I love that Toni Schneider is blogging regularly. In a recent post he tries to find the balance of having an open, collaborative office space and one that allows for private time to execute.
Ideally, an office would offer both. Open spaces for collaboration/inspiration and private spaces for taking that inspiration and turning into action. Depending on the job, I think a good balance is about 20% collaboration and 80% heads down execution (I know some people will disagree).
While I share Toni’s observations completely — that having a bit of both is really best, I also think that the people matter as much as the space. In June of this year I wrote about a Wired piece entitled The Myth of the Cool Office. I wrote:
I fall on the side that with the right team that knows when to stay out of each other’s hair you can get a lot of work accomplished in a shared office space environment. It isn’t always the fault of a space that someone isn’t getting work done. It is often the people.
Even now working in a coworking space, I still feel the same. With the right people, and the proper motivation, you can get your best work done in any environment. Though, overall a really great work environment will yield amazing results.