[regularfry]

No, "serendipity" here has value primarily not within a single team, but as a discovery mechanism between teams. There's research on this. It has its highest value for new starters trying to figure out how the org fits together, but is also useful for inter-team workflow discovery and reinforcement, especially at the start of projects. You shouldn't need it within a single team unless that team is already dysfunctional (which I think is your point).

Basically all orgs need something that acts as a random mixing function so that connections between areas can form and strengthen. Working in the same building can provide that, if the building layout allows for it, but it's far from the only option.

The problem is that managers, particularly those with a strongly hierarchical, Taylorist mindset, won't necessarily appreciate the value of lateral connections between teams. They end up benefiting from serendipity by accident because when they force people into the office those lateral connections form anyway.

[sdiacom]

Oh, thanks for pointing this out! I hadn't thought of it explicitly in that way, so I didn't write it down. But all the concrete examples I was running in my mind were indeed examples of inter-team collaboration: "helping the HR team fix their workflow", "addressing issues that the customer support team keeps getting complaints about", "fixing some minor product oversight that leads to a worse experience"