The Dolphin Effect: A Mindset for Creating a Flexible Workplace

What is the Dolphin Effect?

Imagine the workplace as an ocean, and you and your team are dolphins. Sometimes, your team needs to dive deep into the water, focusing on the details. Then, they need to surface and collaborate, bounce ideas, or get feedback.

Winning workplaces know how to take advantage of this flow. They enable their employees so they know when to dive and when to surface, which is essential for maintaining both productivity and creativity. In or out of the office, how you enable your team to transition in and out of those modes is critical.

Inside your office, you need spaces and activations that put people in the right mindset for the desired result. 

• If you want them to focus, then you need quiet, focused areas—whether that’s desks, lounge areas with individual seating, or tables for desk work. 
• If you want them to collaborate, you need spaces that encourage interaction and connection, like the office pantry. It’s a low-lift way to bring people together over something as universal as food, creating opportunities for spontaneous discussions and idea sharing.

Outside the office, that’s where technology and virtual activations come in. Whether your team is working remotely or just spread across different locations, the right tools can bridge the gap and ensure seamless focus and collaboration.

• Virtual spaces, chat platforms, and video calls are essential to maintaining the same sense of connection and flow, even when you’re not physically together.
• Plus, if you're part of the workplace teams and want to maximize your own focus time, a partner with digital tools like Crafty can help you streamline your operations across offices so that you can focus on what counts. 

Remember, the goal is to go with the flow. You want employees to be able to transition seamlessly. 

Why is heads-down work important?

Heads-down work is essential for deep focus and productivity. When employees have uninterrupted time to concentrate, they can solve complex problems, develop strategies, and create high-quality work. 

Our strategic partner and leading corporate real estate giant JLL found that choice of space, privacy, individual workstations, and focused work areas impacted workplace productivity. They go on to say that after the pandemic, many companies overcorrected when redesigning their workspace focusing too much on collaborative areas and not enough on private workstations.

Why is collaborative work important?

On the flip side, collaboration fuels innovation and growth. When employees come together to share ideas, provide feedback, or solve problems as a team, they create synergies that can’t be achieved alone. 

What's more is that in-person collaboration tends to result in better outcomes: 

• According to Microsoft, remote working can reduce collaboration by about 25%.
• Remote and chaotic hybrid schedules reduce the quality and quantity of employee ideas.

How can workplaces implement a flexible workplace?

Creating a truly flexible workplace requires clear expectations and intentional design. Flexibility isn’t just about remote work; it’s about offering employees the freedom to choose the right environment for the task at hand. 

This is why Nate Rosenstock, Crafty’s CEO, developed the Four Es Framework to guide organizations through this process. Here’s how you can implement flexibility in a way that works for everyone:

• Expectations: Clear expectations are key. Flexibility varies by role, so start with job descriptions that align employees' skills and schedules. Reinforce these expectations through policies, workload, and culture to ensure alignment across the employee lifecycle.
• Enablement: Flexibility is about how employees work, not just where. Remove administrative burdens while providing clarity on which tasks are best suited for specific environments. Use technology to streamline operations and provide transparency across teams and locations.
• Experience: The work experience—whether in-office or remote—should support flexibility. Create spaces for collaboration, focus, and informal chats in the office, and ensure remote tools make communication seamless, like easy time-off requests or calendar blocks.
• Empathy: Flexibility requires empathy. Not all roles can offer the same flexibility, but it’s important to show equity in how you support your team. Be creative with solutions, adjusting workload or hours, to prevent burnout and maintain a healthy, sustainable work environment.

Conclusion

In 2025, the goal is to remove the chaos of unstructured flexibility and focus on creating a workplace where employees can balance heads-down focus and collaborative energy. By embracing the Dolphin Effect, organizations can help their teams dive deep when needed and surface to collaborate effectively when the time is right.