There's a cultural aspect to collaboration, and an office layout aspect. Culturally, collaboration can be great. Getting someone from sales involved in a prod

There's a cultural aspect to collaboration, and an office layout aspect. Culturally, collaboration can be great. Getting someone from sales involved in a product meeting could be revolutionary, or getting a product person on a sales call etc. etc. It's possible to design an open floor plan with plenty of private spaces, but most companies don't do this because the people making the decisions are not introverted enough or their jobs don't involve achieving and maintaining "flow state". Ideas like pair programming have created the misunderstanding that programming should always be done in a social way. There are many times when a problem demands focused thinking, and the ideal office space offers places to do that.