In the modern world, business happens fast. Office life has become a constant balance of managing customer needs while simultaneously managing your resources. Keeping your business’s integrity all the while dealing with a constantly changing market. Accomplishing your company goals while keeping your employees motivated and happy. Now, more than ever before, businesses must able to meet constantly changing customer needs in an incredibly dynamic and fast paced world. Today’s businesses need speed, responsiveness, and adaptability. A successful business must be agile, and the first step to an agile business is an agile office.
But how does a company create the ideal agile work environment? In a recent article from the Velocity Counts web site, they discuss how to build the ideal agile team workspace. Before one can begin creating an agile workspace, an agile team must be constructed. This is a team that is dynamic, collaborative, and there is a strong sense of camaraderie amongst its members. It has been found that smaller teams, 5 to 10 members, have a stronger sense of membership and as a result are often more collaborative than larger teams. Because collaboration is key to agile, the office must be designed to encourage this.
People love to ask questions, and are more productive for it. An agile office needs to have the space and openness to allow team members to quickly share ideas with the swivel of a chair. Yet, there must also be the availability to allow team members to zone in on their own work. A collaboration center located centrally within the office space is ideal for this. Here multiple team members can quickly organize a meeting to discuss ideas and then quickly return to their own stations. Finally, members must be happy. Happy team members are more open to sharing their ideas and communicating with other team members. Keep the room bright, with plants and art, and spending a little extra to keep employees happy (like a stocked refrigerator), has also shown to increase productivity.
In the modern business world, companies must be agile and their office should facilitate this. Communication and collaboration are key. Sharing ideas not only sparks creativity but also increases employee productivity. An open office allows team members to comfortably ask questions and solve problems together as a team. Communication accelerates your business, and with an agile office your business can easily master the fast paced and dynamic business world that exists today.
Written by Paul Lovy, .Net Software Engineer 1
For more on this topic please visit Velocity Counts
