Agile working is highly popular, but a somewhat confusing concept as the term has different meanings in different industries. Workplace professionals often use the term agile to refer to the flexibility of spaces. But in the world of software development (and increasingly beyond), agile refers to the flexibility of work processes. This can be explained as a highly interactive and iterative way of working, in which teams work in small sprints with lots of feedback loops. In terms of space, the most important requirement of this way of working is that team members can sit together and can have daily meetings (stand-ups) to discuss their activities. The workstyle is not incompatibleAgile working requires that team members can with activity-based working, but it is not the same. Thesit together and have daily meetings (stand-ups) emphasis is on keeping teams together rather thanto discuss their activities.promoting the mobility of individual employees. Casual aestheticsTraditionally, office aesthetics have been dominated by what architectural historians call corporate modernism: copious glass and metal, grey suspended ceilings, beige carpets, and large numbers of identical workstations, neatly arranged on orthogonal floor grids. In recent decades, this manifestation of efficiency and order has been challenged by more casual and home-like aesthetics. Many of todays offices feature lots of colour, graphics, plants, and domestic elements like rugs, sofas and armchairs. Some offices even incorporate playful features such as basketball hoops or foosball tables. This is also what you see in many activity-based offices where design is used to create different kindsDomestic elements like armchairs and sofas are of informal settings, expressing the idea that office work isused to make the office less office-like.not just desk work. Q&AJeremy Myerson, Director WORKTECH AcademyThere is more interest in the design of the workAre those the things that users want?environment than ever. How come? Users in office buildings definitely want better mental Workplace design used to be a specialist subject withhealth and more preparedness for the challenges its own rules. Now the work environment has beenof 24/7 digital working. Most would willingly swap consumerized and many offices look like hotel lobbiescommand-and-control leadership for something more or retail showrooms. Workplace design has joined theempathic and responsive. But whether bringing robots mainstream design discourse. and machine learning into the workplace might be a route to either is a moot point. What are your top three workplace trends? (1) Mental Health and Well-beinga growingIs the desk going to survive?awareness of behavioural psychology andThe desk featured in Antonello da Messinas 1475 neuroscience to avoid stress and burnout andpainting Saint Jerome in His Study and it features today increase productivity.in Apple Parks campus. The desk will survive as long (2) Augmented Intelligencethere is a lot of interestas evolutionary traits remain. It will, however, become in AI and automation, but the real gains will be inmore intelligent, monitoring our health and our work, augmented work where humans and machinescorrecting our mistakes and connecting us to others.collaborate and coexist.(3) New Generational Leadershipleadership redefined not as a property of charismatic individuals but as a property of a particular environment or culture. Workplace design and leadership strategy will work more closely together. 21