Will's answer here is awesome. Thank you!
On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Will Bennis, Locus Workspace <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Some of my experiences with this question:
>
> - There's a cat cafe near our coworking space (teaming with cats).
> It's NOT a great cafe and there's huge competition in the cafe market here,
> but the cafe IS a great success. If every cafe had cats, I think this cafe
> would be out of business (and the No Cats Cafe would thrive).
>
> * The point*: whether pets are a positive or negative depends on what
> else is out there. If there are a lot of coworking spaces and yours is the
> only one to allow dogs (or vice versa), it might be a great selling point.
> Coworking with childcare is a real negative for most people without kids
> who they need to be near when they're working ("I go to a coworking space
> to get AWAY from my kids" was one strong response when I brought up the
> idea of childcare to our members), but it's often the ONLY solution for
> people with kids.
>
>
> - This topic (of allowing dogs) came up three times at our space far
> enough apart that it was worth asking existing members each time. All three
> times there were a few ABSOLUTE voices against pets (even though more
> people said they'd be happy with a cute dog around). The same thing
> happened when we asked about having music in the space (after seeing the
> results of some survey suggesting the vast majority of coworking space
> members prefer music in their space): a few strong voices against it
> without any voices nearly as strong in favor of the change. That said, I am
> confident that if we had started with a dog-friendly space (or a space with
> music, or... name your option with both pros and cons for members) and
> tried to change it, we would have had the same kind of reaction but in
> support of the opposite decision: overall preference for the status quo
> (see "status quo bias <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo_bias>
> ").
>
> * The point*: The norms a coworking space starts with are essential to
> how that space's community feels about those norms, so...
> 1. Take our advice with a strong dose of skepticism: our experience
> with our members is inherently biased by what our spaces began with,
> 2. It's really hard to change something full of pros & cons
> mid-stride, so if you don't have a community already, give strong
> weight to
> the choice that fits the community you'd like to be a part of (imagine
> if I
> had started with a "coworking & childcare space" and then polled my
> members
> about dropping the child care option),
> 3. There is more than one right answer, depending on the community
> you have built (or want to build). I'm guessing none of us would
> recommend
> a heavy-metal blasting coworking space and if any of us introduced that
> feature our existing members would leave in droves. That said, if you
> started a heavy-metal coworking space in the right location, you might
> find
> yourself with a packed community of heavy-metal loving (and difficult to
> distract) coworkers and an incredibly dedicated community.
>
>
> - We were able to get around our "dog problem" (a few strong voices
> against with a majority of weak voices in support) because we have two
> floors. So we made one floor dog friendly. I don't actually recommend this
> if you're starting from scratch (there are so many other ways to divide
> floors), but for us with an existing norm, it was the only way we could
> have introduced the change.
>
> My 2 cents...
>
> Will
>
> On Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 5:13:04 AM UTC+1, Jamie Russo wrote:
>>
>> Hi Geoff,
>> Alex always has great responses.
>> I thought I'd chime in with another perspective. We are pet-friendly in
>> both locations. One concrete floor, one carpet. No peeing yet :-) I was
>> worried about all of the concerns Alex outlined but when we opened our Palo
>> Alto space, we found we really had to follow the local culture of being
>> pet-friendly.
>>
>> What I've found is that generally, people perceive this to be a huge
>> benefit but not many actually take advantage of it. In general, people with
>> pets (mostly dogs), know whether or not their dog can handle being in a
>> coworking space without peeing or growling or breaking something.
>>
>> In Chicago, we had a very small dog that used to greet all of our members
>> and visitors at the door and I'm pretty sure he was a major selling point.
>> He is no longer a member and I consider him to be one of our biggest
>> losses. He added a lot of personality and helped to trigger those
>> serendipitous interactions with his random wanderings :-)
>>
>> On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 11:32:10 AM UTC-7, [email protected]
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> We're opening up a coworking space in Burnaby, BC, Canada. We're talking
>>> about whether to have the space as pet-friendly or not. I'm pro having
>>> friendly well behaved pets in the space, but what have you guys found?
>>>
>>> Geoff
>>>
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