Open Space is Good Space

Around 2011 I was coaching at a client with my sensei and mentor the late great John Goodsen.

Little did I know when I first left for the gig we'd be working in the corporate office. I hadn't consulted at a place with a dress code for so long it slipped my mind. Something GPaw would ding me for a few years later.

Dress code is not the story; the story is these poor developers having to work in the corporate office. The company had cube size regulations based on your seniority. I wish I made that up.

Developers were scattered all over the floor. If you make it hard for a developer to ask questions of the customer, or another developer, most of the time they won't.

If you ask developers to pair in a small cubicle built for one, it makes an awful pairing station.

Standup meetings? Get on the room reservation system.

Mobbing? Forget about it.

It was a terrible environment overall for building software, so John and I went to the manager and told him if he could get the teams into one room, all sitting together, he'd get at least a 50% boost in productivity.

He found a building in town that is used for union negotiations; when not in use it sits empty.

We moved the teams in and set up the areas as the teams desired. Each team had a big open area separated from the other teams.

Other teams even moved into other areas of the building.

It took a few weeks for the teams to get used to the slight increase in ambient noise, but eventually all settled in and started pairing and mobbing.

Weeks went by and we never did get asked about the 50% boost in productivity.