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<\/a>Open-office spaces grew over 3 million square feet from 2015 to 2016 just in the U.S.<\/p><\/div>\n
Despite some people preferring this method undoubtedly, there are still some mixed results on how these spaces influence human collaboration<\/a>.<\/p>\n While some studies show that removing spatial boundaries brings people into contact and\u00a0increases\u00a0collaboration and collective intelligence, researchers\u00a0Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban spotted\u00a0inconsistencies<\/a> in certain human behaviors.<\/p>\n They found that prior studies of open offices and its impacts on human communication and collaboration had relied on imprecise measures such as self-reported activity logs to quantify interactions before and after a shift to an open office plan, therefor,\u00a0they had subjects wear devices around their neck that directly measured every face-to-face encounter, plus, they also used email and IM server logs to determine exactly how much the volume of electronic interactions changed, and what they found was notorious.<\/p>\n It is seen that\u00a0the 52 participants studied spent 72% less time interacting face-to-face after the shift to an open office layout, dropping\u00a0face-to-face interaction per person per day to a total of 1.7 hours, when the accumulated average was\u00a05.8 hours when offices were closed.<\/p>\n Although removing spatial boundaries\u2014such as walls\u2014 seems a logical solution to making individuals feel more physically proximate, which leads to more interaction, as studies suggest, it is not happening that way, but, digital communication is growing.<\/p>\n Data from the\u00a0Bernstein and Turban investigation<\/a> shows that after the redesign,\u00a0participants sent 56% more emails\u00a0(and were cc\u2019d 41% more times), and\u00a0the number of IM messages sent increased by 67%, however, it\u00a0made employees less effective.<\/p>\n One of the most interesting findings was the suggestion that when you remove any semblance of structure to human interaction, people get overloaded and withdrawal into private, electronic cocoons.<\/p>\n Office walls started to come down in the mid 90\u00b4s, as many workplaces started adopting inclusive, open, and energized methods aiming to attract creative young talent.<\/p>\n Now, as these young, creative generations establish themselves inside the workforce, the real effects of co-working and open offices in human interaction is a mixed result.<\/p>\nLess face-to-face, more digital communication\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Productivity ok, though?<\/strong><\/h1>\n