Reflecting upon Smart Working study by dell’Osservatorio Smart Working, I was surprised to see that the terms Telework and Smart Working are basically considered as synonyms.
So, it is no surprise that the more than 50% of the 1000 workers interviewees, who answered the question “Would you rather work at home or in the office?”, prefers the tedious routine of the office. Thinking about crying children, the noise of a vacuum cleaners and dishwashers, only masochism could suggest a different answer!
A sort of mental laziness keep us from making a significant improvement, from imagining the possible scenarios, that Smart Thinking can produce and has already produced, as proved by several articles appeared in WOW!: pop-up workplace, coworking, temporary offices, district offices in public areas and outdoor too, also in courtyards, as Carlo Ratti explains. Any kind of space is a potential workplace
Change doesn’t concern the office only.
I think that Smart Working does not mean the elimination of the office, but its transformation! It is reduced and turned into a desk-less and clock-less space, and the in-between areas become actual “productive” settings.
Jacob Morgan comes to the same end in his article on Forbes “8 Indisputable Reasons Why We Don’t Need Offices”.
Once ascertained that technology takes us and connects us everywhere, we have to consider the “side effects” and how difficult it is to concentrate because of a hyperconnection, the lack of boundaries and territoriality. We are not short of cues, to invent new models of the office that, if suitably designed, still remains one of the chief drivers of innovation, as confirmed by the annual “ Workplace Survey” in USA by Gensler.
There is a wider choice for the knowledge workers and we could be amazed by the answers given to the question “Where would you like to work?

Editorial by Renata Sias, editor of WOW! Webmagazine