The Hidden Messages Your Workplace Design Is Sending Employees

This post originally appeared on Forbes on April 29, 2026.

Leidy Klotz, author of the wildly popular book Subtract, has now turned his attention to a deceptively simple question in his new book, In A Good Place. How do the spaces we inhabit shape the way we think, feel, and perform? Rather than treating offices as neutral backdrops, Klotz argues that physical environments quietly steer behavior and emotions — often in ways leaders overlook. For organizations investing heavily in engagement and productivity, it’s a question that puts workplace design, not just workplace policy and performance metrics, at the center of the conversation.

Klotz highlights important disconnects between planning the workspace and the day-to-day business of running a company. What is lost when renewing the company mission is on one agenda, and upgrading the office space is on another? What might be lost when organizations pour resources into employee wellness but don’t do anything about those gray rows of horrible cubicles?

“Space is a way of telling employees that you want them to have a say in what’s happening,” says Klotz in our interview regarding his new book. “Or, you’re telling them the opposite — maybe unintentionally.” How companies design spaces subtly signals how much agency employees have.

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