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I’ve always thought that much of the bitching is about individual productivity without taking into the considerations of group productivity. Teams of 4-8 being

• JoshTriplett 11y ago
  > Teams of 4-8 being in a single room probably gain more in collaboration in sum total by being together than the loss in personal productivity; however open spaces in the hundreds now introduct distractions for non-group associated work. Depends heavily on the work you're doing in that team. Sometimes you're all working on the same problem; sometimes you need to divide and conquer, or otherwise work on mostly unrelated matters. I've read about Valve's "moveable desks" and how they improve collaboration, but that's still a big open-plan office. I wonder if some sensible structure could make it easy to sometimes work in a shared office and sometimes work in groups?
• vonmoltke 11y ago
  > I’ve always thought that much of the bitching is about individual productivity without taking into the considerations of group productivity. On the face of it, that seems illogical. I don't think anyone disputes that a well-functioning team's whole (team productivity) is greater than the sum of its parts (individual productivity). What is hard to fathom, though, is the idea that reducing the sum of its parts increases the whole. I'm not saying it isn't possible, just not straightforward.