Why Coworking Communities Increase Work Efficiency ?

Introduction

Humans are social by nature. We prefer to live and work as communities of various sorts. From the work perspective, we are also a member of a close working group, department, team, division, group or branch or communities in a company or organization. Sometimes it is called as Coworking Communities.Let’s look at how Coworking Communities are formed at different work settings and how it can help to increase work efficiency  and benefit us.

Communities At Work

Communities at work or Coworking communities signify unity in some form or other. Independent of the form, an ideal community provides or assures a sense of security and protection. Every member of a community is associated with a role which fulfills certain function within the community. Community interacts with each other by various means for different purposes. Community interaction is critical to maintaining and sustaining the existence of the community.

This communication can be done various ways like verbal, one to one, group meetings, telephone or video/ conference calls or using emails, messages or event formal/informal events or gatherings. The important thing is it instills a sense of belonging,attachment, and purpose to the members.

Nature of Communities in Different Work Settings

Traditional offices have large centralized spaces. The spaces can span across several floors or buildings.These are well planned and furnished spaces to host the members and facilitate their productivity as per the job functions. Often these spaces tend to occupy more formalized communities towards workgroups, departments or divisions. They often are the reflection of the organizational hierarchy and are more formalized in nature and interactions. Some informal communities or various interest group can also get formed here which could be formal or semi-formal or completely casual in nature. Even completely virtual groups like community can be possible here. Though all these communities are essential and integral elements for organizations to function, the Traditional Office settings mostly remain dominated by formal functional groups and communities.

Shared or Coworking spaces are recent phenomena which is fuelled by new age workforce and changes in the socio-economic environment. Advances in Information Technology has made it far easier for people to work and collaborate remotely. Here often multiple people with different Organisational or backgrounds share the space.

They may or may not be directly involved as Work relations through roles. This creates a big opportunity for informal groups or communities to be created. As they come from various backgrounds hence these groups tend to have multiple skill sets and offer different viewpoints. Informal nature of communities allows for open transparent discussion and possibility of more creative outcomes. The advent of Coworking spaces if offering an opportunity for community-based collaborations which is growing at high rate hence it’s redefining office spaces and settings.

Community-based Collaboration

 Some experiential salient points for community-based collaboration are

• It provides security and protection.
• It offers flexibility with convenience.
• It can offer assistance from other members of the community.
• It provides individuals opportunity for a manifestation of their talent and skills.
• It also creates a sense of belonging and attachment.
• It may yield lower or optimal cost.
• It’s way to work effectively with new generation workforce.
• It Creates Coworking Community with increase in work efficiency

Today post-Industrial and Information Technology revolution era is of specialization. Hence various types of profiles do exist. Certain profiles like Research and Analysis which may require more individual time than the community collaboration. Community-based working may have some challenges in terms of authenticity and security of information sharing etc. These can be mitigated right involvement and moderation as may be required. Largely many job profiles like IT, Marketing, Sales or Business Development, Independent Consultants can benefit largely from the community model which is inherent as part of Shares/Co-working Spaces. 

Looking Forward

There many startups who nowadays are working from Coworking spaces and part of different communities. Large companies like WeWork, Awfis, Bhive and many small local Coworking spaces are emerging at a rapid pace in India to help the transition towards community-based work culture. Even the traditional organizations have started understanding the tectonic shift into Shared/Co-working and realising the inherent benefits of the community-based working model. Research Analysts and Media reports suggest large scale adoption of these across all levels of organisations. Anywhere workspace is reality in next 4-5 few years - Economist.

So are you ready to gear up towards community-based Working? OfficingNow can help you to connect with Coworking Spaces of interest as per your requirement, budget, location, amenities etc. Leave a requirement here.