So I’ve blogged on our new Madison space before, but now that we’ve lived in it for a while I can’t help but share another thing that I’ve noticed. People are talking. People in the building are talking to each other. . . everywhere. All. The. Time.
You may ask, “But Vic, doesn’t all that open space and off-the-cuff interaction inhibit productivity? Aren’t you worried when you see people standing around talking?” The answer: an emphatic “No!” That was exactly the intention – and it is succeeding beyond our imagination. I see work getting done, more fully and passionately than ever.
And I imagine emails being deleted, unanswered – at least not answered through the conventional way. They are being answered on the stairway, in the kitchen, in the atrium, while walking through our lobby and – if the conversation becomes more complex – in the impromptu meeting spaces tucked into the corners of our new space. No appointment necessary – let’s just knock this out right here and now.
The result? Stuff is getting done – not through hour-long meetings in boardrooms with 10 people but in 5-minute, “Hey, what do you think of this?” snippets. M3ers are connecting the dots, breaking down the silos, and making things happen. We are learning to serve our clients better by serving each other better. The building. . . is just a building; but what we are building inside of it. . . now that’s something to see.
