Balancing "We'' and ''Me''

The challenge: Open offices are supposed to promote collaboration, but people just don’t like them much. Companies have been trying for decades to find the balance between public and private workspace that best supports collaboration.

The finding: Privacy has traditionally been defined in physical terms, but we need to think about it differently. Privacy is really about the individual’s ability to control information(what information others need to know, both personal and professional) and stimulation(any sort of disruption).

The solution: Privacy does not compromise collaboration but can nurture it. By improving privacy—providing spaces where employees can be by themselves and tune out distractions—you enrich and strengthen collaborative activities.

There’s a natural rhythm to collaboration. People need to focus alone or in pairs to generate ideas or process information; then they come together as a group to build on those ideas or develop a shared point of view; and then they break apart again to take next steps. The more demanding the collaboration task is, the more individuals need punctuating moments of private time to think or recharge.

Companies have been trying for decades to find the balance between public and private workspace 
that best supports collaboration. In 1980 our research found that 85% of U.S. employees said they needed places to concentrate without distractions, and 52% said they lacked such spaces. In response, thousands of high-walled cubicles took over the corporate landscape. By the late 1990s, the tide had turned, and only 23% of employees wanted more privacy; 50% said they needed more access to other people, and 40% wanted more interaction.

The open plan is just one of the culprits assaulting our privacy. The increased focus on collaborative
work means we’re rarely alone, and the ubiquity of mobile devices means we’re always accessible. In light of these pressures, it’s not surprising that the number of people who say they can’t concentrate at their desk has increased by 16% since 2008, and the number of those who don’t have access to quiet places to do focused work is up by 13%. In fact, 74% of the people we surveyed said they’re more concerned about their privacy now than they were 10 years ago.

Leaving the office to work at home or in coffee shops or libraries isn’t the answer—at least not for the long term. Too much remote work creates its own set of problems, such as diminished knowledge transfer, decreased engagement, cultural disconnect, and a slew of new distractions. And, of course, it makes collaboration more difficult.

Here we present new insights into the nature of privacy and offer strategies that allow employees to get away without going away.

Redefining Privacy at Work

Information control: 

Employees today wage a constant battle to protect and manage access to their personal information. Over the course of a day, we shift constantly between revealing and concealing aspects of ourselves and our work to and from others. Technology has further challenged our sense of personal sovereignty. Social media in particular have done more than any other force to compromise our ability to control our information.

We have to make conscious decisions about how we manage our personal information and act on those decisions vigilantly. If we don’t and most of us don’t then we’re left feeling uncomfortably vulnerable.

Stimulation control:

The second dimension of privacy encompasses the noises and other distractions that break concentration or inhibit the ability to focus. Stimulation control is in some ways more variable and idiosyncratic than information control.  Fundamentally, stimulation control governs the ability to focus attention. In thinking about office design, it’s helpful to understand that neuroscience research identifies three basic modes of attention.

• The first is controlled attention: working on a task that requires intense focus, such as writing or thinking deeply, while willfully avoiding unrelated thoughts and inhibiting external stimuli. When we are in this mode, interruptions and other distractions are unwelcome, and our need to control the environment around us increases.
• The second mode is stimulus-driven attention: switching focus when something catches our attention. When we’re performing routine tasks—responding to e-mails, scheduling meetings, or catching up on other administrative work—we may tolerate or even welcome interruptions or distractions. Many people choose to perform routine tasks in open, social, or active settings.
• The third mode is rejuvenation: the periodic respites from concentration that we take throughout the day. It’s a time-out for our brains and bodies and often a chance to engage socially with others or express emotions that we’ve kept on a tight leash. For rejuvenation, people may seek either a highly stimulating environment or a quiet one, depending on personal preference.

Privacy Across Cultures

While the need for privacy is universal, the ways it is experienced across cultures vary. 

Attitudes toward personal space differ greatly from country to country. That finding points to a significant cultural difference. 

In China people don’t think about individual privacy in the same way that Westerners do. Chinese workers are most concerned about information control: keeping personal data private and seeking refuge from the feeling of being watched. 

Among Western workers, by contrast, the issue of stimulation control tends to take center stage: Only 55% of the workers we surveyed said they are able to work in groups without being interrupted. 

Workers in European countries (except in the Netherlands) were the most dissatisfied with their ability to control their privacy and were more likely to be dissatisfied with their work environment in general. The cultural norm in those countries is that work happens in the office, generally at an assigned workspace, and opportunities to seek solitude or achieve greater levels of privacy are often limited.

While privacy means different things in different cultures, our study showed that workplace satisfaction and engagement are deeply connected to a sense of control over one’s environment. 98% of the most highly engaged employees reported that they had “the ability to concentrate ''easily” in their workplace and that this attribute is a top factor in their satisfaction. They also scored high on “being able to work in teams without being disrupted” and “being able to choose where to work according to the task at hand”—other factors critical to high engagement and satisfaction. Conversely, highly disengaged and dissatisfied employees struggled with disruptions and felt they had very little control over where or how they worked. Only 15% said they could concentrate easily.

Personal Strategies for Privacy

In addition to local culture, factors such as organizational culture, the type of task one is engaged in, mood, and individual personality shape how much privacy people require and the way they achieve it. 

Christine Congdon, Donna Flynn, and Melanie Redman, SPOTLIGHT ON THE 21ST-CENTURY WORKSPACE