Rethinking work by REMOVING walls

I’ve written about walls coming down in resistance to remote working technologies. As attention turns to safer work environments, we need to make sure those walls stay down.

No, this is not some cheap joke about sneeze barriers. While the workplace will look different (like this perhaps?), the adjustments that have enabled many businesses to survive, even flourish, will not be discarded.

“Going digital” with Microsoft Teams, Basecamp, Zoom or other tool of your choice, has inspired, or in some cases forced, businesses to rethink the way they organize work, and the way teams collaborate. The outcome has been a shift to more activity-based organization, where processes have streamlined workflow, access to information in systems and documents has improved, and communications have become much more fluid.

Agile rooms are the most productive work environments I’ve seen. These are spaces where teams assemble around a given activity and plaster the walls with sharpie notes and stickies to capture the team’s dynamic work patterns. These environments enable problems to be solved (much) more quickly than the traditional desk-and-meeting-room environment. Days, weeks or months later when the job is done, the teams disperse and move on to their next project, and the next agile space.

Over the last few months, I’ve seen this approach readily replicated in the virtual world. If your business hasn’t tried this yet, you really should.

When I spoke with Eric Yorath recently, we considered how these experiences would accelerate change in workplace design. 

Count the steps

When you return to your office, keep track of the time you spend travelling to be with the people you need to interact with. Then think of how else you could spend that time.

Better still, think about that now and prepare for a better workplace

Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order your copy here.