Are you encouraging war in the office?

11 May casual clothing improves teamwork.

Suits are the body armour of business.  If your people are dressed to fight are they more likely to do so?

Suits are just armour.

Every organisation has politics, it’s not something that you can get away from.  The tribal nature of humans means that there will be fights for social position in any given group.  But can you create a culture where the political manoeuvres of your people are less detrimental to your business?

One of the very small changes you can make right now to improve politics is to remove the suits from your organisation.   Obviously there are times when you may still want to don the body armour for public display, but in your team meetings it really shouldn’t be necessary.

Every time I run an event where we’re trying to improve productivity I specify that there are no suits to be worn.  I do this because it moves people out of their roles into the generic bucket of ‘person’.  Removing the hierarchy of cloth creates a level playing field where everyone is equal and communication improves.

Developers find it much easier to talk to a guy in jeans and a jumper than a suit.  If he finds it easier to talk the solutions is likely to turn out better.  That is good for everyone, so please be careful with the suits.

casual clothing improves teamwork.

casual clothing improves teamwork.

Twitt

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The writing’s on the wall.

8 May Whiteboard wall

At Launch48 events I have taken a keen interest in how the space allocated to a group of random strangers to launch a business in 48 hours affects the outcome.  I have seen teams working in lots of different spaces, from auditorium style set-ups where the project lead commands the room from the stage through to complete geographical separation where different factions form.  The impact of the project space on team performance has been so clear I am a massive advocate for the importance of space to project success.

If you want to encourage collaboration and discussion, make all your walls into whiteboards.

 

I worked in an office in Covent Garden where all the walls were whiteboards.  I’m not talking about whiteboards attached to all the walls.  All the wallls, columns, skirting boards and window frames were whiteboards.

The concequence of this was that every space became a meeting space and no one would even think about making a point without drawing a cheeky diagram.  Having a whiteboard pen in your pocket was as likely as having a phone.

Collaboration became the standard.

If you want to encourage collaboration I implore you to turn all your walls into whiteboards, and maybe even ceilings.

Your thoughts:

If you have experienced office environments that have helped or hindered your ability to collaborate I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Whiteboard wall

Twitt

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