For more than a century, MillerKnoll’s brands have been at the forefront of designing innovative home and office spaces. MillerKnoll vice president of global research and planning Ryan Anderson and his team play a crucial role in this journey. Anderson leads the charge in challenging conventional thinking and delves deep into how to enhance both work and living environments when it comes to exploring the future of our spaces.

ADR caught up with Anderson to discuss the concept of ‘designing with impact’, inclusivity and the office as a complement to the home.

ADR: With your extensive background in workplace strategy and design, how do you define ‘designing with impact’, and why is it a central focus for you and MillerKnoll?

Ryan Anderson: We found over the last few years that a lot of organisations were getting quite caught up in all the new buzzwords. There was so much conversation around ‘hybrid’ in particular – hybrid went from just location policies to hybrid teams to hybrid work that it was creating a certain degree of gridlock and risk aversion. 

We had done research around flexible work models and distributed teams long ago and we wanted to hone in on some key principles that we knew would create better outcomes and just try to use it as a way of aligning people. ‘Design with impact’ first and foremost asks the questions, ‘what’s the point of the facility?’, ‘what are the business goals?’ and ‘what are the employee experience goals that we can all align on?’ Then, we see if we can start to get really specific about the ways that workplace design can achieve some of these goals.

Your role involves leading global research and planning at MillerKnoll. Can you share some of the key insights your team has uncovered recently about how workplace design can influence employee wellbeing and productivity?

We’re building on a tremendous legacy of research going back to the late 1940s with Knoll and back to 1960 with Miller. A lot of it’s been about how facilities can serve more highly distributed teams that have flexible work models –the activities that can be really difficult to achieve at home – and how the office can be a value-added complement to home. 

One of the most useful frameworks we’ve been building on for years is a concept from the world of sociology called ‘strong ties and weak ties’. It says that each of us has a network of the closest people in our lives called strong ties – our family, friends and closest teammates – and that’s how we get through the week. They’re our support system for getting stuff done, but we’ve also got all of these extended relationships, called weak ties. The framework for a long time has helped to promote just how critical weak ties are to our lives as they help to create a sense of security and belonging. 

You frequently speak at international events and contribute to Forbes.com. How do you stay informed about the latest trends and innovations in workplace design, and how do you ensure that MillerKnoll remains at the forefront of these developments?

It’s not just a cliche for me to say, but it is so helpful to have some of the best customers in the world. If they’re pushing new boundaries and we’re doing that with them, the ability to transfer some of what we’ve seen in different places and try it at different organisations is super helpful. I think more than anyone else in our industry, we’ve taken a very networked approach to thought leadership and thought partnership. The number of organisations we work with, either to do research together, share our insights, or be involved in knowledge exchange, is really unique.

Looking ahead, what emerging trends or future directions do you foresee in workplace design, and how is MillerKnoll preparing to address these changes to continue making a meaningful impact?

What comes to my mind most is our focus on something we’ve not really introduced broadly yet, but we’re calling ‘relationship-based’ work. It’s a very simple concept with lasting impacts. We need to be more specific and have more data on how physical environments can positively affect relationships. It’s relational. What does it look like to take a much more structured approach to building relationships with office design? I’m talking about relationships within teams, the ‘strong ties’, and relationships across teams, the ‘weak ties’, and relationships between managers and employees.

We can focus on how the furniture and all that is arranged, but more than anything, it’s about getting what people want out of offices, which is better relationships and quality time.

Ryan Anderson will be at the Exploring Wellbeing, Connection, and Change event at 6.30pm tonight, brought to you by MillerKnoll and hosted by Living Edge, at the Living Edge Showroom, 650 Church Street, Richmond.