ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The idea for this book started in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns during a Zoom meeting of Colin Macgadie, Alex Schärer, Ian Weddell, Marco Strahm, Joseph Press, and Bob Johansen. Alex, the CEO of the Swiss furniture company USM, shared his vision of a global network of office hubs. Bob and Joseph were already thinking futureback about future office scenarios but hadn’t yet begun to write. Colin, an architect for BDG in London, was designing office workspaces in preparation for the return to office buildings. We were all pondering both what’s possible and what’s next for offices. Thank you, Colin, Alex, Ian, and Marco, for helping us ask the right questions and make this book possible. Our hope is to start a new conversation about office places and processes.

While coauthors Bob, Joseph, and Christine wrote this book, a strong core team contributed to the research, organization, and early drafting. Susanne Forchheimer was our mission control, doing all the organizational work of managing, scheduling, and coordinating—in addition to her frequent content suggestions. Gabe Cervantes contributed greatly to chapter 7 on the Spectrum of Belonging, but he also helped refine our message and spread the word about office shock. Sabrina Howard contributed in major ways to chapters 4 and 5 on the Spectrums of Purpose and Outcomes. Our early team conversations were critical to creating the basic structure and flow of the book.

Berrett-Koehler is a wonderful publisher in so many ways, and we are so grateful to be able to work with them. Steve Piersanti from Berrett-Koehler was our conceptual editor and spiritual guide throughout the creation and writing. He was the perfect mix of criticism and encouragement. The entire BK team is important to us, including especially Edward Wade, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Michael Crowley, Valerie Caldwell, and David Marshall. Archie Ferguson was masterful in his creation of the cover, with Joseph’s meticulous art direction. Thanks also to Dawn Hall for her excellent copyediting.

Our colleagues at the Institute for the Future were encouraging at every stage. Marina Gorbis, IFTF’s executive director, is a groundbreaker on the future of work and the equitable enterprise.

Special thank you to Jean Hagan and the visual storytelling team, including Robin Bogott, Julie Ericsson, Trent Kuhn, and Robin Weiss.

We feel so fortunate to work with our colleagues and board at IFTF. They have created a culture and climate where books like Office Shock are possible. IFTF also has a long history of encouraging distributed work and flexibility.

Kathi Vian provided us with profound advice early in the project, and her wisdom guided us at each step. Kathi taught us that juxtaposition is a research methodology.

Both Toshi Hoo and Jeremy Kirshbaum contributed greatly to chapter 8 on the Spectrum of Augmentation. Toshi guided us as we tried to make sense out of the emerging metaverse, and Jeremy introduced us to GPT-3 and augmented writing. Rebecca Shamash was particularly helpful in reviewing chapter 5 on the Spectrum of Outcomes, and we thank her especially for recommending the work of Mariana Mazzucato.

Thanks to Simon Widmer for sharing his insights in chapter 6 on circular economies and on how companies can adopt policies to lessen their negative climate impacts.

Ibrahim Jackson was instrumental for us in thinking futureback about diversity, inclusion, and belonging. His detailed review of chapter 7 on the Spectrum of Belonging was very helpful through the many revisions to this chapter. Professor Lonny Brooks also reviewed this chapter and was extremely helpful as we figured out how to frame it and draw from Afrofuturism. And Hodari Davis provided useful guidance for us as we did the first drafts of chapter 7 on the Spectrum of Belonging. Noah Sindler shared his experiences as a native-digital gamer in chapter 10. Pete Blackshaw, CEO of Cintrifuse, an innovation hub in Cincinnati, gave helpful suggestions on chapter 14 for us on policy choices.

We had two group meetings, a workshop, and a symposium, in which all attendees were generous with their time and feedback and helped shape the final manuscript.

Meeting and Workshop Participants

The task of curating and guiding the global group of artists who have contributed their evocative artwork for our part II chapters was impressively carried out by Anaelle Press, and we sincerely thank her for her efforts. See About the Artists for more details on their wonderful work.

Institute for the Future is on the cover of this book because we have drawn so much from our colleagues. While this isn’t a consensus forecast and we as authors are responsible for any mistakes, these IFTF staffers have also influenced our understanding of emerging futures for work and living.

IFTF Staff

Institute for the Future is an independent nonprofit research organization with an all-volunteer board of trustees. We are so grateful to the board for all the guidance they provide.

IFTF Board

After we had finished our first draft of the entire manuscript, we held a three-hour global symposium on Office Shock with about forty thought leaders, all of whom received our draft manuscript in advance. We conducted an online survey about the future of office shock during the workshop, organized around our Seven Spectrums of Choice for offices and officing. Then, we had small group conversations organized around the seven spectrums.

It was a great conversation and the participants sent us specific suggestions for the manuscript. The participants included:

Practitioners Who Are Managing Office Shock

Content Experts

Thanks to our families for their endless patience and support during the research and writing:

Christine: To my wonderful daughters—Valerie and Georgia—and their families, thank you for your support and ideas throughout the book writing process. I hope the concepts here will help Ava and Izzy experience a better future for working and living.

Joseph: To my wife Rachel and all our children, who teach and inspire us along the journey of life. I hope the concepts here will help you as they have helped me to imagine a better future for working and living.

Bob: To my wife Robin, our children (Cory and Lisa) and grandchildren (Nico, Everett, Robbie, and Nathaniel), who help me think futureback every day.