Growth brings us great opportunities and more often than not it also means we’re moving forward fast. Even though growth means busy days, it’s important to stop for a second and re-evaluate the situation. Is there something we could be doing differently? How can we ensure that we keep improving as we grow? At Fastems, we wanted to see growth as a possibility to challenge our ways of working and develop them to the next level.
The two sides of Fastems 2.0
The ultimate goal of the Fastems 2.0 project is to help fastemsians reach their highest potential. How? By deepening our collaboration and challenging our old habits. Our work is starting to require more and more flexibility every day, which means we have to adapt our physical environment as well as our mindset accordingly. It’s not an easy task – but we’re getting there. Therefore, Fastems 2.0 is all about challenging our ways of working and renewing our physical environment in a way that it supports our varying work.
Although this may all seem a bit vague at this point, here’s a glimpse of what’s going. Our Fastems 2.0 project manager, Sami Pohjolainen, sums it up nicely:
”We want to make sure Fastems 2.0 enables activity-based-working, which means having an environment where people or teams aren’t bound to specific work spaces. Having a versatile working environment allows for different ways of working, which in turn creates flexibility and allows for collaboration. That said, we want to highlight that Fastems 2.0 isn’t just about having a new space to work in. Instead, it’s about making sure that the new space is diverse and equipped to meet the needs of different work. This means introducing, project areas, quiet rooms, and ad hoc spaces to name a few. In turn, this will ensure that people can move from room to room depending on the type of work they are doing and who they are doing it with.”
Sami Pohjolainen, Fastems 2.0 Project Manager and Johanna Happonen, Interior Decorator from Rune & Berg Design
Doing it together – pilots
Adapting new ways of working is not something you do in one go. To find out what really works for us will require rounds of testing, iterating and adjusting. As a start, we decided to try these new ways of working in an agile way and to do it in sprints.
“Because the new spaces will make different ways of working possible, it’s good to reflect on and rethink our own current ways of getting the job done. However, the only way to know what works best for us is by trying out different workspace options, which is why we’ll be doing this together in sprints. After each sprint, we’ll evaluate what worked and what didn’t, and then implement the best solutions. This kind of pilot approach highlights our iterative focus, and also ensures that our new ways of working are created step by step, and most importantly, together.” Sami explains.
Currently, office renovations are up and going, and even though work spaces aren’t completely finished we’re already developing our new ways of working in our temporary working spaces. We should be able to move into the first of the newly renovated spaces as early as the beginning of 2020. Then, the pilots will be tested out once more to make sure they work with the support of new space as well.
The future is ours
The active phase of the Fastems 2.0 project has been going on for a few months. Renovation work is at full speed and the first ways of working -pilots are up and running. This is truly the start of continuous development. Although we still have a ways to go, Sami highlights, that our vision for the future is very clear:
“Already next spring, when the office renovation will cross the finish line, we will have (fingers crossed) an office space that supports our work better than ever. Yes, it will be all new and shiny, but what’s even more exciting is that it will have spaces for collaboration, for concentrating, for brainstorming and everything in between. The physical spaces will reflect us as fastemsians, and will help us serve our customers even better.”