How do you make an office stand out in this day and age? It feels as though everything’s already been done, and yet innovation is deemed necessary for attracting top talent. This would be fine left as an unanswered riddle if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m under pressure to come up with something as part of our firm’s latest overhaul project. The concept is meant to be ‘unique’ and ‘delightful’, and must ‘exceed stakeholder expectations’. Um… yeah.
I’ve been researching it and I’m sorry to say that the best I can come up with is a baby animal enclosure. I mean, the animals don’t have to be baby ones, necessarily, but I feel like the effect would be amplified if they were. I’ve heard of this being done in places like children’s hospitals, but never in a law firm. I know it seems like a stretch on a conceptual level, but so does coming up with an original interior concept for a law firm in the first place. Can’t we just be a law firm?
Apparently not, according to the board. As one of the leading forces in international corporate law, we must lead the charge in this arena – so I’m told, anyway. So here I am, madly calling up all the companies that do office fitouts around Melbourne, inquiring as to whether any of them would be up for doing a baby animal enclosure. So far, none of them seem wild about the idea, which I can understand. Part of the job would be designing a system for looking after the animals and ensuring they’re happy, and that does seem like a tall order when I say it aloud.
Look, I don’t know the first thing about office interior design solutions. Melbourne has plenty of people who do this professionally, so why I’m being tasked with dreaming up a concept is beyond me. So I’m valiantly pushing onward with the baby animal enclosure idea and hoping someone, somewhere might be able to translate it into something workable.