Idea in Brief
The Problem
Organizations are turning to open offices and an array of technologies to encourage collaboration. But often it isn’t effective: People don’t necessarily interact more, or they interact in unproductive ways.
The Root Cause
Individuals decide when and how to engage with others. They become adept at shutting people out and reading signs that their coworkers wish to be left alone. Many companies don’t understand how to achieve the kinds of collaboration they want.
The Solution
Companies can use new technologies, such as sensors that track people’s movements and software that collects their digital “breadcrumbs,” to understand how members of particular groups are actually interacting. They can then conduct rigorous experiments to learn how to achieve the types of exchanges they want.
It’s never been easier for workers to collaborate—or so it seems. Open, flexible, activity-based spaces are displacing cubicles, making people more visible. Messaging is displacing phone calls, making people more accessible. Enterprise social media such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are displacing watercooler conversations, making people more connected. Virtual-meeting software such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Webex is displacing in-person meetings, making people ever-present. The architecture of collaboration has not changed so quickly since technological advances in lighting and ventilation made tall office buildings feasible, and one could argue that it has never before been so efficient. Designing workplaces for interaction between two or more individuals—or collaboration, from the Latin collaborare, meaning to work together—has never seemed so easy.