Designing Workplaces That Help People Succeed It’s January, and many of us are thinking about resolutions, better habits, and how to actually stick to them. You’ve probably heard the idea that willpower is like a muscle: use it enough and it gets stronger, but push it too far and it wears out. The reality is more complicated. Willpower is fragile, limited, and highly sensitive to context. Our attention and self-control draw on a finite pool of mental energy, and when it runs low, focus slips, and we default to procrastination or shortcuts. Fortunately, willpower is just one lever. Thoughtful design can shape our environment to make the right choices easier—with less conscious effort. Psychologist Angela Duckworth calls this situational agency: designing environments to help people act in line with their goals.
The right environment can do some of the willpower work for us. For workplace designers, this is familiar territory. We know that good design makes a real difference in how people perform. A well-crafted office makes it easier to focus, collaborate, or shift gears effortlessly—doing some of the willpower work for us.
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