COVID-19 fundamentally changed people’s lives - personally, professionally, systemically. Across different industries, employees made the shift to remote work and cited higher rates of burnout, increased workloads, and increased team communication conflict. Companies noted these dynamics and felt greater responsibility to address employee mental health.

Simultaneously, amidst so much newness and disruption, familiar tools and ancient ways of coping were reawakened. Millions of people flocked to gardening, walking, and other nature-based activities, citing higher levels of groundedness and comfort as they dealt with the challenges of the pandemic.

Naturing Work is a multi-disciplinary research project that focuses on how people connected with nature during the pandemic and how these nature-based experiences offer insight into how to develop solutions for the employee mental health crisis, posed by COVID-19. 

The research uncovered five kinds of pauses that workers access through nature-based experiences: Play, Observe, Connect, Move, and Tend. By naming these five pauses, nature-based activities became a window into the challenges of today’s workplace and illuminated how we might respond to these dynamics. 

For example, how might we create playful pauses for remote workers that invite them to connect in low-stakes, spontaneous ways?

Flower Power Patch is a lo-fi prototype and response to this design question, using Naturing Work insights and biomimicry tools. The prototype is a virtual, unstructured open space that invites employees across an organization to share and connect throughout the workday. 

Inspired by the metaphor of pollination, Flower Power Patch demonstrates how organizations can look to nature to increase community wellness during unprecedented times.