Literally billions are spent chasing change each year via consultants, training, restructuring, knowledge management, cultural change, etc. In the end, getting people to behave to new ways is hard. And company leaders know it. We all act on this intuitively in our personal lives. Loosely paraphrasing Winston Churchill, we shape our homes and thereafter, our homes shape our lives.
Space affects companies the same way.
And, in a potentially constructive way, a substantial space project typically boils every corporate dysfunction right to the surface. User involvement becomes programming data and a furniture mockup in the cafeteria. In the end, the language of change may all that remains of the intent, a prescription for dissatisfaction. In this scenario, space gradually becomes perceived as a necessary evil. And, when something is fundamentally bad, the best it can be is LESS bad, so we chase cost reduction, project after project.