Green Party co-leader James Shaw at his desk in the party's open-plan Bowen House office, Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Green Party co-leader James Shaw at his desk in the party's open-plan Bowen House office, Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The moment James Shaw walked into his new office after being sworn in as a minister, he made a rather significant decision - to do away with his ministerial office.
He wanted to knock down many of the walls so he could work among his staff.
Two years later, hewants other ministers to follow his lead.
Shaw, the Minister of Climate Change and the Green Party co-leader, is a big fan of an open-plan office.
He lobbied the Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, to allow him to make the renovations to his Bowen House office.
Mallard accepted and, in the space of just a weekend, Shaw's new office was created.
Shaw sits in the corner, nestled between a window, which overlooks the Beehive, and his press secretary.
Directly behind him on the wall is a framed photo of himself, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern walking the halls of Parliament.
His almost dozen staff are stationed around the rest of the room.
There is not a lot of space for a private conversation – only a meeting room that he and staffers dart in-and-out of throughout the day.
For example, when the Herald was visiting Shaw's office, he used the room for an interview with Auckland-based student radio bFM early on Monday.
He also used it for a meeting with his chief of staff later in the morning.
The office setup is highly unusual for a minister.
Other ministers have different offices for different members of their team, with one larger, plush office with a huge meeting desk and bookcases filled to the brim, where they work.
"I just think it functions way better," Shaw said of open-plan offices.
He believes he has a better understanding of what goes on in the office and that it fostered "better team culture".
"I can resolve things much faster – so rather than things queuing up … if I just overhear a conversation, I can say 'well, let's just resolve that now'."
It's an approach that his staff were onboard with as well.
"He's very accessible," one staff member said.
That was helpful when it came to sorting out the smaller issues that would normally take up a lot of time in other offices, the staffer said.
Another said the way the office was set up feels "a lot less hierarchical" than was the case in other ministers' offices.
"What I really like about the open-plan office is you get a lot more of a team environment because we're all sitting together."
Although the idea is fairly unique to Parliament, Shaw pointed out he was not the first political or public-sector leader to embrace an open-plan office.
Outgoing Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf sits in an open-plan office – as did Michael Bloomberg when he was mayor of New York.
"I figured if you can run New York City from a desk in an open-plan office, then you can pretty much run the climate portfolio in New Zealand from an open-plan office too."
When the office was first converted, Shaw said he immediately got a much better comprehension of what was going on and how things worked.
The office itself is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a sea of green.
Green chairs, green rubbish bins, green binders. There is even an old green rotary dial phone with a photo of Shaw cut out and pasted in its centre on the filing cabinet behind his desk.
Its purpose, however, was unclear.
Documents and a photo displayed on the wall of Greens co-leader James Shaw's Bowen House office. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Despite having a desk in the bullpen with his staffers, Shaw said he actually does not spend a large amount of time there – maybe an hour or so a day.
He said it did not take him long to decide he wanted to make the change – in fact, he said, he made the decision the "moment I moved in".
"I thought when we came down here, when we set up the new Government, that I would try and role model it and if other people liked it, maybe they would follow."
Mallard said he approved the change because Shaw indicated he thought his office would work better in an open-plan format.
Shaw called on his ministerial colleagues to follow his lead.
It would be unlikely for Mallard to give the green light for serious renovations to be undertaken in the Beehive offices because they are in a heritage building.
But a shift to create more open-plan offices in the Bowen House tower – where many other MPs' offices are – could be on the cards. That is assuming the building passes its earthquake strength tests.
