More than an office
01 January 2016
I’ve been interested in culture and on-boarding for a while now, but only recently has my obsession gotten to the point where I am actively doing something about it. An example of this is I started helping out with the developer on-boarding program where I work. This on-boarding program is a 6-week intensive training course focused on product-to-production work-flows and peer & team collaboration, run in a sandbox environment.
I came in to help run this chapter approximately 3 days before it started. The person running the course was overloaded with production tasks and needed help. We had to make tough decisions fast: Syllabus, learning materials, structure, mentors, …
The day before the course started I went into the office that was to be the chapters home for the duration of the course. The space was previously used for storage and still felt that way after we cleaned it up. It felt cold, dark and unhappy. Not quite the atmosphere that matches our company’s spirit.
Our goals for this training course are:
- Promote self learning, self sufficiency
- Team and peer collaboration and learning
- Assimilation into the company culture
Having read Peopleware, I hypothesize that the way we arrange their first office directly affects their state of mind and whether or not we are successful in achieving our goals.
Our most basic possible options are:
The first option suggests there is a hierarchy, it suggests that there is one person (usually standing at the head of the room) that you should learn from. We want to encourage attendees of the course to learn from each other. This setup has the added affect of immediately associating this experience to that of a classroom where you’re bored and unchallenged. That’s not an association we wanted to make.
The third option is completely out of the question. Attendees of the course are employees from day 1. We trust them to do their job, which currently is learning and growing. Furthermore, having their backs face their teammates promotes self learning but will make it difficult for them to communicate and collaborate with one another.
We are left with option #2. It provides enough personal space and privacy, while enabling a clear line of vision for collaboration. As an added bonus, it simulates the environment attendees will join once the course is over, it attests that they are treated equally.
At the end of the 3rd day, post general employee on-boarding (using the product, payroll etc), attendees moved into their first office.
Watching them move in was a treat. Oddly enough, it worked just as I hoped it would (things never do, so naturally I was surprised): They set up their workstations, some laughed at the web-comics I had so meticulously picked out and hung on the walls, then came the statement I was hoping to hear “I’ll bring some of my things tomorrow to make this spot my own”. Ding!
Success. They’re making this their second home.
This is the first post in a series of posts about my involvement in the developer onboarding program where I work. The second post can be found here.