Next let's take sociability. For starters, the company literally redesigned its offices to compel social interaction. When you walk
in the door of their headquarters in central London, you are not confronted with a receptionist behind a desk and a quiet waiting area. Instead, you are launched immediately into a messy and bustling work area. The office is unevenly divided into open- plan work areas—all of which look unique and different— arranged around a circular block of closed meeting rooms. The only way to get around the office is via a walkway encircling the meeting room area. This walkway is somewhat like a small town's main street—it is the heart of the community, a place to see and be seen, get real work done and engage in informal chitchat. Even if you wanted to hide from your neighbors, you couldn't. To get anywhere, you have to use the walkway, and it has been extremely successful in getting everyone well acquainted and talking to one another.
To further increase socialization, the architects of HHCL & P's new culture installed a system of seating they call "romping." Most of the staff don't have an assigned desk—they sit wherever there is a spare seat. Unlike other organizations that "hot-seat," however, this move was not intended to increase efficiency but to deliberately place people in different contexts. Some work bays are clusters of five desks, others are arranged along a straight bench. On any given day, you might be sitting with familiar faces in a familiar place. The next day, you might be sharing space with a new employee looking out the window at a vista you've never considered before. The goal was to create a diversity of emotional experiences for people in the firm.
Romping helps to extend social networks of friends and reduce the negative consequences of cliques. But its unsettling effect has to be managed—HHCL & P does so by assigning individuals to "streets"—zones that become their base, where they can put their things. They compare this to a person's "table at the pub."
"We believe that the environment has a major bearing on your mental mode," one of HHCL & P's executives told us. "Some places feel very peaceful and calm and you can focus your
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thoughts, and others feel very lively and make you feel switched on and buzzy. We wanted to have both—and more—in the same place, so that the people who work at the company would have a lot around them that triggered different states of mind."
Now, four years into the company's culture development program, the sought-after behaviors of sociability and solidarity are so deeply embedded in the organization that when its members talk about their success, they say, "It's in the DNA."
Another good example of an archetypal communal culture is Electronic Arts, the San Mateo, California-based company that makes interactive electronic games such as Populous, Theme Hospital, FIFA '97 Soccer, and EA Sports Software for Sony Playstation and Sega. Fifteen years after being launched, the company now lodges $700 million of revenues a year and employs about two thousand people in the United States, Europe, and Australasia. Organizations that originate as entrepreneurial start-ups—as Electronic Arts did—often find it hard to stay in the communal quadrant as they grow, typically veering off into the networked. But to look at EA's European operations, run by thirty-two-year-old California native David Gardner, is to see a company working consciously to keep the best of the communal culture intact.
"If you play hard together, you'll work hard together," is one of Gardner's operating principles. To that end, the London office, headquarters of the European operation, places a high priority on sociability. Every Friday, for instance, the company throws a party where employees gather over drinks and snack food. The conversation is loose and the atmosphere relaxed, so much so that the party often features an impromptu performance. One Friday, for instance, several employees held a "quiz show" that mocked the behavior of senior management. "It was just brilliant," recalls Gardner, who himself was caricatured by the program. "You can't have fun at work if you don't have a
high tolerance for misbehaving."
The quiz show was hardly an exception to the social rules of
order at Electronic Arts. On another occasion, for instance, managers allowed employees to throw pies in their faces to raise money for charity One message, of course, was that the managers supported worthy social causes. But the event also sent a strong message about senior management's way of seeing itself. So much for formality and hierarchy. Witness instead a demonstration of humor and approachability—of friendliness.
Meetings too show the high level of sociability at Electronic Arts. During a new product demonstration, for instance, some employees sprawled comfortably on the floor. There was no table in the middle of the room, no structured agenda. When the demonstration was complete, people applauded but went on to ask probing questions about the product's features. The tenor of the dialogue was challenging but not competitive or rancorous, as it would have been in a mercenary setting. It was instead like the kind of intense, intellectual conversations you might find in a college dormitory (when those conversations are not about movies, pizza, or sports).
To make sure these kinds of conversations can happen. Electronic Arts uses the archetypal communal method for hiring. Candidates are interviewed extensively—by the time a decision has been made, they have met with no fewer than twelve people from the company. David Gardner says candidates receive two kinds of interviews—one investigates the candidate's technical capabilities. ("If they are going to work in the finance department, we make sure they are interviewed by accountants to make sure they have the right skills," he notes.) But the majority of the interviews are to assess the candidate's fit with Electronic Arts' culture. People from all levels of the organization are involved in the process, including individuals who might work for the candidate. "We're looking for a sense of humor, for someone who shares our values," explains Gardner. "They have to have integrity, openness, a lack of formality, and they can't be prejudiced. And they also have to have what we call a 'high work fix,' plus flexibility, and honesty, of course."