Early Morning Run: A Lunchtime Redesign

My sister arrives in less than two hours and I’m not quite ready. I woke up this morning feeling pretty gross but I headed to the gym hoping it would work itself out. Well, I’m still hoping. Not good timing at all but I’ll get through it!

So, last week I was reading through Fast Company when I came upon an interesting infographic. (I have a weird love for infographics)

If you know much of anything at all about the Google offices, you probably know they have some pretty awesome perks. I’ve been lucky enough to visit the office here in New York three times. Not only is it directly across the street from Chelsea Market (an amazing perk in itself) but from what I was able to see, the design of the space is fantastic, Googlers can scoot around the office on scooters, there are snack bars, open work spaces, tables where you can get away from your desk for a bit to work or eat, and an awesome cafeteria.

Granted, it has been said that Googlers work very long hours and even with all the perks, turnover is pretty high. It seems to me, the thought behind such an awesome cafeteria could be that it keeps people on campus rather than leaving for lunch or dinner, so they can spend more time working. (I could be wrong, but this seems pretty logical to me from my jaded, pessimist New Yorker point of view).

Well, it seems Googlers were taking advantage of the awesome cafeteria and snack bars, with all the deliciousness (and calories) they had to offer. So, (I’m guessing here) the top Googlers realized it would probably do everyone even more good, if they not only had the food available, but had a little bit of help to make the right choices so they weren’t so likely to pick the high calorie foods as often. While we work better when we’re not hungry, we also tend to work better when we’re not in a food coma.

We are all pretty aware of the fact that one day Google might just take over the world. With all the info they know about us already, I’m pretty sure they know what website we’re going to go to next before we do, and probably even know what we’re going to have for dinner before we do. So, it’s not out of the world to believe that they can figure out the best way to design a cafeteria so that people think a little bit more, even without knowing it, before they dig into the fried chicken with gravy and the brownie a la mode.

I’m not going to lay it all out for you here, cause that would just be rude and taking credit for someone else’s work, so instead I’ll point you to THIS article in the April issue of Fast Company. What Jennifer Kurkoski, and her team, have done is pretty simple and ingenious. It’s pretty cool that the Top Googlers realized this was an important thing to do, and it’s pretty awesome how Kurkowki and her team figured out how to do it. Well, awesome with a side of mind games. I would just love to sit in on one of their meetings!

Okay, now that you’ve finished reading my long diatribe, go over and read the real article. Don’t worry, it’s not as long as this was!

Here’s a preview (click on the picture for the article):