A Leadership Journey: From Critical Observer, to Happy User, to Proud promoter of ABW

Koen Sips is now the Senior VP Global Parts & Services at Volvo Penta, but it was earlier in his career at Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) where he was initially introduced to Veldhoen + Company and the idea of Activity Based Working (ABW). 

Since those early days, Koen has gone from a self-proclaimed critical observer to a very happy user, and even a promoter of ABW.  

In our conversation below, he details the journey of moving through the change and shares candidly about some of the challenges leading up to the project, the lightbulb moment where he experienced the value in this New Way of Working for himself, and the reasons why the collaboration with Veldhoen + Company stands out as particularly valuable in his professional journey. 

Koen Sips: I'm a strong sponsor. My team is all in Sweden, and I am living abroad in Belgium, so I fly in and out regularly. Since my experience with V+C's support to adopt ABW, my role has been to help to navigate opinions across the team and be as supportive as possible in our internal meetings.

KS: That's a broad question. I've been an old crocodile who's had their own office either as a Managing Director at a dealership or in leadership roles on the larger corporate level. So I've been in my own office for 25 years before finding ABW.  

Even leaders are employees, and as an employee, we don't always reflect on what alternatives there are to how we work. There's often a knowledge-gap within the different concepts; a hurdle, for exmple, between saying we will transition to ABW and transmitting what that really will mean practically. I personally felt that gap, and I had trouble bridging it at the very beginning when I was at Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE). I was hearing about the term ABW, but wondering "what is it?" 

Basically I had to experience it to understand it, and once I started working in an ABW way, I quickly understood the benefits – and the benefits keep growing as you continue! 

KS: We could talk about this for a long time - there are many different dimensions to it.

The first dimension is the different types of working areas or "activity zones": focus areas, collaboration areas, and so on. As an employee, you know that you're doing these different types of activities, but not in a structured or conscious sense. If asked, we know that we're either working in a focused or unfocused way, together or not together with others. Having different physical spaces for each creates a better understanding and awareness of the work we are doing in that moment. That can revolutionise the way you think about your work.

Exploring how the environment supports different ways of working from a conceptual perspective was an eye-opener. What I appreciate most about ABW now, is the ability to intentionally be in contact with many more people during the working day.  

I achieve this by consciously choosing my spot in the office. My favourite spot is at one of the big tables, close to the kitchen, where many people pass by - I'm either there or in a meeting room and never anywhere else.   

This location makes sense given my role as a manager of a team of more than 100 people because it gives me the opportunity to have a quick chat or give someone a pat on the back.  

It also makes me visible and approachable towards my team and also keep in touch with people in other teams. ABW's ability to break down silos is one of the pieces that I like the most. 

KS: We have an office building with different floors, and we knew people on our own floor but getting to know departments on other floors was a hurdle.  

Before the change it was a difficult problem to solve because we weren't accustomed to going to a desk on another floor to work. It's quite unusual to work outside a traditional "team area" if you aren't used to Activity Based Working. So it wasn't easy to know who to talk to from different floors either. 

I knew that this multi-floor separation was part of the problem prior to our change transformation, but couldn't see what to do about it. 

Also, since many people at Volvo travel during the work week, we had floors that were half empty.

ABW allowed us to create new opportunities for cross collaboration by bringing people together on fewer floors. It improved this hurdle of silos tenfold and addressed the occupancy concerns we had. 

KS: Actually, at the very start I was opposed because I thought the reason V+C was coming in was only to save costs for the organisation.

Team members were afraid a new way of working would mean losing connection and efficiency between each other due to their physical proximity while working potentially spreading across the building.  

It was over time that we started to recognise the advantages. I went from being a critical observer, to a very happy user (at my spot at the kitchen table), to a driver of change.  

It's fantastic to go through the transformation journey and come out the other side as the biggest fan of ABW. 

KS: V+C helped us by measuring and understanding our reality and our ambitions by guiding us with underlying data, statistics and a broader worldly context towards a path that would bridge the gap between the two.  

That measured plotting of where we started and where we can go has a value that cannot be overestimated - and it's impossible to gain that insight solely from an internal perspective.

KS: Inspiring guidance, know-how, and perseverance.  

KS: I 'm a change process catalyst, and it's important in a change process that you explore all the dimensions that make up your workplace strategy and culture.

V+C came in with the expert knowledge and framed our transformation journey into the bigger context supported by research and extensive experience, which helped us move into the change process with good reasons (and evidence!) to do so.  

I have experienced from V+C unwavering support over the years in an area where so few people have the holistic and inspiring know-how. In my opinion, it brought the total scope of the project to a higher level.