Recently Enthiosys (a GlobalLogic partner) was at GlobalLogic’s Noida offices. In all our partner engagements we start with a few weeks of face-2-face discussion. During this time the teams are immersed in the product discussion; crossing geographic boundaries, functional boundaries, and organizational boundaries. This kick-off was different. The details of the kick-off planning included us receiving specification for the shape and of the table, color of the table cloth… However, the end result was very different than the interactions we had so far with our other partners. This re-triggered an old thought around why physically layout and the overall physical environment are important in the innovation process and more specifically in the Agile software development process.
This made me link back to a McKinsey article where they interviewed, Oscar-winning director Brad Bird. A question that caught my attention in this context was on how to they stimulate creativity. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/innovation_lessons_from_pixar_an_interview_with_oscar-winning_director_brad_bird_2127
The Quarterly: What does Pixar do to stimulate a creative culture?
Brad Bird: If you walk around downstairs in the animation area, you’ll see that it is unhinged. People are allowed to create whatever front to their office they want. One guy might build a front that’s like a Western town. Someone else might do something that looks like Hawaii. Steve Jobs initially didn’t like this idea, but John Lasseter said, “We’ve got to let it go a little crazy where the animators are.” John believes that if you have a loose, free kind of atmosphere, it helps creativity.
Then there’s our building. Steve Jobs basically designed this building. In the center, he created this big atrium area, which seems initially like a waste of space. The reason he did it was that everybody goes off and works in their individual areas. People who work on software code are here, people who animate are there, and people who do designs are over there. Steve put the mailboxes, the meetings rooms, the cafeteria, and, most insidiously and brilliantly, the bathrooms in the center—which initially drove us crazy—so that you run into everybody during the course of a day. He realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company.
Provides an interesting links to being creative to the physical layouts of the workplace.
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