," adds Brill, "whether as a facilities manager, a designer, or manager of workplaces. Companies are willing to try anything that makes sense to increase productivity, reduce costs, and grow the intellectual capital that is their people." according to Brill, since research has shown that the workplace affects all these, it is evident that the workplace really matters -- not just to employees, but also to FMs, designers, and the people who manage business units.
In 1984 BOSTI published a massive two-volume work called Using Office Design to Increase Productivity. Now in its third printing, this is the result of ten years work of research in the workplace. "BOSTI Associates is the real Leader of the Profession because I could'nt do anything without our senior associates and analysts, " adds Brill. "Whats happening now is that we have a data-base of some 12,000 people across about 80 companies and we are writing what we might call BOSTI 2, the book that will come out next fall."
Writing about the relationship between workplace design and productivity has done much to raise an awareness of issues that impact facilities managers. But Brill also stresses the importance of BOSTI having built longstanding, trusting relationships with clients. "This has been exceedingly important. " he says. " And, very rewarding.'
Brill has also enjoyed the lecture circuit. " I do speak frequently to
facility management groups, design groups, and certainly to corporate
managers about getting the word out that the workplace really matters. says
Brill All the research done by BOSTI and others shows that its effect on productivity is substantial.
BOSTI Associates - Top Ten Workplace Design Priorities
Facilities Design & Mangement Magazine- Myth of Open Plan - February 2000
Michael Brill,Eellen Keable, and Judy Fabiniak
Results derived from surveys of 12,000 employees in 80 business locations since 1994.
Based on statistical correlations of evaluation of workplace qualities with regard to aspects of job performance.
The primary work activity for all job categories interviewed is doing solo focused work approximately 75% of the workday.