The concept of no meeting Fridays is not new. Many organisations, whether start-ups or otherwise have adopted this approach. In time the concept has evolved from being just ‘thinking time’ away from hectic schedules and to do lists. Google’s ‘20 percent time’, for example, enables engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren't in their job description.
Is this an indulgence reserved for innovative, fast-growing and dynamic companies? Perhaps, but it also instils passion, job satisfaction and creative thinking, or so argues 1E senior software engineer Ed Sykes. Ed blogged his way through last weeks’ iteration-free day here at 1E. See his blog here: https://edsykes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/iteration-free-day-at-1e.html
Creations fell into three broad categories: new-product innovation; operational excellence; in-product innovation. Over thirty potential innovations were presented, from developing mobile applications (iPhone and Android) that allow on-the-go presentation of the insights into their IT environments our customers get from our products, technology that can improve build times on our machines to diagnostics and time-saving features that would make our Solution Engineers’ live easier.
Like any good iteration day, there was a winning team at the end. The winners were Venkat and Clement, who celebrated with a cup of tea and a friendly chat about who was going to keep the iPad that they had won – any prizes for guessing who came out on top?!
Venkat and Clement