How to choose the right ping pong table for your design team
Please don’t.
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who is an architect. She was telling me about the overall workflow of an architecture firm: how they get the brief, how they break down project timelines, how they curate teams, how they share work back to their clients.
A lot of her work involves dealing with corporate briefs: companies that hire her firm to re-imagine their office space and make it more pleasant for employees as well as more efficient for the company.
One of the most common requests she gets?
“We would love for our office space to feel more like Google”.
Talent retention is key, especially in tech companies, startups and agencies. When an employee leaves, companies lose money (all costs associated with their departure), time (recruiting someone new), knowledge, team morale, reputation — it’s quite a long list. When it comes to design and development, companies are competing with Googles and Facebooks of the world for the very same talent and skill set. In a rush to avoid turnover and keep current employees motivated, companies resource to an ever-growing list of benefits, including good-looking office spaces that make work feel less like work.
You won’t change your company culture by dropping a ping pong table in the middle of your office.
“Google did a disservice to other companies by creating this cult around juvenile-looking office spaces in the last decade”, she explains. “You won’t change your company culture by dropping a ping pong table in the middle of your office. Of course people appreciate nice and clean spaces, but trying to force social interactions top down can hurt more than help. Not only some of these objects are abandoned after some time, but the mere fact they are there makes people feel like they are being offered a placebo. Employees are more and more aware of cheap vs. thoughtful talent retention tactics used by companies.”
“But we’re trying to create a space for people to gather and connect…”
Ideas that might be more effective than a ping pong table:
- Communal tables, open meeting and collaboration spaces, lounges, libraries, hot desks; spaces where people can work more comfortably, not spaces where people can escape from work.
- Virtual communities or clubs on Slack where people can gather around topics of interest; these groups can eventually meet up in real life inside and outside the office space, if they choose to do so.
- A budget for people to spend on happy hours, team meals, field trips — as long as employees are encouraged to self-organize and these events are not imposed by the company.
“But we’re just trying to make work feel less like work…”
Ideas that might be more effective than a ping pong table:
- Asking current employees the types of projects/clients you should pursue as a company; saying “no” to initiatives that do not align with your company values.
- Having better work-life balance policies; encouraging people to leave the office early, not work on weekends, take time off.
- To make work feel less like work, you can also try to make bosses behave less like bosses and more like leaders, or meetings be structured less like meetings and more like conversations.
“But we’re just trying to make the office space look cooler…”
Ideas that might be more effective than a ping pong table:
- Asking yourself why you want that; who are you really trying to please/impress?
- Hiring a proper firm to design your work space; they will start from your company’s values and DNA, as well as do user research with your current employees — instead of copying and pasting formulas that worked well for companies unlike yours.
“But we’re just trying to encourage better teamwork and collaboration…”
Ideas that might be more effective than a ping pong table:
- Non-competitive sports 🤔
You can’t buy company culture on Amazon (yet), but you can definitely design it. As anything we do as designers, we shouldn’t start from solutions — but rather from user needs. Investigating the real problem you’re trying to solve and the pain points your users (employees) have is not an easy task, but it is the first step towards future-proof solutions that will actually be adopted and make a relevant impact in the organization. That shiny ping pong table you’ve always wanted might have to wait.
Further reading:
This story is part of Journey: lessons from the amazing ride of being a designer.
