ABW Right problem, Wrong solution
Activity-based Working (ABW) — design different workplaces to suit different activities of your work.
Sounds great doesn’t it.
- If I want to work alone undisturbed go to a silent room
- If I would like to talk to my colleagues I sit in a semi-focus room
- If I need to do some e-mails I could just crash down on a table between meetings at the 15-min focus table.
Imagine, designer furniture and laughing young people having a great time at work.
This might be a perfect solution for project based work where “resources” spend 12.5% of their time on eight (or ten) different projects. Work is happening on a lot of places simultaneously and all “resource cogs” needs to work with each other in different settings. Meetings has to be scheduled and timed to suit every one involved in a project. Working groups are fluid and resources involved only for their special expertise. In those cases people need to move to the work in order to make it flow. ABW makes that easier but are they solving the right problem. We know that multitasking is expensive and lowers quality and flow. We also know that for groups to perform well they need to know and trust each other. What if work could flow thorough the team rather than the other way around?
Team based work is fundamentally different. Instead of moving people to work, we move work to the team. A small, cross functional, co-located team that prioritizes work and only works with one task until finished. In this setting, work flows to the team so that the team can stay where they are and just receive new work. All friction in booking meetings, finding rooms making sure that everyone has time and so on are gone. Just take the work to the team, if it’s important enough they’ll get it done. That team also needs different work settings to allow for different kinds of teamwork, but not in the ABW-way.
For a team to exercise effortless colaboration they need:
- Fixed location, team room, to work together with a lot of wall space for information radiators, preferably seated back to back so they easily can move and help each other. Co-location and close proximity is essential to rich communication.
- Meeting area so that they never have to schedule a meeting, if a spontaneous meeting is required, just move over. If a scheduled meeting is required, just move over. Since the whole team is there almost all of the time, meetings is just work at a table instead of in front of a computer.
- Influence over how the team room is organized and how to behave when in that area. Working agreements regarding loud discussions, eating at desk is best handled by the team. Trust the team and give them the power over their own working environment.
Other great stuff for happy teams
- Natural light
- Lot of space
- Movable furniture
- Telephone booth
- Good chairs and standing desks
In the team based work setting a the problems solved by ABW doesn’t exist. If I need to work undisturbed I just signal it to my group. If we need to discuss something just scoot over to the meeting area. And for that 15-min focus, lets go down to the café and have an coffee instead.
What are your thoughts on how to set up a great area for work to flow?
