by Jen O Neill
I’ve been reading up recently on agile environments. I don’t work in such an environment but have been struck at how often they discuss the importance of the office layout to encourage collaboration in a team. The preferred layout always cited is the open plan office.
The layout of the workplace does impact productivity. An open layout encourages communication between people. It’s a more dynamic place to work as it allows team members to interact more easily. The downside is it can be distracting if you need to concentrate. Cubicles encourage solo work, where less interaction is required. However, cubicles can discourage that cross-fertilisation of ideas and exchange of information that comes with close teamwork. Another disadvantage of cubicles is the potential risk, “Out of sight, out of mind”.
The culture of the workspace
There is also a cultural aspect to office layout to consider. Most Europeans work in open plan and most Americans work in cubicles. I’m not sure why this is. Which office layout you prefer may well depend on which you’re used to.
I’ve never worked in a cubicle. I’ve only worked in an individual office or in an open plan layout with up to six people. I’ve never worked in offices with large areas of open plan (+40 people).
Team benefits
In the agile environment you are located in your team. As my projects are determined by Product Management, I’m physically located with that team (I actually report to them). However, I don’t feel isolated from the other writers in the company, who are all located in other countries anyway. I’m in frequent contact with them by Instant Messenger and we chatter about tech comm. related topics and what work is like at our respective sites.
I’m an open plan person. I savour the opportunities to have ad hoc conversations with people, eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of the product managers around me and exchange ideas. I hear about customer evaluations as well as learn about the wider picture of product development and on doing business with suppliers (whose manuals I will be rewriting and with whom I will also be contact). I believe that this helps me collect a wide range of information to better focus the manuals I write and localise. I don’t want to work in a cubicle as I would find it isolating.
In my opinion, an open plan layout of, say, up to eight people is great for encouraging team collaboration. A larger team would probably need a careful review of the different types of workspaces that should be provided to balance team needs and solo work moments (for example a mix of individual desks, meeting desks, places for quiet work, hot desking…).
Coping with noise
Open plan can sometimes be distracting. There are four of us in the office and between us we have six mobile phones and four landline phones. We’ve reached a “gentleman’s agreement” not to use loud “amusing” dial tones on our mobile phones and to use the headsets provided for teleconferences (unless others are invited to listen in). If I really do need silence to concentrate when working on a project, I stay home that day and work from there.
Which layout do you prefer to help you do your work: Open plan or cubicle? What different types of office layout have you work in and which have helped you feel part of a team?
Tags: cubicles, offices, Work, work environment, workplaces