Happy New Year! I hope yours is off to a wonderful start!
This is my annual newsletter celebrating National Clean Off Your Desk Day, this year on January 13th (and it serves as a reminder of our no-fee, annual Ask the Organizers Express Training on January 15th. See side panel for details.) This newsletter is a little longer than usual but quite interesting. If you find it TLDR (tool long, didn’t read), maybe just skim the bolded phrases for the general idea. Then you can read more as you’d like.
So, look around your desk and then imagine your boss came to you and said, “We need you to move desks. You have 15 minutes to gather your things and make this happen.”
From considerable observation, I’m pretty sure most people would just start chuckling at the request, thinking it had to be a joke. Yet, for Choice One Engineering, this is how they start every new year! As part of an Express Training session last year, a panel discussion on how we work with others, Kaye Borchers, shared that Choice One changes desks every year to help them work better together. I was so intrigued; I had to know more and am sharing the discussion with you.
Janet: How does it work? What’s the process?
Kaye: Our Chief Production Officer and another employee—a talented logistical wizard—are the ones who plan it out every year. It takes the CPO about four hours to come up with the new seating chart and the logistics person just a couple of hours to come up with a move order that minimizes disruption to the office. Then, for those of us moving, it literally takes about 15 minutes each and happens one at a time in a chain-type fashion. Keep in mind that certain offices with confidentiality needs (HR, Finance) don’t move. And, to simplify the process, only about half of us move each year. The other half stay at their desks to welcome their new pod-mates. If everyone would be physically in the office when moving day comes around (and therefore we wouldn’t have to wait for someone coming back from a meeting, etc.), all the moves could probably be completed in one workday.
Janet: OK, so for a person to move in about 15 minutes, there must be some well-thought-out design to your environment to begin with.
Kaye: There is. We sit in pods of four to five people. We each have an individualized, specialized computer set-up based on our role, and so our computers and monitors come with us each time we move. We all have a rolling file cabinet for any paper files or supplies we keep at our desk. So really, it’s just about gathering a few things and rolling our cabinet and computer to the new location. Indeed, we have selected office furniture/desks designed to do this. Our desks are fairly universal and intentionally pretty close together with half-height cubicle walls, allowing us to learn and collaborate easily. As for our files, about 98% of our work is digital on a shared, well-organized server, so the only “personal” desk contents that need to move are any specific reference books/manuals for specialties and items like photos, etc.
Janet: How long has Choice One been doing this? And how is it received by staff?
Kaye: We moved into our current office building in 1998 and that’s when we “abolished” individual offices and went to an open floor plan. Initially, we moved once in a while to accommodate new employees. Then, around 2010, we started to develop our current desk layout and moving pattern. So it’s pretty much always been a part of our culture, and just part of what we do. We all understand the benefits, as those benefits are clearly communicated and reinforced. We actually look forward to the annual move and have fun with it. We excitedly open the email with the new seating chart to see where we’re moving to, who we’ll be sitting by, and how our new pod will interact. Our pod groups sort of bond in a special way as well—they become unofficial “teams” and often lobby to be the “most fun” or the “best” at whatever the current initiative or task might be.
Janet: So clearly, Choice One finds this beneficial, or you wouldn’t still be doing it. What about this annual “disruption” do you all find beneficial?
Kaye: We find numerous benefits. First, we learn a lot about each other both personally and professionally. I get to know my pod-mates for a year or two, and then we move around, and I get to know different people. It gets more specific than that, even–our latest seating chart has me using our “back” kitchen instead of our “front” kitchen, which means I see a whole different set of people at lunch time. Second, we get strategic! Beyond putting new employees by experienced employees with similar specializations, we look back at past years’ seating arrangements to understand who has sat by who over the past couple of years. We like to have employees sitting next to others they may have never sat next to before or who don’t have much interaction on a daily basis. This allows for everyone within the company to get to know others beyond those we’re directly with on projects. The whole goal is to break down any potential walls or silos. It also allows for easier cross training simply by sitting next to others who do something different than you do on a daily basis. Indeed, we learn a lot about what each other does—I currently sit by a water/sewer engineer, a site designer, a landscape architect, and a professional surveyor—and I’m constantly overhearing what they are working on, what clients they’re talking to, and discussing their work with them, making me a more well-rounded employee and better representative of Choice One.
Janet: Thank you, Kaye, for sharing and thank you, Choice One, for being different! If readers would be interested in learning more about this, can they contact you?
Kaye: Of course! They can email me at kmb@choiceoneengineering.com. I’d be happy to answer questions.
Now, Why I LOVE it…
When Kaye first shared this with me last May, I absolutely fell in love with the idea and here are 4 reasons why.
1. I think you would indeed get a deeper perspective of others and the work they’re doing. Offices can become so “clique-y” and silo-minded that it becomes a distraction to the organization’s mission.
2. I think it would minimize hoarding. You’ve all seen it – the person who has been in the same office for years and whose piles are measured in feet or yards, rather than inches. Changing desks every year would minimize just how deep those piles got and force a reset.
3. I think it would level the playing field, so-to-speak. People who have been with the organization for years and years might feel a few pangs of vulnerability and discomfort as does the newbie they’re sitting by, giving them a little more empathy and perhaps promoting organic mentoring. Plus, the old guard just might learn a new thing or two from the rookie.
4. I think it would help people stay focused on the mission of the organization. I’ve seen people, often deeply settled into their space, have a sense of entitlement and make decisions based on what’s comfortable rather than considering new ideas or even what’s in the best interest of the organization. Changing desks might serve as an annual reminder that, “it’s not about them”.
I suspect many of you are thinking this wouldn’t be remotely possible at your organization. And I’m certainly not saying everyone should do this. I hope it makes you think though – about your culture, your work relationships, and how you’re sharing information. The challenge for you is to think what can you do to foster similar benefits.
And if you need our help with that, or to organize your files, or just clear off your desk, you know who to call. 😉We’d love to help!
Wishing you blessings and peace in 2025!
Janet
About Choice One Engineering: Choice One Engineering is a growing civil engineering firm with more than 80 employees and two offices in Sidney and Loveland, Ohio. Since our founding in 1994, our civil engineering, landscape architecture, and surveying services have transformed via modern-day technologies, but our core purpose has remained. We love what we do, and we don’t try to hide it!