Prospect and refuge

Walking into a floor full of hot desks (although they are often called something else), a meeting room, how you set up your home office is probably not random. You have some ideas about where you prefer to set yourself up.

Having moved several months ago, I needed to decide how to set up my office at home. I don't like having my back to the door (I don't want anyone to sneak up on me) and need a view. So, I positioned my desk in a way that fulfilled both of those caveats.

When I worked in a large open-plan workspace with hot desks, the spaces that were always filled by the early birds were where they had a good view of the space, but their screens and desks were more private.

The power position at a meeting table is not at its head but in the middle seat facing the entrance to the room.

In 1975, English geographer and academic Jay Appleton wrote about an innate desire for our space to have both prospect and refuge. We want to be able to see while being able to remain safe and unseen. It is probably an early survival instinct - but not one we have overcome.

And this impacts how we build our modern dwellings, where we prefer to stay on holidays, and where we sit in common spaces.

But does this need for prospect and refuge also exist in our workplace cultures?

The prospect we seek from our organisation is a clear vision, including any challenges and opportunities that may be approaching and where we can position ourselves within it. And we need a safe space where we can take refuge - a place where we can think, reflect and express ideas and opinions with a degree of safety.

While we need access to both prospect and refuge, we also seek - not always or uniformly - to adventure into the unknown and uncertain prospects we see. And our willingness to do this comes from a sense of safety - physical and psychological, feeling able to try and fail, to speak up.

Imagine yourself in your own private refuge. What do you see? Where are your opportunities and challenges? And when are you heading off to see what you can make happen?