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| The wall of hierarchies | | Date Created: Aug 28, 2005, 11:43 PM |
An unplanned part of the change process that I have been leading my unit through over the past four months has been a physical move from our off-site location to a more central Ministry building. I generally hate moves because I always find things that I would rather have never existed, eg proposals that, with the power of hindsight, look horribly naive.
Anyway, since the die was cast, we made the best of the situation and took the opportunity to renovate our new office in a way that would encourage the behaviours that I wanted. This meant an open office to promote communication; lower cubicles and most controversially no office for me even though I was entitled to one.
I knew this new office layout would set many tongues wagging in a Ministry that was still largely hierarchical and status-conscious. Sure enough, I received phone calls from different people asking if I was sure that I did not want an office. Obviously my act had threatened the status quo, which comprised of rabbit warrens of cubicles, the size of which was proportionate to one's status in the hierarchy.
In the end, it will be my own staff who will determine whether this new office layout works. So far, the feedback has been really good, despite the fact that all of us now have a smaller office space. However, GG thinks my staff are just being polite -- "your staff actually would prefer you to have your office so that they don't have to worry about you spying on them all the time." Only time will tell.... |
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