By Ethan Bernstein and Ben Waber
November-December 2019
This article starts off by talking about how it's now easier than ever before to collaborate with our co-workers. With the likes of different web applications to replace meetings, water cooler chats and even phone calls. Open spaces should also be contributing to all this collaboration - however, research has found unintentional consequences to all of this. Evidence has suggested these open concepts have produced less meaningful interactions amongst staff members.
It goes on to say that no matter your digital or physical architecture around you, the individual or collective group decides when to interact. Even in open offices, if a person wants to ignore interactions, they have the means to do so by avoiding eye contact, selective hearing or some other distraction that catches their attention suddenly. Also, how easy is it to not reply to a digital message?
When interaction does happen, employees can choose from any method they prefer – face-to-face, email, video conference etc. The staff member that starts the interaction makes the decision whether to make the interaction physically or digitally, while the recipient is able to choose how timely they want to reply. If it is a digital interaction, it could be a longer interaction as people decide if they want to reply immediately, later that day or never.
Technology has allowed us to observe collaboration by detecting and analyzing flows of communication. Some ways to do this:
Sensors – measuring your movement around the space, measure how long you sit at your desk, track who you interact with
Digital “breadcrumbs” – when people book a meeting, send emails, post on work discussion boards
All these analytics can then be used to see if people are truly collaborating or merely in the same place at the same time. It can also help discover patterns and predict future behaviours in the workplace.
The authors actually conducted a study on 2 Fortune 500 companies before and after their switch to open offices. This study found that face-to-face interactions dropped by 70%, while their electronic interactions increased to make up for it. They say this can be related to when stage performers create a fourth wall - which allows them to pay no attention to the audience but focus on their scene. These office employees did the same thing, and everyone respected each others’ fourth wall. Interaction is also closely related to the proximity in which you find yourself with other employees. You are six times more likely to interact with a team member if they are located on the same floor as you and nine times as likely with a non-team member on the same floor.
To conclude, they suggest including all parties involved and conducting experiments to see what works best for your organization as it is not a one-size-fits-all. Open office spaces might work for some, but for others, it can result in a less productive environment. Remember the goal is to have the right people interacting at the right time with meaningful ideas.
To me, it seems like this article can be applied to many office spaces. As it suggests to do your own experiments, the layout of your organization can be adjusted to suit your needs. It might prove this article wrong and say that open spaces actually improved your productivity, or it could come to the same conclusion. It wouldn't be suitable for workplaces in the trades, as they are less office-based.
I have never worked in an open office concept, so I don't have an opinion on that. The closest I got to open office space was when I covered for a Receptionist at an engineering company. The engineers each had their own bench-style desk in a large rectangle of a room, with only small smoky window dividers no more than 30cm tall between them. I, however, was around the corner at my own desk at the front of the building. I can however attest to the proximity effect mentioned. I certainly interact more with team members that work in the same area of the building as I do - even other departments that are close to my area. I also believe that peoples' personalities have a great deal to do with their interactions at work. There are the extroverts and the introverts, each interacting and collaborating differently. I see this every term in my online classes. Extroverts do a lot of collaborating and wanting to do Teams calls, whereas the introverts prefer to just chat over messenger.
Bernstein, E., & Waber, B. (November-December,2019). The truth about open offices. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-truth-about-open-offices.
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