The No Whining Zone

How much of negativity do you see around when you sit on your desk? How much of those vibes hurt your development? How much it affects your moral and productivity? How much you start whining yourself? I am sure, answer to a lot of these questions are not known to you. A lot of us basically dont even notice or consider the whining around to be actual whining. For several reasons whining in office spaces have become the basic necessity and believe me you would certainly see moral and attitude troubles in places that are whiner-land.

So what and how does this whining affect us? I recently happened to visit a Travel agent, a small office clubbed with around 8-9 people who would help the clients book hotels, flights etc. I wanted to get my vacation planned with them and since the tour planner was running late I got a chance to sit in the crowded place. A few moments I noticed that that the girls around were talking, I could not avoid over-hearing but they were cribbing about phones, about customers behaviours, about bosses, about people.. during the same time they chose to have their working lunches and I noticed the whining increased in mercury levels.... there were arguments, complains and raised voices... huh.... Before I left the office I asked my planner on what was the issue with the girls working there, he said they have several and sometimes they just crib about everything..

I realised if your office space is a whining area.. where people choose to do nothing but complains.... you are soon de-moralizing your teams, building wrong attitudes in people and of course affecting your over all growth and productivity. Whiners spread there magic like fire and when they spread the negativity they dont care where they do it, how they do it and who it affects.

In today's era we all are burdened with a lot of work, deliveries, quality, customers and deals. Hence we all need that sympathy soul who can hear us out... most times whining is done to get away from responsibility or blame others for things not happening. A engineer can whine if he is consistently working hard on deliverables, if he see's not so good quality work coming to him, if he sees issues in the work place, if he notices any troublesome factor.. sometime he will wine if he see himself working more than others, if he thinks he is paid less, if he thinks other companies pay better and the list continues.... all these situations and talks happen in work desks, passages, smoke area and pantry rooms.

The Book Whining : 3 steps to stopping it before tears and tantrums gives a superb view of different types of whining that happens in a house, family. But it is not bad to link it to a workplace where the effects are much broader and affects bigger audience.

So how do we create the no-whining zone in workplace?

1. Make people accountable.. if they know how to take responsibility there will be lesser reasons to whine.

2. Make people responsible, if they know their responsibilities well there will be less reasons to whine

3. Suggest people they talk positive.. Unless they speak good things about even the worst possible elements there wont be those negative whining vibes.

4. Suggest people to have smiling than frown faces.

5. Put boards across office asking NO WHINING PLEASE

6. Create whining zones which are distanced than the work place and people can be noticed... it is important to let the whining not affect regulars or the motivated.

Last but not the least... whining is a problem.. try to fix the issue that matters... changing whiners is a difficult task.

Make your workplace a fun area not a whiners paradise

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What is it like to have a healthy workspace?

Some body asked a question on Quora .. on how to create a healthy work environment with respect to the workspace not a cultural aspect included really... reminded me of a post written way back in September on Healthy Environments But I think that is not enough.. I missed to cover the healthy workspace issue for which I am fighting and struggling now for almost months.. So what is a healthy workspace structure?

Free Will
A structure that helps engineers or team members push their chairs and roll to the desk of his pair or team mate. A structure that will help the engineers to freely move in and around the office. No heavy cubicle structures, no heavy barriers. I really think the studio type structures helps free space all over and also effects the luxury to have a free will space for the engineers. Of course if you are not a development team and you have clients and customers visiting you very often, it doesn't make sense to have this type of structure. In such cases better keep a separate space a bit away from the development section.

Loads of NON CHAIR related sitting arrangements
Sofa, cushions, bean bags , lazy rolls help the engineers take a break from the regularly back-aching chairs.. A set of bean bags lying around helps people to pick there laptops and start working from there.. of course helps the teams light approach.

Fun
A bit of fun, jokes around is very much required. People obsessed with silence and concentration phobia are the only blockers, but there is always this need to get them involved. Fun activities needs to be done only in the workspace and not in conference rooms.. I sometimes prefer gatherings and announcements in the open areas.. so other teams can also have a glimpse of it. Builds a liking towards a team as a whole..

The bit of Noise
Light music is always inspiring, people talking , debating around is highly effective. If you have everyone with their headsets on listening to their own choices of music it is like working in a graveyard. I also prefer rotational DJ's unfortunately not many takers always. A central music system lets you learn choices of people.. helps people go and ask DJ to demand for specific music to be played.

UnPrivate Affairs
NO to Cubicles and cabins.. If managers and leads are going to sit in cabins, they are away from what is happening. Not that you should be placed to supervise / monitor people.. but been with the team helps you understand the day to day issues. You will always find leaders sitting with teams to be more interactive and pleasant than ones sitting in cabins.. of course not to forget you have to face those meaningless cribbers who whine about everything and some scared goats who cannot give you feedback openly. Who cares for them anyways?

Loaded Interactions
Promote and prosper the culture of open interactions.. I always like to jump into conversations and talk about things.. this helps build a good rapport and understanding of people's principles, values and attitudes. No matter people call you nosy or not.. ensure that open interactions are a part of your culture.

A decent floor plan for an interactive agile team

Smiling faces
If there are none.. you were as well good at those government offices with fat bellies all around you.

Visible walls
Have walls that puts Team events, status of teams work and agile boards.. of course visible to everyone. Try to not keep these walls with stale data.. a stale wall represents the laziness of the team.

Play areas 
Small areas where you can play a short few handy games.. like a mini cycle, a game of one touch cricket, a bit of golf etc. Rolling soft toys, balls and gadgets whats the harm if you have a developer with a barbie doll on his desk?

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Do your Team have a workspace?

Well! If you are a Team then you definitely have a workplace... but do you have a workspace? In the last few years of my career I have relaised the more productive and creative Team you have the more you need to facilitate the workspace... and this workspace is not necessarily the space they need to move around but also the space they need to be agile all together and utilise the best of their Ideas with the Team.

As an Agile Team We always feel the need for:

1. Projectors : Now what a silly thing to ask for... but Yes projector plays a major role as the Agile Team always want to come together and collectively find answers to the solutions and problems.

2. Whiteboards : A Board that displays the status, emotional progress, Team Ideas, backlogs and so many other things that should be taken care across the project or organisation lifecycle for any team member.

3. BullPen Sitting arrangements : A Sitting structure that allows everyone to freely access everyone in the Team. Visibility and reachability been a core Idea a bullpen structure allows the agile Teams to be real close. Lot of times I read the cubicles to be blockers as they dont let free movements for the Team.

4. Post its / Color pens and Markers : We usually fall short of it no? Postits around , color pen to mark legends and markers around can make life easier as you dont need pen and papers but instead can use the boards and markers to draw better Ideas and answer questions effectively.

5. Scrum Halls : Husssssshhh.. these are not the usual meeting rooms with a phone and projector and table and seats .... a scrum is like a open lobby where the Team can meet ... these halls come handy when you have to play agile games, manage scrums have interactive sessions and debates...

6. Cameras : Last I know in a Lifecycle module when Savio , Me and Rama had a long long conversation... along with the Team... we really had to call Ani to take a snap shot using his cell phone of the user board we made.... whoa it took 3 months for him to get the pic onto to a machine (honestly I was lazy)....

7. A Kickass Entertainer : Yes... every Team should have one entertainer who keep everyone on the toes... its not only Agile Team its any sort of Team.... I remember we had many in our Team.... one always was active all the time :) which made things easier for us .... Be it Shaik or Laxmana or Natwar or Saket... or Amit Jathar or Diptajeet.... if none are awake be it Savio or Samee....

Now would you PM mind going back and check out some space for your Teams?

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