Zen practice in open space
Soon there will be 2 anniversaries.
First: the anniversary of our office in Smolenka: for almost 10 years we have been working, creating IT products and sometimes living in open spaces.
Second: soon there will be another anniversary - 5 years from the first workshop attended by Max Dorofeev , on the basis of which and thanks to which ideas were formed in many ways that I would like to share.
// Until my mark of 10 years in DD, another six months.
My name is Vova Stekolshchikov, and although I am now working in a relatively different field (I am engaged in business development, strategic marketing and service design), over the years of working in various positions and in different formats, I have gained experience and ideas on how to make work in the office comfortable and effective. We have a pilot group, some ideas have already been implemented, in general, there is something to share, moreover, many principles in one form or another are now being actively implemented in many companies.
If peace of mind and personal effectiveness are attractive tags for you, welcome to cat.
Disclaimer: There are no universal recipes for happiness. Caesar Caesarean, Noisy Noise. Therefore, I urge you only to test the practices described below and decide whether they are suitable for you or not. I am firmly convinced that if you don’t try, you won’t know.
1. Rest from office space
Despite the fact that the office remains the main workspace for the majority, people of intellectual labor need to change the environment. Take a break from open space at least a day a week. About 20 years ago, many working moments “slowed down” as soon as someone went on vacation / business trip / on sick leave. Now companies are trying to provide the necessary tools (we'll talk about this below) for remote work. And here everyone has the right to choose: for someone it is easier to concentrate in the office, for someone - at home / in a cafe / park, etc. The main thing is to find your own format.
2. Convenient tools
Of course, for such work you need tools that encourage the creation and active use of a digital workplace, people are not ready to be limited to a specific space / device for work.
- Communication channels. Our office uses different tools for work, recently we appreciated the convenience of working at MS Teams, where we communicate with departments, working groups, and hold conferences. Yes, sometimes it is convenient to hold an online conference from the workplace and immediately exchange the necessary files, even if everyone is sitting on the same floor (and sometimes even in the room). Also, this practice helps not to feel pain when one of the participants is not in the office. Well, once a week for retrospective and planning, we are going to meet in person.
It is also important that everyone understands that depending on the urgency of the issue, you can choose different communication channels: “Phone (quickly and immediately) - messenger (how it will turn out, maybe right away) - mail (I will look for a day or two).” Many in general (I am a very active propagandist of the topic of turning off notifications not only from instant messengers, but also any other buzzers, tweeters and outluck pop-ups) turn off instant messengers, because you need to concentrate on work sometime, and when using personal instant messengers there is always a risk of seeing other “urgent” messages and go far from fragile concentration at work.
And do not hesitate to throw a link to this beautiful site if one of the colleagues sins "greetings."
No good
Ok
- The context of the work. Create an information exchange space where colleagues will see that work is underway on some issues, even if there is no need to delve into the details. In a word, everyone should stay up to date with the main events. Here, by the way, the very same Teams or Slack with their channels and discussion threads helps a lot (unlike endless and unstructured discussions in a beautiful “cart”).
- Collaboration.
Yes, this is not the newest way to save a little time, but you should not neglect it. If you have a huge Talmud for familiarizing the entire department, ask someone to make a note and share it with the others. And then you do not have to "start working" at 18.00.
3. Peace and quiet
Some departments (but not marketing, with their calls from potential customers = /) arrange a “quiet hour” in the office to allow employees to concentrate on tasks, rather than on an endless stream of discussions and approvals. Of course, if it is possible by the nature of the unit. This silence is not only oral, but also written: no letters, messages, and instant messengers. And yes, if there is an urgent call, you can talk in the corridor, without disturbing the fragile working mood in the office!
It’s not bad to give yourself a more complete rest at least for a while. During the day we receive a huge amount of information that we do not have time to process corny (part of this processing is in a dream). Everyone knows the fact that most of the brilliant people had their own know-how in the field of the balance of leisure and work, and many discoveries were made at the junction of these 2 spheres. As an example, take Churchill, who did not miss the opportunity to snooze an hour after lunch: “Do not think that you will do less work, because you sleep during the day. This is a stupid opinion of people who have no imagination. On the contrary, you can do more, because you get two days in one - well, at least one and a half. ” It is clear that the conditions and the ability to take a nap for an hour or two are not available in all offices, but still try to adapt this to your own rhythm of work: sometimes 10 minutes of meditation / sleep / freedom from thoughts will help you reboot until the evening and look at tasks from a new angle.
And yes. Do not neglect such simple rules as talking quietly in the office and using meeting rooms for discussions.
And here is another idea for the use of special devices .
4. Minimizing the number of meetings
If your company still has meetings for the sake of meetings, try writing letters more often. Yes, you will spend time on the formulation of thoughts, but colleagues will quickly get to the bottom of the matter, and no one will be bored at the meeting and ask the question: “What am I doing here?”
Excellent article on this practice: www.rbc.ru/own_business/17/01/2018/5a5c76e19a79472b3d4128b0
5. And again about inaction (in a smart way: passive mode of the brain)
As always, it all started with American (this time) scientists. They conducted an experiment in which people were supposed to be indoors for about 15 minutes without any entertainment other than the opportunity to receive a small electric shock . A category was selected of people who did not really like to receive an electric shock (yes, there are some), but still many (67% of men and 25% of women) preferred to receive a blow or a couple than to go and get bored further. This is surprising, but it’s so scary for people to “slow down” and be left alone with their thoughts that they would prefer such dubious entertainment. But not doing nothing is always unproductive, you need to be able to alternate: concentrate, relax, communicate, and then work will bring more pleasure. May be
I think everyone found in the article what his company is already actively using today. If there are more ideas, I suggest changing them in the comments.
Zen everyone, even in open space!
First: the anniversary of our office in Smolenka: for almost 10 years we have been working, creating IT products and sometimes living in open spaces.
Second: soon there will be another anniversary - 5 years from the first workshop attended by Max Dorofeev , on the basis of which and thanks to which ideas were formed in many ways that I would like to share.
// Until my mark of 10 years in DD, another six months.
My name is Vova Stekolshchikov, and although I am now working in a relatively different field (I am engaged in business development, strategic marketing and service design), over the years of working in various positions and in different formats, I have gained experience and ideas on how to make work in the office comfortable and effective. We have a pilot group, some ideas have already been implemented, in general, there is something to share, moreover, many principles in one form or another are now being actively implemented in many companies.
If peace of mind and personal effectiveness are attractive tags for you, welcome to cat.
Disclaimer: There are no universal recipes for happiness. Caesar Caesarean, Noisy Noise. Therefore, I urge you only to test the practices described below and decide whether they are suitable for you or not. I am firmly convinced that if you don’t try, you won’t know.
1. Rest from office space
Despite the fact that the office remains the main workspace for the majority, people of intellectual labor need to change the environment. Take a break from open space at least a day a week. About 20 years ago, many working moments “slowed down” as soon as someone went on vacation / business trip / on sick leave. Now companies are trying to provide the necessary tools (we'll talk about this below) for remote work. And here everyone has the right to choose: for someone it is easier to concentrate in the office, for someone - at home / in a cafe / park, etc. The main thing is to find your own format.
2. Convenient tools
Of course, for such work you need tools that encourage the creation and active use of a digital workplace, people are not ready to be limited to a specific space / device for work.
- Communication channels. Our office uses different tools for work, recently we appreciated the convenience of working at MS Teams, where we communicate with departments, working groups, and hold conferences. Yes, sometimes it is convenient to hold an online conference from the workplace and immediately exchange the necessary files, even if everyone is sitting on the same floor (and sometimes even in the room). Also, this practice helps not to feel pain when one of the participants is not in the office. Well, once a week for retrospective and planning, we are going to meet in person.
It is also important that everyone understands that depending on the urgency of the issue, you can choose different communication channels: “Phone (quickly and immediately) - messenger (how it will turn out, maybe right away) - mail (I will look for a day or two).” Many in general (I am a very active propagandist of the topic of turning off notifications not only from instant messengers, but also any other buzzers, tweeters and outluck pop-ups) turn off instant messengers, because you need to concentrate on work sometime, and when using personal instant messengers there is always a risk of seeing other “urgent” messages and go far from fragile concentration at work.
And do not hesitate to throw a link to this beautiful site if one of the colleagues sins "greetings."
No good
Ok
- The context of the work. Create an information exchange space where colleagues will see that work is underway on some issues, even if there is no need to delve into the details. In a word, everyone should stay up to date with the main events. Here, by the way, the very same Teams or Slack with their channels and discussion threads helps a lot (unlike endless and unstructured discussions in a beautiful “cart”).
- Collaboration.
Yes, this is not the newest way to save a little time, but you should not neglect it. If you have a huge Talmud for familiarizing the entire department, ask someone to make a note and share it with the others. And then you do not have to "start working" at 18.00.
3. Peace and quiet
Some departments (but not marketing, with their calls from potential customers = /) arrange a “quiet hour” in the office to allow employees to concentrate on tasks, rather than on an endless stream of discussions and approvals. Of course, if it is possible by the nature of the unit. This silence is not only oral, but also written: no letters, messages, and instant messengers. And yes, if there is an urgent call, you can talk in the corridor, without disturbing the fragile working mood in the office!
It’s not bad to give yourself a more complete rest at least for a while. During the day we receive a huge amount of information that we do not have time to process corny (part of this processing is in a dream). Everyone knows the fact that most of the brilliant people had their own know-how in the field of the balance of leisure and work, and many discoveries were made at the junction of these 2 spheres. As an example, take Churchill, who did not miss the opportunity to snooze an hour after lunch: “Do not think that you will do less work, because you sleep during the day. This is a stupid opinion of people who have no imagination. On the contrary, you can do more, because you get two days in one - well, at least one and a half. ” It is clear that the conditions and the ability to take a nap for an hour or two are not available in all offices, but still try to adapt this to your own rhythm of work: sometimes 10 minutes of meditation / sleep / freedom from thoughts will help you reboot until the evening and look at tasks from a new angle.
And yes. Do not neglect such simple rules as talking quietly in the office and using meeting rooms for discussions.
And here is another idea for the use of special devices .
4. Minimizing the number of meetings
If your company still has meetings for the sake of meetings, try writing letters more often. Yes, you will spend time on the formulation of thoughts, but colleagues will quickly get to the bottom of the matter, and no one will be bored at the meeting and ask the question: “What am I doing here?”
Excellent article on this practice: www.rbc.ru/own_business/17/01/2018/5a5c76e19a79472b3d4128b0
5. And again about inaction (in a smart way: passive mode of the brain)
As always, it all started with American (this time) scientists. They conducted an experiment in which people were supposed to be indoors for about 15 minutes without any entertainment other than the opportunity to receive a small electric shock . A category was selected of people who did not really like to receive an electric shock (yes, there are some), but still many (67% of men and 25% of women) preferred to receive a blow or a couple than to go and get bored further. This is surprising, but it’s so scary for people to “slow down” and be left alone with their thoughts that they would prefer such dubious entertainment. But not doing nothing is always unproductive, you need to be able to alternate: concentrate, relax, communicate, and then work will bring more pleasure. May be
I think everyone found in the article what his company is already actively using today. If there are more ideas, I suggest changing them in the comments.
Zen everyone, even in open space!
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