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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Taking the first step towards a new future for your organization can be a daunting effortbut for professional services organizations, the time is now. With 70% of organizations planning to track office attendance in 2025, the corporate real estate landscape is primed for potential. Leaders must fully capitalize on the seismic shifts in the new standard of in-office work and use their spaces to enhance collaboration, productivity, and company purpose. As law firms, in particular, transition back to in-office work, they face the challenge of balancing privacy with collaborative spaces. While these needs seem at odds, a thoughtful approach that integrates flexibility and a strong workplace experience strategy can help firms create environments that attract and retain top talent. Organic interaction opportunities The most transformative ideas often emerge far beyond the confines of a boardroom or the monotony of a desk. Instead, sparks of ingenuity can stem from shared moments with colleagues, like a quick chat in the hallway or a coffee break. These moments that happen in interstitial spaces tend to be afterthoughts. When utilized well, however, an interstitial space can be every bit as impactful as a breakroom or lounge. A global law firm with a two-floor office space is a perfect example. Thanks to an open design and interconnected staircase, team members can communicate quickly and easily with colleagues from other floors. As in-office work models continue to shift and evolve, leaders must prioritize creating dynamic spaces that foster these organic connections. Otherwise, businesses risk missing out on valuable interactions like knowledge sharing, mentorship, and peer-to-peer professional development. Organizations have plenty of options regardless of office footprint and team size. For instance, one of PDRs energy clients wanted to maximize its office potential and facilitate face-to-face interactions. We worked with them to create specific areas, such as green spaces and cafes, where team members could gather away from their desks. Best of all, the design provided these amenities while simultaneously reducing the footprint, ultimately saving the organization money. Providing these spaces solves for challenges like a lack of mentoring or knowledge sharing, while boosting peoples connection to an organizations purposetwo primary imperatives valued by new generations of leadership. Competitive advantages for employee wellness In todays competitive job market, top talent has abundant options. This means transforming the office into a powerful amenity that offers unique valueone that attracts, engages, and retains the best employees. As noted in Wellhubs 2025 State of Work-Life Wellness report, 88% of employees say that wellness-focused workspaces are crucial to their overall job satisfaction. In fact, firms with WELL-certified offices see higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, and retention. Looking to hospitality design is a strong way leaders can begin to rethink their approach to the workplace. A health-centric mindset is especially valuable for the legal profession, where long hours, intense focus, and strong mental and emotional resilience are essential. The industry’s demands can contribute to stress and burnout, resulting in a high turnover rate.Design elements such as access to daylight or biophilic design have a proven effect on employee productivity and mood, minimizing stress while improving performance. A firms leaders must leverage these insights to create spaces that elevate the work experience and provide an undeniable draw to attract new talent and sustain the energy and motivation of those who already drive the firms success. Space utilization Workplace solutions must be tailored to an organizations culture and work styleswhat works for one industry may not suit another. A functional workspace must align with a companys purpose while maximizing efficiency. With high real estate costs and long-term leases posing risks, underutilized space can lead to significant financial waste. A structured visioning process helps organizations optimize their space. For example, one company balanced energy and focus by dedicating its second floor to quiet areas, meeting rooms, and breakout spaces, complementing its high-energy trade floor. Some law firms are repurposing law libraries into collaborative spaces as research shifts to digital, fostering knowledge sharing and mentorship. Transforming these spaces into meeting or common areas increases opportunities to interact while eliminating single-purpose inefficiencies. Organizations can create environments that support productivity, collaboration, and long-term business success by taking a strategic approach to space planning. Future-focus and flexibility The most impactful workplaces are agile and adaptable, ready to support an organizations mission today, tomorrow, and for years to come. But leaders must navigate and accommodate multiple needs and preferences from several generations. That is easier said than done, as our global corporate law office client discovered. It was critical that every square foot for this firm was used with intention and provided a competitive advantage. This client had the added challenge of fusing two teams and bringing them under the same roof. Modular planning helped them create a blend of personalized and collaborative work areas well-suited for the firms new hybrid work style. Another Band 1-ranked global law firm involved a similar challenge, as its team needed to balance internal meetings with client interactions in a limited space. To address this, the firms conference rooms were designed with adjustable walls, allowing them to expand the space for client meetings while maintaining privacy when needed. Flexibility was key to these projects’ success and will only become more vital. Adapting to ongoing shifts helps businesses attract top talent and strengthen their competitive edge. It’s time to prioritize exceptional experiences As leaders look to the many opportunities ahead, its important to remember that peoples needs, workstyles, and preferences in the workplace will continue evolving. Ongoing discussions and a future-focused approach can ensure an organizatios environment provides competitive advantages that match their peoples desires. Simply put, if organizations do not provide people with the types of experiences they crave, they risk missing out on the best and brightest talent. Or they invest capital in a physical workplace that fails to draw employees into their space. Yet with ample real estate opportunities, this is the perfect time to rethink workplace design. Lauri Goodman Lampson is president and CEO of PDR.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The recent L.A. wildfires have been devastating, displacing thousands and leaving behind a stark reminder of how vulnerable our built environment remains. Having lived through the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Malibu, Ive seen firsthand the immense challenges of rebuilding. In my April 2024 TEDx talk, How building a home in four weeks can influence four generations, I explored the emotional and financial toll of losing a homeand why we must rethink how we rebuild. That talk reinforces the importance of protecting all the meanings of home by building (and rebuilding) our homes with mindfulness toward sustainability and resilience against the sure potential of additional weather- and fire-related harms in the future. A new approach to fire-resilient housing Since 2019, Ive focused on applying lessons from past disasters to create homes that can better withstand future wildfires. My company, Azure Homes, uses advanced prefab technology to construct homes that are sustainable and built to have a better chance at surviving a fire. Beyond technology, though, we need a broader shift in how we design and construct homes. My newly published book, From Ashes to Action: A Survivors Guide to Rebuilding After Wildfire, explores practical solutions for homeowners, policymakers, architects, and builders to make communities more fire-resilient. Here are a few key points from the book: What makes a home fire-resistant? By analyzing recent wildfires, we can identify clear patterns in home survivability: Fire-rated siding and decks resist ignition from radiant heat. Double-pane or triple-pane tempered windows withstand extreme heat without shattering. Ember-resistant vents block embers from entering attics and crawl spaces. Class A fire-rated roofs are designed to withstand severe fire exposure, offering the highest level of fire resistance available for roofing materials. In contrast, homes with untreated wood siding, single-pane windows, unprotected vents, and those without class A-rated roofs often ignite quickly. Beyond materials: The role of terrain and weather Fire doesnt just spread through structuresit moves through landscapes. The risk is significantly influenced by: Slope: Fires move faster uphill, preheating vegetation. Wind: Drives embers miles ahead, sparking new ignitions. Urban fuels: Vehicles, fences, and neighboring homes can create unpredictable fire spread. Reducing risk requires a holistic approachdefensible space, smart urban planning, and proactive vegetation management. How homeowners can build for resilience Wildfires will continue to be a reality in California and beyond, but homeowners can take actionable steps to reduce risk: Defensible space: Clear dry vegetation and use fire-resistant landscaping. Stronger building codes: Follow post-2008 fire-resistant construction standards. Fire-smart design: Consider modular, prefabricated, or 3D-printed homes for speed and safety. Emergency-ready communities: Engage in programs like Firewise USA to enhance neighborhood resilience. Policy and innovation must work together With climate change intensifying fire conditions, policymakers must step up. L.A.s recent executive orders have helped fast-track rebuilding, but we need long-term commitments: Faster approvals for fire-resilient construction: Pre-approved designs and modular solutions can cut rebuilding time significantly. Expanded fire-resistant zoning laws: Smarter land-use policies can prevent high-risk development. Incentives for fireproof homes: Lower insurance rates and grants for fire-resistant retrofits can encourage adoption. The future of rebuilding: A smarter, safer approach Recovering from a wildfire isnt just about rebuildingits about rethinking. We have the technology and knowledge to construct homes that can survive these disasters. Prefabricated and 3D-printed homes offer a scalable, cost-effective solution, reducing reliance on labor while increasing resilience. As difficult as this moment is, its also an opportunity. The lessons from these fires must shape how we build the homes of the futurestronger, safer, and ready for whatever comes next. Gene Eidelman is cofounder of Azure Homes.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Through hundreds of conversations with college presidents and my work with institutions across the globe, I’ve observed a powerful dynamic shaping the success or failure of digital transformation in higher education. As we progress through the first few months of 2025, Ive been reflecting on the dynamic at this pivotal time in higher education. Before institutions rush the doors of modernization and leap into this new wave of artificial intelligence, they must first step back and acknowledge a different type of AIalignment and inertia. Institutional inertia First, lets start with inertia, because the reality is, its always easier to do nothing than to drive change. Organizational inertia acts as a constant force against change, manifesting itself in ways that directly impact an organizations ability to evolve and be healthy. In the context of higher education, where there are often competing priorities, technology projects that should take months stretch into years. Decision processes become mired in endless approval cycles. Resources remain locked in legacy systems while innovation initiatives slowly die in committee. Meanwhile, competitors advance, and market opportunities slip away. Sadly, the cost of this inertia compounds over time, creating a widening gap between institutional capabilities and student expectations. When technology projects face multiple delays, institutions lose more than time and moneythey lose their place in line for their competitive position. We see this even more when an institution prioritizes its modernization project to start with its administrative areas rather than those directly affecting the student experience and their ultimate success. I had this conversation with a top HBCU leader in Alabama which is gearing up to modernize its enterprise and student systems. He called me to announce that his strategy to compete and ensure his students had the best experience and graduated on time was to start with their student systems first. He just plain got it, telling me that our student information system would help them drive the outcomes they need. Todays modern learner is expecting seamless digital experiences and will choose institutions that better meet their needs. We saw this clearly in our recent Student Voice Report that showed 92% of students surveyed expect to access all student account services in one place. At the same time, faculty was frustrated with outdated tools, while staff waste countless hours on an abundance of manual processes that could be automated (stating that this is the way theyve always done it). The resulting impact on enrollment, retention, and institutional reputation creates a downward spiral that becomes increasingly difficult to reverse. It also traps valuable resources that could be directed to higher impact areas, from student mental health services to career coaching innovations, to addressing the imbalance of student-to-advisor ratios. Leadership alignment Inertia sets up like quicksand when one variable is missingalignment. Leadership alignment provides the essential counterforce to institutional inertia. When presidents achieve true alignment from their board, leadership team, and endowment partners, they create momentum that can almost always overcome even the strongest resistors. This type of multi-stakeholder alignment accelerates decision making, ensures resources flow to strategic priorities, and empowers change champions throughout the organization. Rather than avoiding resistance or waiting for the right time that often never comes, aligned leadership teams address it proactively in a constructive, outcomes-based, and student-first mindset aligned to their strategic priorities. Presidents face the challenging task of building these aligned teams while managing the constant drag of inertia. Some achieve this by bringing in trusted leaders who share their transformation vision. Others invest time building coalitions with existing team members, carefully assessing their capability and commitment to change. But the best leaders do one thing that trumps all othersthey lead with the mindset of putting their students first. When leaders do this, there is always a sense of urgency and action because students cant and wont wait! Alignment helps overcome inertia So, what is a president to do with their board? If they are lucky, they have recruited leaders with a bias for transformation and action, but often this is not the case. The reality is that the board plays a particularly crucial role in gaining alignment and support for an institutions strategic goals and must not be overlooked. As higher education becomes increasingly technology-dependent, boards must expand their oversight beyond traditional areas to ensure modernization serves student needs while supporting the institutions mission. Technology can no longer be an afterthought and it cant fromdecisions made in facilities and buildings committees. It must be front and center as a part of institutional strategic planning. Strong board support empowers presidents to overcome inertia by approving necessary resources, supporting difficult leadership decisions, and maintaining focus on long-term sustainability despite short-term pressures. When institutions lack this leadership alignment, inertia wins the day. Projects stall in endless committees while resources remain trapped in maintaining legacy systems. Innovation initiatives become diluted in attempts to maintain the status quo, and departmental interests regularly override institutional priorities. The result is a gradual erosion of competitive position that may go unnoticed until an institution finds itself unable to compete for the students they once attracted. The stakes are particularly high right now as artificial intelligence reshapes higher education in ways that we cannot even imagine. Institutions that struggle with basic technology implementations will find AI adoption nearly impossible. The technology itself, no matter how promising, cannot overcome the gravitational pull of institutional inertia. Success in digital transformation requires mastering both types of AI. While artificial intelligence promises transformation, alignment provides the force to overcome inertia and make even the toughest transformation possible. In the race to embrace AI, remember: The most crucial intelligence isn’t artificialit’s aligned. Only through strong alignment can institutions generate enough momentum to overcome inertia and create meaningful change that serves students, supports faculty, and ensures institutional sustainability in an increasingly digital world. Laura Ipsen is CEO of Ellucian.
Category:
E-Commerce
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