Earlier this year Boeing opened a new building. Well, not exactly. They built a building within a building on their Everett Campus.
The idea was to move the design team closer to the production floor. Previously it took them up to 15 minutes to get to the place where their work turns into steel and rivet. Now it only takes three minutes. That's a 24 minute savings per person per meeting. If you think about the number of meetings you have in a week, that quickly adds up.
It made me think about all the small ways we separate ourselves from the final products of our work. Sometimes it's with layers of bureaucracy and review, or with abstract diagrams and documents. I find that connecting directly and tactically with the final product of my work is vital.
What if we were as innovative as Boeing in uprooting pieces that feel comfortable, but keep us from connecting to the rivets and steel of our own work?
What would that look like?
Photo from Gensler
