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> “The idea you can only be collaborative face-to-face is a bias,” he said. “And I’d ask, how much creativity and innovation have been driven out of the office
by ferdowsi 5y ago
> “The idea you can only be collaborative face-to-face is a bias,” he said. “And I’d ask, how much creativity and innovation have been driven out of the office because you weren’t in the insider group, you weren’t listened to, you didn’t go to the same places as the people in positions of power were gathering?”
This is exactly it; this whole near-mystical thinking about "hallway conversations" isn't encouraging serendipitous innovation, it's encouraging the political gamesmanship that businesses have been accustomed to.
I think that we will look back at the billions/trillions spent on office space in the world's most expensive cities as one of the biggest misallocations of capital in history.
- weimerica 5y ago> This is exactly it; this whole near-mystical thinking about "hallway conversations" isn't encouraging serendipitous innovation, it's encouraging the political gamesmanship that businesses have been accustomed to. I would have to push back in that, in my experience, those just turn into private off-the-record chat groups among the in-group - and that this is something of an innate part of the human tribalism that cannot and will not be suppressed.
- throwaway6734 5y ago>think that we will look back at the billions/trillions spent on office space in the world's most expensive cities as one of the biggest misallocations of capital in history What was the alternative?
- robertlagrant 5y agoInvent multiway video calling 150 years ago, of course.
- ric2b 5y agoWe've had it for 20 years and were still doing it.
- robertlagrant 5y agoIt only got useable in the last 5 years, though, and mostly for people who live in conurbations that have the scale for affordable good internet.
- robertlagrant 5y agoIt can work both ways: people playing games can potentially divide and conquer audiences more easily in video calls.
- pitched 5y agoI’ve noticed this too. It’s a lot easier to talk about someone behind their back if you’re behind a locked, sound-proof door (which is what Zoom meetings are). It feels a lot to me like the “Old Boys’ Clubs” are stronger remote, not weaker, because of this. They don’t have to hide biases when remote, it’s hidden by default.
- JohnWhigham 5y ago100% true. I think we're still collectively in a honeymoon phase with remote work. Yes, we know it has its benefits, but also has numerous insidious downsides, including further insulating and reinforcing existing groups within a company. One way to combat this specifically though is if everyone is remote.
- andreilys 5y agoDepends on the company, but I’ve observed that information now flows a lot freely because of public Slack channels and documents. Before there was a lot of tribal knowledge, and side conversations but now the level of transparency has increased dramatically.
- robertlagrant 5y agoTheir respective permissions models mean Confluence and Slack made information more available, while Teams and SharePoint make it less available.
- brnt 5y ago> I think that we will look back at the billions/trillions spent on office space in the world's most expensive cities as one of the biggest misallocations of capital in history. Status symbols _are_ an efficient allocation of capital, for a select few.
- majormajor 5y ago> “And I’d ask, how much creativity and innovation have been driven out of the office because you weren’t in the insider group, you weren’t listened to, you didn’t go to the same places as the people in positions of power were gathering?” How does remote work avoid insider groups, or people not being listened to, or meetings you aren't invited to?