My love of architecture combined with interest in work spaces and productivity caught my attention as I research and learn about entrepreneurs. I was introduced to WeWorks by Abhi Vallabhaneni who operated his social enterprise, Truly MAD, from the San Francisco WeWorks just across the street from Berkeley. WeWorks has had remarkable growth and is currently planning to become a public company. If your students are playing the Stock Market Game, you might want to use this company as an example to learn about initial public offerings.
As educators, we want to prepare our students for the rapidly changing workplace of the future. Both work environments and types of jobs are rapidly transitioning in our information economy. Companies such as Google are known for workplaces that inspire creativity. Airbnb, Verizon, and WeWork build community and the employee experience to attract millennial workers. Local companies such as Collective Bias offer innovative and pet friendly work spaces. B-Unlimited creates community through space, games and a collective kitchen. And now WeWorks will be coming soon to Bentonville, Arkansas.
WeWorks offers custom work spaces, flexible private offices, and on-demand work spaces. They have 10 years of design and operational expertise to create soulful spaces that match your needs. New initiatives include bringing the outdoors inside the work spaces.
Use this knowledge to help your students anticipate their futures. Or to design creative and comfortable work environments. Or learn the entrepreneur story through Guy Raz’s How I Built This Podcast where he interviews co-founder Miquel McKelvey. Or use the Entrepreneur article to learn interesting information about the building of the company. A few questions you might use for an assignment are listed below.
- A bank from what country provided financing in 2017? (Japan)
- What actress is related to Neumann’s wife? (Gwyneth Paltrow)
- What shared experience did the WeWork founders have that was mentioned in the article? (grew up in cooperatives – McKelvy in Oregon and Neumann in Israel.)
- How many failed businesses did Neumann have? (2)
- Can you see yourself working in a place like this?
- What do you see yourself doing after high school?
- How can you develop skills that are valued in the current or future marketplace?
Please share your thoughts, ideas or responses from your students.
I loved reading this article because it can open up the eyes of students when you are teaching them about different workplaces. It would open up the conversation to finding out what the students want to do when they grow up.
I specifically liked how you mentioned your purpose is to help students in the “rapidly changing” workplace. I think this is important, because this is so true! As a future educator, this is very relevant to me. The work place is always changing, and teachers have truly experienced this first hand during covid! It is good to discuss how these changes effect our economy and to always stay in the loop of what is going on!
I loved the part about “flexible seating” and “bringing the outdoors inside” because I believe it is very important for students to feel a sense of serenity during the school day. School is stressful enough as it is, for teachers and for students. Anything I can do (as a future educator) to make my students feel at peace and focused for the day I will make happen.
I really liked how you said “My husband firmly believes that your passion stems from your childhood. I am not sure I am in agreement but he is a landscaper who designs water features. As a child he liked to play by the creek and build bridges and pathways. ” I have to say I think that has a lot of truth to it for me. As a child I used to pretend to teach to my stuff animals and I would observe how the teacher was teaching everybody. I liked how the teacher would hold the book at reading time and show everyone the pictures and I really liked that and it made me want to be a teacher. It is something that really developed for me over the years.
I apologize this comment was for another post. I am not sure what I did to make this mistake. I am so sorry.
I really liked your statement that said ” WeWorks offers custom work spaces, flexible private offices, and on-demand work spaces. They have 10 years of design and operational expertise to create soulful spaces that match your needs. New initiatives include bringing the outdoors inside the work spaces.” I think is a terrific concept and idea. Creating a space that matches a person’s own needs and even bringing the outdoors inside the work spaces would be a wonderful concept to less stress and more focused individuals.