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 the