Our lean, agile and still mostly human team at work
At CollabSystem we are committed to using every day to get just the right amount of work done in the lowest stress way possible. After extensive experimentation CollabSystem has developed a unique way of working that we use to consistently produce innovative new future of work solutions using our lean, agile and still mostly human team of employees.
We believe everyone should benefit from the casual lighthearted and generally collaborative manner in which we work. Our approach is strictly time bound, process-centred and actually comprehensible to employees. The only elaborate and complicated tool required to execute our process is a clock, though many teams claim to have benefited from use of an expensive espresso machine.
The whoosh and buzz of productivity in a human workplace
After years of refinement, we are now sharing the Manifesto that drives our lean, agile and still mostly human method of work. We call it the HBD, the Human Business Day (or for those who love hash tags #humanbusinessday):
The #HumanBusinessDay Manifesto
We are working better by working less. Through this work we have come to value:
- Spending less time working over pointless discussions that go all night
- Finishing tasks together over endless electronic distraction
- Going home to family over proving we are busy
- Time to eat, connect and reflect over eating at our desks or while on our phones
We would like to say we value the latter things, but we would be lying.
Twelve Principles of a #HumanBusinessDay:
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer and ourselves through doing our work in a human way (‘Work is Work’)
- The Day and each session begins at an appointed time and all team members who should be there are there at the appointed time. (‘No Dilldallying’)
- The Day is comprised of four periods of 1.5 hours. All the day’s work is completed in these periods. (‘No Pfaffing Around’)
- Between the first and second period is a communal reflection break for 30 minutes called morning tea involving hot beverages, small snacks and stories of last night (‘Morning Tea’}
- Between the second and third period is a communal reflection break called lunch involving cold beverages, a larger meal and tall tales (‘Lunch’)
- Between the third and fourth period is a communal reflection break for 30 minutes called afternoon tea involving hot beverages, small snacks and stories of tonight’s plans (‘Afternoon Tea’)
- The team does the work that needs to be done, no more and no less (‘What else would you do?’)
- Communication is direct, concise, personal, generous, often funny and always timely in the interests of maximising productivity, learning and moods (‘Talk like a human’)
- Distractions during the work periods are discouraged in the interests of communal productivity. In particular, great email jokes, viral videos, long involved stories, sending emails to people you could talk to, calling agendaless meetings, large PowerPoint decks, reply all and other forms of distraction are actively discouraged (‘Don’t be daft’)
- At regular intervals, the entire team does not attend work and no work is done (‘Public Holiday’)
- The Team rotate the ability to not attend work for a day and the balance of the team covers for their contribution to the team in the knowledge that it will soon be their turn. (‘Take Leave’)
- At the end of the fourth period the entire team ceases work, forgets the issues of the day and leaves. Uncompleted work is readied for the next days’ start. It is customary to shout “Night all” as you leave. (‘Home Time’)
COLLABSYSTEM 