‘Collaboration’ Creates Mediocrity, Not Excellence, According to Science
16th December 2018
If you listen to management pundits, “collaboration” is all the rage. While the term is a bit fuzzy, what’s usually meant by “collaboration” is 1) plenty of ad-hoc meetings and 2) open-plan offices that increase the likelihood that such meetings take place.
In previous columns, I’ve pointed out that open-plan offices, with all their interruptions, distractions, and noise pollution, are productivity sinkholes. I’ve also pointed out that collaboration tends to penalize the competent who end up doing most of the work.
A recent study published in Applied Psychology has now confirmed that a collaborative work environment can make top performers–the innovators and hard-workers–feel miserable and socially isolated.
Unfortunately, open-plan offices are cheaper than giving each worker his own space, and it’s easier to point to the amount of money saved than to try to evaluate the amount of productivity lost.
‘Diversity’ works the same way. All scientific studies that have been allowed to test the supposed benefits of ‘diversity’ have demonstrated that having a ‘diverse’ workforce (in the Political Correctness sense) actually impairs productivity. But that’s not in line with the Narrative so anybody who tries to say that in public is immediately silenced.