Day 9 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.
The biggest room in your business should be the room for improvement. Is it? I hope it’s bigger than the room for complacency. Perhaps this is a big room where you work. It shouldn’t be. Haven’t you heard it said that there is no room for complacency?
We have a room for improvement. It used to be my office.
I didn’t want an office. My work doesn’t require me to be alone. My work doesn’t require me to have status. We needed a place to meet with people. In a building filled with unoccupied desks there is surprisingly little meeting space and so I changed my office into a meeting room. It has its own booking system as well as tea and coffee facilities but it still had my name on the door and the cynics and the doubters said ‘but he still has an office’.
So I’ve chucked out my desk, I’ve got rid of all the paper and I’ve changed the name on the door.
No longer does it say 5/109 Phil Jackman’s Office – head of ICT Services. Now it says 5/109 Room for Improvement.
Most people don’t notice at first but those who do, those who get lost when looking for the room, smile and chuckle and ask what it is all about and I tell them the story of how I was changing, how I had said to myself that the business needed to change and the only person that I could truly influence was myself.
It started as a statement, a joke perhaps but it is deadly serious.
Even the longest journey starts with a single step and if you moan about how things haven’t changed within the organisation that you find yourself in every day then look to your laurels and put your best foot forward.
Be the change that you want to be. If you want to be agile then be agile and get rid of all of the paraphernalia that is stopping you moving on. You don’t really need it.
I don’t have an office anymore; I work where I am needed and where I can add value. I work in the room for improvement.
I’ve stopped using paper as well.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 
Reblogged this on Thoughts on management and commented:
This blog post captures the move to a modern approach to work where location does not matter because what matters is the ability to be connected either digitally or physically with colleagues. Work is not about place. It is about the room for improvement. Have you thought about whether you have room for improvement.
Phil,
This is a great post. I liked it and I have reblogged it on my blog. I think we all have room for improvement and it starts with understanding that work is not about a place or a room. Thanks for showing us how it is done and what it means to “be the change”.
Best,
Lawrence
Thanks Lawrence. We can only start with oursleves and hopefully others will see what is possible.
Gandhi Ji said that, be the change you want to be. A big posh office with large glass windows is part of professional profile depicting how much you have achieved. Not all people can do what you have done. I remember my ex-boss from Pearson who was heading ICT for India and it brings a smile on my face remembering what he did when he became AVP !
You can’t leave it at that. What did he do?
Nothing much, when he got promoted he was hell bent on the office thing and changing his chair hehhehe !
There is always room for improvement, we should never be satisfied with our own abilities or how we can help others.
Your new room name sounds quite Hogwarts, especially if it was called “THE Room For Improvement”
I’ll have to check. I think it’s just Room for Improvement.