I just met with one of our customers, 1st Nexspire, a Japanese software company with over 150 employees. Like many organizations this size they are distributed, with teams in 5 locations across Japan and China.
Historically they would organize projects based on where engineers were physically located. Their thinking, co-located employees communicate more so they must be more productive.
Of course there is a major flaw in this conventional wisdom. Just because people are co-located and meet face to face doesn’t mean they are the best people for a given project.
In this day and age, when companies are engaged in highly complex endeavors the best talent for a given project might be anywhere on the planet. Most certainly you can’t expect them to be in the exact physical location with the other 8, 10 or 20 best people to put on that project.
1st Nexspire’s management realized this. Their insight was to staff the best talent for a project regardless of physical location and rely on a better communication environment to prevent them from sacrificing any of the efficiencies of co-location.
Enter Sococo Team Space. We worked with 1st Nexpire to create innovative floor plans that allowed teams to work together in bullpens (virtual war rooms) regardless of where they were physically. Instead of doing geographically based project teams, they now do virtual space based project teams.
Everyone is together all day long. Everyone sees everyone else. Communication is a mouse click away (voice, video, chat, sharing). Employees work on the projects that are the best fits for them and the company.
