Just as individuals thrive when they have access to private spaces, when desired, so do groups.
When individuals know that other people can’t see or hear them, and that they can’t see or hear others (which doesn’t mean they’re in a white box without windows or sound), they have a chance to do things such as mull over recent events and integrate them with previous other life experiences. When we don’t get a chance to do this sort of thing every so often, our brains start to behave like a skipping record. In a private space, we can ponder things without concern for what we look like while we do so, for example.
A private space is also a great place to do distraction free work, but we can be in a space that’s distraction free but not private. For example, we might be the only person in a work area at a particular moment and not experiencing distractions, but that space isn’t private if anyone could enter it at any time.
Groups, like individual people, need privacy, when desired. When they have privacy, they can speak to each other without worrying about being overheard or someone seeing what they’re writing on a whiteboard, etc.
Just as individuals in a private space can let their minds flow freely, so can groups in a private area. When they trust and respect their teammates, they don’t worry as much about being judged as they present new and maybe wacky thoughts – as long as their audience is just those teammates. To foster the flow of creative, new ideas, it’s imperative that groups have privacy.
When they’re working in an open space or one with transparent walls near places used by others, groups don’t have privacy. They also don’t have privacy when sessions are recorded. Teams, and the people on them, worry about being assessed and also that their work might be complicated by having new ideas that aren’t fully “baked” known outside their team. For example, executives might push for new processes to be implemented before they’re thoroughly thought through. So, people will refrain from sharing all of their ideas if people outside the team will be party to them. Research clearly supports this pattern of behavior by groups.
Want to create a space where groups work well and have the sort of open discussions that move organizations forward? Make sure others can’t see or hear them – and that they can’t see or hear others – while they’re working to solve the tough challenges that they face. There’s nothing that works as well now, with the technology that’s currently available to block sounds and sights, as walls (true walls, not ones that stop partway to the ceiling) and doors or long distances. And who has money for distance when rents are high?
Team performance is not enhanced when all teammates are assigned to workspaces around a large table, even if it’s in a walled space. Too much closeness is deadly to a group; remember all you’ve learned about personal space, visual complexity, autonomy, etc.
Want a well functioning team? Make sure they have privacy when they need it.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at