Time for a group hug? Will that help improve team performance?

 I really recommend The Economist’s Schumpeter column, especially to A2 Business students. It can be quite challenging, but contains some fascinating current thinking about what’s best (and worst) in business. The most recent column discusses one of my favourite topics: are some businesses too nice?

That might seem crazy, when I write blogs with titles like Is my both a psychopath, and I worry a great deal about dreadful employers and workplace dissatisfaction (some links on leadership and organisation are grouped here). But for balance, I do like to consider issues like corporate cultures that are too nice, and the trend towards wacky offices (more here). Schumpeter wades into the debate, arguing that indeed, many firms take an approach to management that seems open, but is in fact ineffective.

The attack is aimed at those unthinking champions of a faith in free-flowing creativity, endless collaboration and all things open-plan. One study found a firm where the more time they spent consulting others, the less likely they were to win a deal. This illustrates that collaboration has costs as well as benefits. These need to be weighed against each other, instead of simply assuming that the more teamwork the better. Another academic argues that the most successful teams are marked by internal competition and clashing egos as well as togetherness. The argument goes on: too much reliance on teamwork can create a culture of “learned helplessness” in which managers are terrified to take decisions without yet another round of consultations. Excessive collaboration can lead to the very opposite of creativity: groupthink, conformity and mediocrity. It is especially damaging at the top of an organisation.

On the question of office design, around 70% of all offices in America have gone open-plan. Yet evidence is mounting that this is a bad idea. One survey has found huge hostility (I know I’d hate it). Workers say that open-plan offices make it more difficult to concentrate, because the hubbub of human and electronic noise is so distracting. What they really value is the ability to focus on their jobs with as few distractions as possible. In fact, some workers say it prevents them from collaborating, because they cannot talk without disturbing others or inviting an audience.

We worth a read, and a welcome new perspective on a long running debate, even if you don't find the arguments particularly persuasive.