You read that right - according to Peopleware: productive projects and teams, most organizations are guilty of taking their office space and layout for granted and for “half-assing” and “cube-stacking” people at the expense of productivity to save a few lousy dollars; unfortunately, these companies are NOT saving any money at all - in fact, they are losing money. Greedy bastards :0)

In a study of 92 organizations, companies were ranked and categorized into four quartiles of performance. The top performing quartile of companies (the top 25%) worked 11.1 times faster than the last quartile of companies. What was the major difference? Besides the fact that high performers like to hang out with other high performers, it was office space. That’s right: office space.

High performing companies (i) had larger work areas, (ii) is acceptably quiet, and (iii) is acceptably private among other things.

Moreover, Peopleware estimates that interruptions (i.e. phone calls) can sap up to 20 minutes of productive time. How? Disruption of flow. It can take up to 15 to 20 minutes for someone to get back into the “zone” or the “flow” of things. For example, let’s say that you’re a programmer and your boss constantly walks in on you throughout the day, how much time and mental might did it take to get back to doing what you were doing before the interruption? 15 to 20 minutes or longer, right?

The study also looked at work modes which is basically how people organize their day. The study found that most organizations are not laid out to facilitate the three work modes. For example, most people have three work modes: (i.) working alone (30%), (ii.) working with one other person (40%), and (iii.) working in a team of three or more (30%). So, office space and the layout of the environment should reflect the work modes, but most organizations are organized like gigantic cubicle farms, horizontally flushed and vertically stacked to save space.
So, what should we do about it? Is there no hope? If you work in a large organization you’re pretty much screwed and must tolerate your current work environment and pathetic cubicle and workspace unless you know someone in HR or upper management to champion your plea for more productive space.

To help you with your argument, you can use the following rules of thumb in negotiating what space you need.

(a) People prefer to have their back facing the wall
(b) For crying out loud, give people a window view!!
(c) 80 to 100 sqft. of office space and a minimum of 30 sqft. of work space
(d) Reduce music and noise; music inhibits right brain functionality which can sap creativity - so save the music for the commute home. The right part of the brain is where “creativity” apparently lives and is the side of the brain that is stimulated by music which inhibits innovation
(d) Have private (for one person) and common rooms

(e) Eat lunch together at least once a week in a common area; the common area should have group artifacts (i.e. pictures)
(f) Managers should be out on the floor with their staff - not in their office; the office should be reserved to entertain other guests; unfortunately, offices create barriers to the very people that managers are suppose to be accessible to
(g) Cluster people together based on interaction frequency

(h) If you must answer your phone, answer it in private area

(i) Dividing walls should be at least 6′ feet high

I did a “before” and “after” design of our future office space:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I found some uplifting and inspirational speeches on success for entrepreneurs.

Bruce Benner, an Olympic champion (1976) and credited once as the “World’s Greatest Athlete”, explains that “the commitment that you give to that dream” and “using everything that you have in your brain to work for you and not against you” is the requisite mental transition and decision that you will need to make to overcome and use fear productively (not against you), channel your energy towards realizing your goals, and committing (sacrificing) yourself 100% to the mission.
Bruce caps off his speech with what he believes were the four keys to his success - and how you can apply them to your life: (1) gamble, (2) cheat, (3) lie and (4) steal.

(1) Gamble. Gamble the best shot you’ve got in life; dare to take risks; life has to be a great adventure or it’s nothing
(2) Cheat. Cheat those who would have you be less than who you are; surround yourself with positive people; help others
(3) Lie. Lie in the arms of those that you love; don’t take others for granted
(4) Steal. Steal every moment of happiness; live everyday as if it were your last day because you never know when your last day will be

Alas, “it wasn’t a dream anymore, it was a ‘decision’ of what I wanted out of life [to succeed].”

You can watch his speeches at http://www.brucejenner.com/index2.html

I’m in downtown Sacramento waiting for the electrician to check out the wiring for some new equipment.

I’ve got a few moments to blog. After several months of market research and analysis we’ve narrowed our list of new business ideas onto the “short list.” The short list contains five ideas - some original, some not. And to some degree, your guess is as good as mine as to which one has the best chance of success: the odds are about one out of five start-ups really make it.

We used the following chart below to help us navigate and frame our discussion on which business idea to do first.

‘Market Attractiveness” on the vertical axis and “Speed-to-Market” on the horizontal axis are the labels, and each axis reads “Low” and “Medium” and “High.”

As a small start-up one of our first priorities is to build capability as a team - and gel. So, being mindful of this, we decided that “speed-to-market” would take precedence over “market attractiveness” for the most part. We want to incrementally build confidence and capability as a team before tackling the larger, more complex projects. I hear that other start-ups have done this too. For example, they’ll launch with a small subset of core features and then release rapid, successive updates during the beta phase. We plan to take a similar approach.

Our CTO, David McQueen, is heading up development and is working in two week release increments, internally. He calls this rapid development. I’m focused primarily on marketing and the user experience. Dewey Pham is in charge of all the creatives and artwork.

Thanks for reading…and wish us luck.

I’m back in Sacramento!

And I’m sitting in what could potentially be our new office space in downtown Sacramento. The space is on the corner of a wonderful street overlooking a plush park, sushi bar, and other restaurants and colorful retail spots.

Our office space is about 700 sqft and should be good enough for up to six people.

This is where the magic will “happen” - I think. If all goes well we’ll have our first product beta launched on July 14th to coincide with Sacramento’s 2nd Saturday Art Walk. Oh Joy!!

It’s really exciting right now and the morale of the team is at an all time high; however, we also know that there is A LOT of work
ahead of us.

Thank you for tuning in…