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When people walk in the door of our space,
they're confronted with one of those

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vilified open office environments, the one
that Fast Company Magazine said was

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an idea born in the mind of Satan
in the deepest caverns of hell.

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And people ask me, they say, Rich,
their psychologists approved these kind of

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open work environments don't work,
why does it work for them though.

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And I tell them that we didn't create
an open and collaborative work space,

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a work space that quite
frankly is free of walls,

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of barriers in human communication, but
that wasn't our focus or intention.

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Our focus was to create an open and
collaborative culture, a transparent

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culture, a visible culture, and our space
is a manifestation of that culture.

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So when you walk in our doors,

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the first thing you notice
is what is not in the room.

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There are no barriers
to human communication.

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The human energy is high because everyone
is in conversation with one another, but

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it's not chitchat.

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It is actually the noise of work.

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And that noise of work becomes the
self-reinforcing component of our culture

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where, in fact, people will,

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they will enjoy the serendipity of
overhearing the ideas of others.

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And we want that to happen.

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One of the strongest rules we
have at Menlo is you can't wear

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earbuds while you're working.

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You can't shut yourself off
from other human beings.

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All of those components lend themselves
to that human energy that people

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feel when they walk in the room.

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Then we wrapper the place
with all of these boards

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that you can pushpin artifacts into.

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Our most important artifacts
are out in the room for all to see.

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We have this paper-based management
system that's very visual and inviting,

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and so there's kind of a visual noise
to the room that draws people in.

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And that's very important for us.

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We didn't want it to be this sterile
work environment where, quite frankly,

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I've worked in places where you had to
get permission to do anything to a wall

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anywhere you go.

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There is none of that at Menlo.

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We have no space police.

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We have no people who
are in charge of the space.

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The team has full control over the space
they work in, and because they do, they

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take ownership of it and they feel good
working in that space every single day.