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50 commercial property


Learning the lessons of agile working


While not everyone has rushed to adopt agile working, those companies that have and implemented it badly can give learning points for the future which we should all ignore at our peril, writes David Thomas, partner, Vail Williams LLP


The term 'third- place' working appears more and more but what is this third place; the coffee shop, airport lounge, train, business lounge in motorway services?


Many years ago I heard a story of a company that decided it was going to do without offices so bought its salesmen the latest laptops and mobile phones and locked the door to the sales office whilst the salesmen were encouraged to work from home, coffee shops, client sites and so on.


The reality of what happened though was a little bizarre but enlightening from a human behaviours' aspect. Whilst the company had locked the door to the office, the car park remained open and every day the sales team would drive to the car park, and sit in their cars working, communicating through open windows when required or closing the windows when concentration was required or a phone call to be made.


Agile working however cannot be implemented if there is a culture of “presentism” where your boss starts watch tapping when you arrive at 11am


Whether this is a true story or even urban myth the first lesson is that you need to be very comfortable that employees being offered a different way of working are ready for the change. It is no good recommending someone work from home if they don’t have a space to work in without being disturbed by 2.4 children and a 'to-do' list left by their spouse.


The term 'third-place' working appears more and more but what is this third place; the coffee shop, airport lounge, train, business lounge in motorway services? In these locations we will tend to make allowances for the restless child who has just knocked their mother's latte over your paperwork, the frequent flyer who is complaining about how he nearly missed his flight shouting into his mobile, frequent announcements or comings and goings.


And after our brief tour of other places “through agile working” we come back to the office to find we no longer have a permanent desk, the photo of your 2.4 children has to be blue tacked inside your locker and unless you have arrived by 7am you cannot stake your claim to a 1.4 m piece of wood to try and have a productive day.


Yet in this new environment someone in their wisdom has removed the partitions, increasing your ability to hear the lady from accounts talking so loudly about her journey home last night you keep losing your train of thought; your colleague with poor mobile reception is making the frequent flyer referred to above sound as quiet as a mouse and the Wi-Fi installation to make you more mobile cuts out more frequently than a stop start engine on the M4 commute.


In all of these situations it is the lack of choice offered which causes discomfort, causes a poor experience of working in any of the environments and that is what


www.businessmag.co.uk THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2015


happens when agile working is implemented badly without proper supporting evidence of how people actually work and want to work, how they can work most effectively and what experience they have that will make them want to come back and do it all again tomorrow.


To fully embrace experience-based agile working there is one other important ingredient – autonomy; autonomy of how, where and when you can work most effectively. Agile working, however, cannot be implemented if there is a culture of “presentism” where your boss starts watch tapping when you arrive at 11am because you spent your first two hours of the day writing a report in peace at home followed by an easier commute.


This is where agile working needs to get serious and only be implemented where the HR policies actively support autonomous working; the environment allows staff to work in areas that support the task, for example phone booths for Mr Noisy; quiet concentration areas for you to work on your report and drown out the lady from accounts; the social aspect is maintained through good-size breakout areas to allow interaction; and, technology that supports agile with strong broadband and Wi-Fi.


Agile is all very well but delivering the right experience is even better. The right experience increases morale and productivity; the wrong experience can affect staff retention. What are your best and worst office experiences? We would love to hear about them – email in confidence to: officeexperience@vailwilliams.com


For more information about Vail Williams, visit the website.


Details: David Thomas 0118-9097404 dthomas@vailwilliams.com www.vailwilliams.com


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