Employers these days are recognizing that there is a lot more to do in today's office than just sitting your life away. Herman Miller has been a hub of next-level office design since the Era of Eames, and they just completed a six month long research project exploring the new ways we're approaching the wide ranging facets of our various jobs.

Here are illustrations by Daniel Carlsten, showing off a series of scenarios and offering an interesting look at how we communicate effectively to get work done. According to Herman Miller Editorial Director Sam Grawe, the goal of the project was to go beyond the trends. “Collaboration is such a huge buzzword in this industry,” he says. “We wanted to look under the hood to identify common kinds of behaviors and activities.”

Check it out below:


Chat: Incidental and impromptu.


Converse: Interactions addressing a specific topic.


Co-Create: Generating new ideas amongst groups.


Divide & Conquer: A team works on different parts of a problem in close proximity.


Huddle: A team addresses and resolves a pressing issue.


Warm Up, Cool Down: The time before and after scheduled meetings.


Show & Tell: Sharing info at a planned meeting.


Process & Respond: Work generated by work.


Create: Gittin’ it done, doing individual tasks



Contemplate,