Recognizing the disconnect between our work environment and the culture we want to nurture, we embarked on a two-year journey, in conjunction with experts from our own Workplace Strategies Group (which advises clients around the globe on workplace optimization), to create a new workplace that would promote employee interaction, communication and collaboration on a daily basis.

As we prepare to move into our new global corporate headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles later this month, we have implemented a number of best practices that will perfectly align our corporate objectives with workplace initiatives, including:

• Breaking down the hierarchy: Doing away with assigned offices makes our senior producers and our leadership more accessible and integrated within the office. CBRE's new office design consists of a variety of private spaces including offices-for-a-day, work-benches, touch-down work areas, and huddle rooms. Senior professionals have the choice—as does every employee—to choose where and how they work best for that given day, or for a portion of the day.
• Eliminating physical barriers: Where once there were walls, now there are a lot less. Our new office has glass walls, more open space and an exposed staircase connecting the 25^th and 26^th floors, creating an open and spacious environment with increased visibility and accessibility. Neighborhoods, with zone-free addressing, place teams in proximity of one another, increasing ad-hoc interactions.
• Creating an inviting place to connect: An integral part of our new space is the “Heart,” a social hub and welcoming place that includes a variety of seating areas, a café, a media wall that delivers internal and external news headlines throughout the day, located at the epicenter of the premises where the giant staircase connects our two floors. It's a centralized space enabling people to collide and interact generating spontaneous energy and opportunities for idea creation.
• Increasing the opportunity for collaboration: In our old office, less than 20% of the workspace was designated for collaboration. However, we spend, on average, more than one-third of our time working within teams and engaging across departments. By adding more collaborative areas —the Heart, conference rooms, huddle rooms and open seating configurations—people can more easily work with different groups of people throughout the day. Ultimately, the ability to move leaders and producers throughout the space on a daily basis makes everyone smarter, and this benefits our clients.

Though our journey is far from complete, our experience is one we are excited about sharing with our clients who are tackling similar cultural challenges. Because at the end of the day, your real estate, and the environment it creates, can impact every aspect of your business. We've seen it firsthand.

Co-managing director Andrew Ratner leads CBRE's Downtown Los Angeles office and has been an instrumental leader in the process of designing the firm's new space. With a deep expertise in office tenant representation, Ratner also leads the firm's Office Occupier Advisory Group in Southern California. The views expressed in this column are the author's own.