Shaking Things Up... "Change management is more important than technology. Collaboration -- not savings -- sells our new office strategy. In a wireless environment, it's pointless to be tethered to paper."

That's Barbara Sullivan's rapid fire description of Building 14, Cisco's "Proof of Concept" initiative to radically transform the traditional cube farm into the office of the future, based upon their research showing current office work as 70% collaboration and 30% individual.

Last week Sullivan toured me around Building 14 (actually 10,000 square feet in building 14) located in Cisco's San Jose office park. Wow.

As a Cisco employee arrives at the office, she enters a wireless environment. Even the phones are wireless ("IP telephony"). Everything is mobile. All tables are on wheels. All desks feature hydraulic height adjustments. All partitions move.

She chooses a suitable workspace -- a plain table, a desk and a flat panel monitor, a private telephone room, a conference room (with interactive whiteboards and video conferencing), the "library" (with all electronic devices set to quiet mode) or The Commons (a social gathering area for eating and greeting).

All her paper mail is scanned and delivered by e-mail. If she receives a package, she is notified to open a specific locker. If she is one of 20 volunteers, she'll carry an RFID tag tracking her movements around the office to see where she spends most of her time.

And believe it or not, this is exactly the process followed by Mark Golan, Cisco's VP of Real Estate and Workplace Resources. He does not have a fixed office or desk. Golan and his worldwide staff of 150 manage Cisco's 30 million sf real estate portfolio located in about 400 buildings.

Sure, the economics of Building 14 are compelling. Normally, Cisco would fit 68 people into 10,000 sf. Currently there are 120 people assigned to Building 14, and that's headed to 200 people (50 sf per person).

But, according to Sullivan, you'll never win the debate focused on costs. You need to show Cisco's business units that this kind of flexible officing promotes collaboration and effectiveness. Now imagine if just 10% of the U.S. workforce could organize itself in a similar mode. How would the market adjust to this reduced demand for office space?

Note... Barbara Sullivan will speak about Building 14 on Realcomm's panel, Caves, Barns, Factories, Commercial Space ... What's Next?, on June 28.

--Peter Pike