In a recent episode of the Built Together podcast, Mark Coxon, Director of Market Development at AVI-SPL, shared a provocative analogy that should make every CIO and CTO rethink their approach to workplace technology: the Snickers bar workplace.
The Problem: We're Building From the Outside In
Here's how most enterprise technology deployments happen: You start with the facility (the chocolate shell), force in your platform—Microsoft Teams, Zoom, whatever your organization standardized on (the nougat)—and then try to squeeze in your workflows and people (the peanuts and caramel) at the very end.
The result could be a crumbly mess that nobody wants to use.
"Many times we start to design based on a reflected ceiling plan and electrical plan, the number of chairs in a space, and we have no idea what the actual people in the room are doing during that meeting or during that task," Coxon explains. "And those things matter a lot."
The Real Challenge: People Change Slower Than Technology
As enterprise leaders push forward with digital transformation, AI integration, and hybrid work solutions, there's a fundamental truth we're ignoring: your people have inertia. They have established habits, workflows, and comfort zones that won't shift just because you've installed the latest audiovisual collaboration tools.
"Today it's AI, tomorrow it may be humanoid robots," Coxon notes. "Whatever that future happens to be, at the end of the day, it has to be executed by us. And if we don't understand how to work through change, the tenets of working through change are not going to change that much."
The Solution: Design for Outcomes, Not Layouts
The most successful workplace technology implementations start with three critical questions:
- Who are your people? What are their work styles, neurodiversity needs, and collaboration preferences?
- What workflows drive your business? How do teams actually accomplish work—not how you wish they would?
- What platforms enable those workflows? Only then should you select your unified communications, digital signage, and interactive display technologies.
The physical space—your conference rooms, huddle spaces, and collaborative environments—should be the final layer, designed to support everything above it.
From Technology Gatekeeping to Persistent Workspaces
Here's where modern AV technology creates unprecedented opportunity: we're no longer limited by physical constraints. With AV over IP, cloud-based collaboration platforms, and interactive touch displays, your content and collaborative workspaces can follow your people, not the other way around.
"The great part about technology today is that it gives us a lot of options," Coxon emphasizes. "No longer is technology really a gatekeeper of any output. It's just a matter of defining what it is."
This means creating persistent workspaces where team members can contribute asynchronously—when their brain is ready for creative or analytical work—rather than forcing everyone into the same room at the same time, expecting them to switch gears on command.
The Business Case: 90% of Your Budget Is People
While many enterprises focus on ROI for their AV infrastructure and conference room systems, here's the stark reality: 90% of your operating budget goes to people. If your workplace design and collaboration technology aren't optimized for human productivity, you're leaving massive value on the table.
Organizations that prioritize neurodiverse design, provide agency through flexible spaces, and deploy intuitive collaboration tools don't just improve employee satisfaction—they dramatically increase the return on their largest investment: their workforce.
Ready to Build Workplaces That Start With People?
If you're tired of implementing collaboration technology that nobody uses, it's time to flip the script. Start with your people, design for their workflows, and let your technology platforms enable the outcomes you're actually trying to achieve.
ThinkHub interactive collaboration software is purpose-built for this people-first approach. Unlike traditional video conferencing and digital whiteboard solutions that force teams into rigid workflows, ThinkHub creates persistent, flexible workspaces that adapt to how your people actually work—whether they're in the office, remote, or moving between spaces throughout the day.
With native support for multi-source content sharing, intuitive touch interaction, and seamless integration with your existing AV infrastructure and UC platforms, ThinkHub transforms your conference rooms and collaborative spaces into dynamic environments where ideas flow freely and teams do their best work.
See ThinkHub in action. Schedule a personalized demo and discover how the right collaboration platform can finally deliver on the promise of your workplace technology investment.
Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to the complete Built Together podcast episode with Mark Coxon on Spotify or watch on YouTube.