Get a (Project) Room

Laura Weiss is vice president for service innovation at the Taproot Foundation, a nonprofit that makes pro bono talent available to organizations working to improve society. Before joining Taproot, Ms. Weiss was an associate partner at the design company IDEO. She is also a former architect and educator.

Here’s a suggestion for getting more out of a group that’s working together on something creative: get a room.

Most of us are tethered to our desks at the office, so collaboration often means e-mails, phone calls, and the occasional meeting to connect the dots. Sure, there are plenty of software products that can help teams collaborate when they aren’t in the same location. These are exciting developments, but on the more humble topic of small-group interactions, I’m decidedly old school.

So let’s consider instead the physical environments where people gather together to work. The project room famously has its roots in the aerospace industry. In 1943 a handpicked team of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation engineers and manufacturing people were pulled together to complete the XP-80 fighter jet project in secrecy. Due to space constraints at headquarters, the group operated out of a rented circus tent next to a manufacturing plant. The malodorous scent nearby inspired the moniker ”skunk works.”

Design firms have adopted the skunk-works concept—circus tent optional—as a practical solution for housing interdisciplinary teams assembled from across their organizations. With laptops and mobile phones, team members often leave their personal desks behind and relocate to a common work space for the duration of a project. Bring in other participants as necessary to directly engage with the team’s work in progress and you have yourself an environment that seamlessly blends “working” and “meeting” activities.

We’ve been experimenting with the project-room concept at the Taproot Foundation to support a lengthy innovation initiative, and although my teammates have not yet fully set up shop there, they seem to be taking to it.

Of course, there was the week when everything in the room was taken down because our organization was hosting some community guests for an evening event. To several on our staff, the room looked chaotic and like it needed to be cleaned. To me it looked like something interesting was happening in there, and it needed to be showcased. (Hint: A door that closes can solve the problem).

Ask yourself what you want your office space to say about your organization, at least its aspirational version. If the answer is something like “dynamic,” “innovative,” or “fun,” then here are five features to strive for when setting up a project room of your own:

1. Focused

Limit one project per room. Everything the team needs should be in that one space so it becomes the go-to place to sit and think or work with colleagues in a focused way. If real estate is scarce, consider commandeering a room for only the most intensive stage of your project. Periodically making the space available for others to use for their own meetings may actually net you some unexpected collaborators—just be sure that any sensitive materials are protected. If you’re still in a crunch, see No. 3.

2. Visual

Get materials off of your digital desktop and onto the walls where all members of the team can see them. Make judicious use of Post-It notes, butcher paper, discarded copy paper, markers, etc.

What’s important is information persistence–making it all visual and visible helps promote non-linear thinking and can spark connections between adjacent ideas that might otherwise never happen. Sometimes you need to see those juxtapositions to make the connections.

3. Flexible

The space should be flexible. Start with the furniture; big conference tables and heavy leather chairs aren’t going to work. Anything you can’t easily move out of the way is guaranteed to be in your way because you’ll want access to wall space—some blank walls or white boards on which to pin up, prop up, or write up your work. Or invest in several large (4 feet by 8 feet) but lightweight foam-core boards that can transform any corner into a makeshift project room.

Foam core can also bring a whole new level of visibility to your project within your organization. At Taproot, we held a project work session in a temporary “room” formed by moving several foam-core boards into a common gathering area at the center of our San Francisco office, enticing fellow staff members to view the proceedings, and even casually participate.

4. Messy

Mess is often a byproduct of the creative process, and your room should allow things to get a bit disorderly. All materials that are collected, developed, or modified over time should remain visible somewhere in the space. If you run out of space, take some pictures with a digital camera before making way for new material. Over time, the room will develop a rich patina of process, which will further advance your progress. See No. 2.

5. Virtual

Actually, this one doesn’t quite fly. There really isn’t an adequate virtual substitute for the energy, spontaneity, and tactility that happens when humans interact in the same physical place at the same time. For years companies have been developing elaborate technology solutions to simulate virtual collaboration, and they’re pretty amazing, but the expense and the real-estate requirements are still prohibitive.

Perhaps over time, these environments will become increasingly accessible. But in the meantime, get a room, any room, and claim squatter’s rights. Try it for a week and see what happens.