[201] industries of the blind narrative and sketches

Thumbnail Sketches

Industries of the Blind is an organization that provides military equipment for the government. The majority of the employees working there are blind. It changed from a company that has separation of Senior management from other Employees to now being and open high trust organization. They focus on culture and promote openness and trust.  Entering into the front of the space was very narrow and there was a green garden center in the back left corner of the entranceway. There was a sense of height to the space because the walls were narrow the the ceiling was high and elongated. The staircase on the left was also narrow and tall. The stairs and building on the inside had an institutional feel with white falls and closed off windows. We met in a room with the David LoPresti, the head of the organization, who told us about how work there has changed since he has become apart of the organization and the history of them. The building closed off from the outside because at the time they did not want their workers becoming distracted by things that were happening outside, and they also did not want outside people coming in and seeing what they were doing. There was little trust within the company and there strict supervision to make sure that employees were always doing their job with strict policies. Today the Industries of the Blind is very welcoming to its workers and promotes relationships between workers within the organization. The people who work in this organization enjoy coming to work everyday and doing their part because they know that the work they do is important so they want to improve and do a good job at what they do. There is a great sense of trust and commitment to work since the organization has become much more open. The employees are people who want to do a good job at work and enjoy coming to work because of the open environment and trust. LoPresti knows all of his employees by name and knows things about them. They enjoy talking to him and working for him and they know that their work saves lives. The space today is very strict and sectioned off. Walking through the space, it was not built for promoting communication. Downstairs where employees are working on shirts for the military that absorb moisture, and a guard to stop bullets from going into the back of a person's neck, they have very large open spaces. They have made it an open environment for communication because there are tables for working but now walls. LoPresti mentioned that he wanted to change the front entrance to make people want to come into the building and see how the organization runs. Right now the entrance is very plane and small and it does not make you feel like you can come inside. They want to promote communication and an open environment and invite people from the outside in.