Collaboration

Be Agile. Hack Your Space.

Change Everything at Once

Agile is easy to understand and difficult to master. It requires long-term dedication. A changing work structure requires a shift in culture. The physical environment can support both Agile-Focused and Agile-Inspired teams by enabling a new process and new ways of engagement

Steelcase IT leaders knew they needed to make a fundamental shift from a transactional services mindset to a business mindset that values learning, agility and empathy. Very intentionally, they decided to change the physical environment, team culture and processes all at once.

Defined by a set of principles written in the Agile Manifesto for software development, Agile is grounded in ideas such as self-managing teams, close cooperation between developers and users, frequent deliverables and consistent customer-feedback cycles. At Steelcase, IT teams are in different stages of adopting Agile. They tend to fall into two main categories.

Agile-Focused
Multidisciplinary teams focused on one project. They have a defined iterative and cyclical process founded in Agile principles. They primarily support software development and often use a development method such as Scrum.

Agile-Inspired
Teams applying some principles and processes based in Agile methodologies to multiple projects. Non-IT teams often fall into this category as well. These teams are influenced by Agile principles or a movement toward an Agile culture.

360 Issue 74

360 issue 74

“Our prior space and furniture were fixed in place. Now, we feel empowered to move furniture, change our seats, even borrow stuff to make our space better.”

ALAN DEVRIESMulti-Project Team Leader

NEXT CHAPTEREmpower Teams
PREVIOUS CHAPTERIntroduction

Related Stories

High-Stakes Business Transformation

High-Stakes Business Transformation

Solving high-stakes problems is complex — in many cases literally transforming how business happens. The work is different from just a few years ago, not only because teams have to make decisions more quickly and deliver results fast, but they’re often highly distributed and include external partners, all of which can further complicate an already complicated project.

Why You Need More Women on Teams with Anita Woolley (S4:E5)

Why You Need More Women on Teams with Anita Woolley (S4:E5)

Why is it some teams at work struggle and others seem to click? Anita Woolley studies the science of teamwork at Carnegie Mellon and shares what her research says about how to create great teams and why having women on teams is so essential to success. (Read transcript) (Find in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen)

‘NEXT’ Generation of Designers Embraces Humanity

‘NEXT’ Generation of Designers Embraces Humanity

The ‘NEXT’ Student Design Competition hosted by Steelcase identifies top future designers in U.S., Canada and offers a glimpse into emerging design influences.