Pattern #10
Dynamic Space
Workspace design reflects culture. It also shapes it. The design of most workspaces is fixed. Static space reinforces a fixed mindset. Dynamic space adapts to support new ways of working.
Breakthrough transformation is rare in business. Abundant systemic problems usually stand in the way: business units at war with one another; IT organizations that wield governance as whip and chain; creative agencies that create redundant and conflicting strategies in a drive to out-do one another. IBM Design Lab, which opened in April 2012 in midtown Manhattan, achieved several breakthroughs at once. The lab brought IBM’s marketing and IT departments together into a shared undertaking, building trust and understanding. Small, empowered teams were fashioned from outside agencies and IBM talent and coached on agile methods as a common language of work. Dynamic, creative and charged with energy, some of the most powerful learnings came from the physical space itself.
Like the teams who worked there, the lab had to bootstrap itself into existence. Just weeks before its opening came news that the furniture would not arrive in time. The team built their own from plywood sheets and table legs from a nearby Home Depot. It set the tone for what followed. The lab was in a constant state of flux. There was little that was fixed to the floor. The teams rearranged the foam boards and space dividers as the work changed. It was their space— a powerful prop for the culture of resourcefulness, creativity and learning we wanted to nurture.
At a moment when IBM and its clients were struggling to assert leadership, the lab seemed to light a path forward. IBM’s CEO was a frequent visitor. Hundreds of clients came for tours. IBM’s consulting division bottled and sold the lab, and built its own, lab-like approach to client engagements. A network of IBM Studios—physical facilities inspired by what the lab had pioneered—opened up around the world. IBM’s entire marketing organization of 5,000 people declared their commitment to agile methods. Across marketing, product and engineering teams, the company increasingly requires physical co-location.
The lab itself only lasted two years. We opened a second, bigger and far more expensive facility in the East Village. It was serviceable enough. But it failed to capture the bootstrapped magic of the original. The lab’s pioneers moved on, many of them profoundly changed by the extraordinary and intense experience they had shared. And the ideas on which the lab was built—small and empowered teams, agile methods, and the deep integration of creativity and technology—continue to grow more powerful and urgent.