Setting the Stage: [5 mins]

We work in the IT Application Development department of a global management consulting firm with over 16K employees. The department has 200+ team members with a core presence in New York, Gurgaon and Mumbai. We have been practicing Agile for over 5 years now and have optimized our delivery process on several fronts. One main constraint to shortening the feedback loop further was that our teams, even if they are in the same building, are spread across floors and offices, meet only for “meetings” and communicate via email! We perceived great value in a team’s sitting together in a room with direct eye contact with our team members.

Aside from the core presence, we have team members scattered from Germany to Egypt with a scattered presence in various North American cities with no option of “sitting together”. We will touch upon how we were able to make an improvement for these teams as well using creative staffing and other strategic ways to minimize the feedback loop while not breaking the budget.

Demonstrating the Value: [5 mins]

• We will enact a scenario of a dispersed team and demonstrate how so much time is wasted in trying to get on the same page through asynchronous communication. We will also show the reason why the here & now takes priority over the urgent & important for a dispersed team and how their focus is diluted by distractions.
• We will then enact a similar scenario for a team that is sitting together and demonstrate how it overcomes the above drawbacks. We will also demonstrate how osmotic communication, transfer of tacit knowledge and collaborative innovation happen effortlessly and at great speed.
• We will also touch upon how we were able to shorten the feedback loop where moving continents and sitting together was not an option. Creative staffing of teams and strategically planned interactions helped the dynamics.

What constraints did we face? [5 mins]

• Perception of loss of personal space: We assume that sitting together means loss of personalized space and privacy.
• Perception of intrusion on creative/thinking time: We assume that we will not have time alone to focus, think, innovate and be creative.
• Perception of loss of recognition: Our HR and Real Estate policies tie our sense of recognition to the type of office space we have. We all aim for the corner office with the great view and cherish our private offices that are only given to middle managers.
• Perception that it will require money: Management is hesitant to make the capital expenditure and are less convinced of the merits of sitting together.
• For distributed teams, the real constraints of minimal overlap time and the fact that people did not know each other or have personal relationships which are necessary for the easy communication needed within teams

How we overcame these constraints?: [10 mins]

• Be cognizant of people’s adoption curves: Harness the enthusiasm and engagement of early adopters to make it a grass roots effort. Welcome the early majority with great fanfare. Give time to the late minority and respect the resistance of the laggards.
• Realize that one size does not fit all: Create a multi-dimensional solution. There may be a genuine need for a temporary office for sensitive conversations, or a shared office for smaller/dispersed teams or for those easily distracted.
• Help people make their decision based on real experiences instead of fear: Approach it as a time-boxed experiment with full intentions of reverting to original seating plan if productivity and motivation drops. Do not let people simply vote for whether to sit together or not. We did that and failed miserably. Treat it like a scrum project - check-in with people through informal conversations and do weekly socials to report progress and gather feedback. Inspect and adapt throughout the experiment.
• Lead by example: Get your leaders to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk and set an example by making them early adopters of “sitting together”. We will show how our leaders set an example.
• Touch upon distributed teams where it is not feasible to be co-located and several innovative ways that help towards the cause of shortening the feedback loop

Results: [5 mins]

We will show the feedback we received from the teams and share pictures of our current arrangements.

P.S.

• Attached pdf has the sketches we used for presenting this topic at the Agile NYC Conference in Sept 2011.
• You may have to click on View -> Rotate Clockwise in Adobe Acrobat to correct the alignment.