By Mike Myatt, Chief StrategyOfficer, N2growthI was recently asked: "I've heard reference to executiveteams that utilize 'war rooms' for strategy development. Is thisbeneficial?" Let me begin by stating that any tools ortechniques that bring executive teams together for the purposes ofconsistent and focused strategy development and refinement aremarvelous things. Furthermore, any company that I have run has hadat least one war room for the executive team, and often times warrooms have been assigned to each business unit or department. Intoday's post I'll cover the benefits associated with war rooms, orwhat I like to refer to as the place where good things happen...Areyour meeting areas, conference facilities and board roomsused? Perhaps more to the point, are they used effectively? When Isee a conference room that looks as if the mainpurpose for its existence is to serve as a corporate artmuseum, I tend to question why it exists at all. I recently spenttwo days on site with a new client. The client had an exquisiteheadquarters facility with a number of absolutelygorgeous conference rooms. However during my two days on site, notonce did I observe any of them being utilized. When I asked the CEOabout this he said "nobody uses them." Hmmmm.....Let'sstart with the basics...As wonderful as technology is, and assmall as our global footprint has become, as a workforce we arereally more disconnected (at least personally) than at any point inhistory. Even workers who office in the same location are sobusy being busy, and virtually collaborating, that they often don'tspend enough focused time with one another working on key issues.Rather than sequestering your talent behind the closed doors oftheir individual offices, or spreading them hither and yon in cubefarms, consider the benefits of bringing them together(face-to-face) for the purposesof accomplishing something specific. Executive teamsdon't come together often enough, and when they do, meetings areoften not as productive as they should be as they try and cover fartoo much ground in short periods of time. I'm alwaysamazed when I witness companies that will take all theC-suite talent into a boardroom for an hour or two and accomplishvirtually nothing. Likewise, project teams and work groups havebecome creatures of habit who prefer to use internet or softwarebased toolsets as a substitute for the power of highly focusedand very intense personal interactions. As noted above, it is afterall much easier and safer to be disengaged, but is itmore productive? In most cases, I think not...At first blush, onemight think that the concept of a war room is bit of athrow-back to some Orwellian form of old schoolmanagement theory, but nothing could be further from thetruth. In fact, studies have shown that while workers may initiallyresist the idea of working in close quarters for the purpose ofincreasing intensity over extended periods of time, the benefits ofcollaboration and productivity quickly win them over. By wayof example, the University of Michigan produced a study on warrooms only to find that workers functioning in a war roomenvironment were twice as productive as their counterpartsworking in traditional office arrangements.Where possible, I'm afirm believer that workgroups should spend as much time as possiblein war room environments. I would take this so far as to suggestthat one should consider this to be the best form ofcollaborative workspace configuration and should therefore makethis the default space plan of choice if possible. With regard toexecutive teams, you will rarely find executives that will subjectthemselves to a co-officing arrangement, but this does not obviatethe need for a war room. As stated earlier, executive teams do notspend nearly enough focused time together, and simply committing toone half-day per week cloistered in a war room together willimprove both efficiency and productivity. Following are a fewpoints of consideration when building your executive war room:

1. Your war room should be a dedicated conference room with alocked door. You will keep a great deal of confidential informationout in the open and you'll want the room secured.
2. Without sounding cultish, the war room needs tobecome revered as your company's executive bastion fordisruptive innovation where you major in the majors. Do not allowattendees to be interrupted while sessions are in progress. This ishighest and best use time which should be protected at allcosts.
3. The war room should be configured for optimum productivitywith acrylic walls (or multiple white boards), easels, wirelessinternet access, a high quality conference phone,multiple large wall mounted plasma screens, webcams, laserpointers, etc.