[mrbird]

I love seeing quantitative attempts to study social dynamics, even if it's tricky to extrapolate them to other environments. There definitely seems to be a growing research consensus that people with emotional intelligence--sensitive to others, good at team-building--are more important than previously thought, especially relative to, say, technical skill.

One thing I'm very curious about, with respect to this study's findings, is the relationship with similarly-convincing research about the important of private offices and minimizing distractions. The two aren't totally exclusive, of course, but there is at least some tension:

For example, we now know that 35% of the variation in a team’s performance can be accounted for simply by the number of face-to-face exchanges among team members. We know as well that the “right” number of exchanges in a team is as many as dozens per working hour, but that going beyond that ideal number decreases performance.

That style of interaction does sound a lot easier to facilitate in an open-plan office.

[borgia]

>That style of interaction does sound a lot easier to facilitate in an open-plan office.

What about something in the middle i.e. small teams working in offices by themselves, who've sufficient privacy from the grand noise of a totally open-plan office yet can communicate/chat/etc. amongst themselves very freely?

[kenrikm]

Private Offices with open doors and a communal meeting place in the middle seem to be rather effective in my experience. You hear just enough of what's going on that you can join in if needed but also separated enough that a pair of headphones can put you in silence.