[abalone]

You're saying inspiring, coaching, motivating, sharing information, debating goals and objectives "doesn't sound anything like going to work for"?

Even socializing and making friends with coworkers is something the study specifically notes as having work value in building trust. The study found a bunch of work value that was boosted by open plan and easier interaction:

1. More frequent communication. People in closed office plans considered "frequent communication" to be just "several times a week in a scheduled meeting". In open plan, the bar for "frequent" is raised to several times a day, much of it on the fly.

2. More trust. Stronger social bonds gave workers more courage to ask one another for help when needed and bounce "crazy" ideas off one another.

3. Using visual cues to manage interrupts. In open plan you can better "read" someone to see if it's a good time to interrupt. Not the case with knocking on a door or staring at someone's back in a cube. "Unexpectedly.. more visual contact actually contributes to fewer unwanted interactions, not more, by changing not so much the frequency as the timing of conversations."

4. Tacit learning. It makes it easier for the organization to pick up on and share "unwritten" learning not codified in documents.