In recent months, there has been a great debate about whether open-plan spaces (which have been the rage in recent years) are the best approach for creating collaborative environments, or whether they are in fact creating distractions. The word that is often missing from the debate is ‘balance’.

Designers need to create environments that have a balance of collaborative and concentrative areas where people can find the right type of space for the task at hand. Rarely are today’s knowledge workers doing the same task continually for 40 hours a week. Work today is dynamic; the task at hand can vary day-to-day, and hour-to-hour.

The ability to achieve deep, meaningful thought is an essential element of innovation. The inclusion of some forms of private spaces in open-concept offices is essential to create a refuge for concentrative work. Be it through private enclaves, phone booths, quiet zones or retreat areas, people need places where they can think.

Private zones also create opportunities for bonding among peers and coworkers. Bonding leads to trust, trust leads to open dialogue, and that is when people truly collaborate and innovate.

These private spaces do not need to be like the large status-symbol offices of the past. Office and furniture design today has evolved to maximize the shrinking amount of space allocated to individual or private offices. Many companies have dramatically reduced the number of private offices and replaced them with 10-foot-by-10-foot enclaves.

These enclaves allow staff members who need to control distractions or require some form of privacy the environment they need to be successful, without eating up too much square footage. The space that is released can be reallocated to create shared spaces for collaboration, or yielded to net real estate savings. But balance can be achieved.

Office furniture today has been right-sized and streamlined to meet the new space standards. Similar to how just-in-time manufacturing was instituted to reduce storage needs, so has the concept of just-in-time offices. With the reduced need for paper storage, and with today’s streamlined electronics, the need for large desks with storage units is no longer necessary — or even practical.

Furniture has also been streamlined to meet the actual needs of the user and the space limitations of work environments. Be they home offices, coworking spaces or corporate offices, the goal today is to maximize space and minimize waste.

The most flexible thing in any environment is not the walls or the furniture — it’s the people. Spaces should reflect that people are no longer expected to go to the office and sit in one spot all day like potted plants. One size misfits all, and there is no one perfect workplace.

Giving workers the ability to choose the space that is best suited to complete their work will increase their ability to focus and improve productivity. And providing areas for social and teamwork creates the balance that is needed to meet the needs of the emerging, modern worker.

Kay Sargent is vice-president of architecture, design and workplace strategies at Teknion.