memex

Desktop computers are so yesterday at REA Group, with all 558 workers in its Richmond office being equipped with Apple laptops and Cisco Jabber instant messaging (IM), voice, video, desktop sharing, and conferencing system. “That runs on a mobile device or laptop. That gives us the flexibility of not only working from anywhere in the building, the Wi-Fi is high quality, but also enables them to work from home if need to,” the CIO said. Most collaboration-based projects take place in the ‘marketplace’: A collection of different meeting rooms in the centre of each floor. … Walls in the new office are not just there to block out sound or look pretty. They are valuable space that can be used for brainstorming ideas and writing down project updates or notices, Dalton says. This is where he saw an opportunity for the office to encourage more agile work practices. “There’s an enormous amount of wall space for visually displaying the work and the priorities that are being worked on. A lot of the material used in the marketplace is quite humble, so we use plywood and whiteboards, encouraging people to visually display the work. “There’s nothing like having to put your prioritised work on a board and letting people see it to [generate] good open debate about what is being worked on by teams. I’ve seen a lot of increase in people’s understanding of the big picture around our purpose and objectives for teams.”