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Research Summary / 2011
Coworking, Swarming, and theAgile Workplace.
Birds do it, beesdo it, schools o whale-avoidingAtlantic herring do it. So dohockey teams, emergencydepartments, and volunteerfrefghters. In social groups likethese, collaborative eorts andcollective decision-making happen“in the moment” and contributesignifcantly to survival and success.
Coworking, Swarming, and the Agile Workplace Research Summary / 2
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In the workplace, achieving this kind o seamless interaction among groups oindividuals has proven elusive. But with converging developments in technology,social media, and cognitive science comes the prospect o achieving breakthroughlevels o organizational collaboration. What role, i any, will the physical workplaceplay in this transormation?Over the past two decades, digital technology and the internet have radicallychanged communication processes and the nature o work itsel. Mobile devices likeiPads and smart phones and interactive applications like blogs, wikis, and socialmedia—collectively reerred to as Web 2.0—create networked environments withhuge potential or supporting collaboration among widely dispersed groups o people.Putting this transormation into perspective, sotware entrepreneur Bill Colemannotes that “the most powerul inection points in the history o mankind have comewhen new tools were developed to leverage and expand collective intelligence.”The rise o the internet, he says, is the third such inection point, the frst being thedevelopment o language, and the second the invention o the printing press.
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What the impact o Web 2.0 is—or could or should be—on businesses organizationsand the ofces in which their members have traditionally come together in orderto communicate (and, it is hoped, leverage their collective intelligence) is still beingdebated. Many speculate that, with people no longer needing to be in the sameplace at the same time to share inormation and ideas, the ofce building as weknow it is destined or obsolescence.
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I the recent past is any indication, however, reports o the death o the ofcecontinue to be highly exaggerated. The predicted mass exodus to home ofces hasnot materialized. A recent survey ound that less than two percent o people workingor large employers worldwide work rom home, and that most (over 60 percent) stillcommute to an ofce our or fve days a week.
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In act, there are signs that the trend may be moving in the opposite direction. Aninternational survey undertaken or Johnson Controls in 2010 ound a signifcantincrease in the amount o time people spent working at the ofce. Respondents(all o whom were identifed as “exible workers,” whose employers allow somediscretion in when and where they work) reported spending an average o 45 percento their work time “in the ofce,” up rom 18 percent in 2007, while percentages otime working rom home and “on the move” decreased compared to 2007 levels.
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In his introduction to the report,
Flexible Working 2010
, Chairman o the OfceProductivity Network Paul Bartlett writes, “there is no evidence that employersinuenced or requested this shit in behavior,” and that workers are increasinglychoosing to use the corporate ofce “as a place to meet, interact, and collaborate.”According to the report, the act that 64 percent o its respondents indicated thatgoing to the ofce was “important” or “extremely important,” “demonstrates howmuch ace-to-ace interaction is an important part o the working lie.”
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2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2010Mobile Home Office552025502030303040203545183646452035
Flexible Working 2010
Coworking, Swarming, and the Agile Workplace Research Summary / 3
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Swarm Intelligence and Mirror Neurons
The assumption that virtual communication would negate the need or peopleto gather together physically to accomplish work is proving to be inherently“awed,” according to Andrew Laing, managing director at DEGW North America:“The richness o ace-to-ace communication allows or ast-paced and ad hocinteractions, which help to speed up decision making and inormation ow in waysthat have not yet been ully matched by purely virtual work environments.
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Ad hoc and ast-paced interactions are increasingly the name o the game in today’sorganization as the complexity and unpredictability o the external business environmentrequires constant monitoring and minute-by-minute adjustments by companieshoping to compete. A recent report rom Gartner, Inc., fnds knowledge work becomingsteadily less routine and increasingly characterized by “volatility,” “hyper-connectedness,”and “swarming—a work style characterized by a urry o collective activity by anyoneand everyone conceivably available and able to add value.”
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In contrast to traditional corporate teams—composed o people who work togetherregularly, oten in the same location and under the same manager—swarms typicallyencompass a diverse group o proessionals and experts who may not have workedtogether beore and probably won’t work as a team again in the uture. Swarmsorm quickly to attack a problem or opportunity, then dissipate as their members arepulled into other ad hoc groups addressing other issues.For years, scientists have been studying “swarm intelligence”—the collective behavioro social insects like honeybees and ants—to better understand the mechanismsunderlying the amazing eectiveness o groups o individuals interacting “in themoment.” Without layers o management or careully developed strategic plans,these “sel-organizing teams” arrive at the best solutions to complex survival issueslike nest building and oraging or ood.As early as a decade ago, companies like Southwest Airlines and Capital Onebegan applying swarm theory principals to optimize various business operations,such as scheduling and materials management. More recently, in a book subtitled“How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better atCommunicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done,”
National Geographic
editor Peter Miller outlines valuable business lessons rom nature:From honeybee swarms we’ve learned that groups can reliably make gooddecisions in a timely matter as long as they seek diversity o knowledge.By studying termite mounds we’ve seen how even small contributions to ashared project can create something useul. Finally, ocks o starlings haveshown us how, without direction rom a single leader, members o a groupcan coordinate their behavior with amazing precision simply by paying attentionto their nearest neighbor.
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Swarms orm quicklyto attack a problem oropportunity, thendissipate as theirmembers are pulled intoother ad hoc groupsaddressing other issues.
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