Wharton just came out with a research article called,  “How Group Dynamics May Be Killing Innovation.”   The premise is how in business tend to encourage groups to work together to innovate, but working in groups , at least 100% of the time, may not be the MOST innovative model.  In fact, group dynamics might stifle early ideas, and a little alone time to develop an idea may help greatly improve innovation.  Researchers also found that working alone 100% of the time is not as effective either, because individuals may not recognize a great idea on their own.  The best solution for innovation is a combination of alone time and group collaboration. 
Why does always working in groups have limits?  According to the article:
Employees might censor themselves to go along with the status quo or to avoid angering a superior.
Putting several people in a room together is bound to create a lot of conversation; if everyone contributes, there is less time for individuals to share all of their ideas.
Some people may think less critically about a problem because they are happy to let others do the heavy lifting.
The article also pointed out the pitfalls of “build-up, or the tendency of people to suggest ideas similar to one that has already been proposed, and embraced by, the unit. They found that ideas built around other ideas are not statistically better than any random suggestion…  Build-up, Terwiesch believes, ‘is a social norm showing that you listened. If a group is working together on an idea [...]

All of this talk in the news about earthquakes in Haiti and Chile got me thinking about how the earth is moving, shifting and changing all the time, yet we just don’t notice it until it rears it’s ugly head with a big event like an earthquake, tsunami, etc. 
You might draw a parallel to the behavior of many Pharmaceutical companies nowadays.  Sometimes it seems that things are just on autopilot and then… BOOM!…a reorganization happens… or an acquisition or something major that changes everything.   I was doing a little research on the pharma industry this week and ran across this diagram from a recent article in the NY Times about mergers and acquisitions over the last ten years .  The diagram makes simple a very messy process I’m sure. 

Every time one of those lines merges or splits from another line there is an organizational earthquake happening… hirings and firings, consolidating facilities and moving people around, people working for people they’ve never met before.  It’s pretty darned disruptive and at times chaotic.  For a company to choose this much disruption, there must be significant tectonic shifts happening in the market to incite it. 
Here’s an glimpse of what one of those tectonic market shifts might look like.  This chart is from Pharma Focus Asia and a couple of years old, but still pretty telling.  The article discusses where pharma’s business will be coming from in 2010.  Other more recent articles, like this one from IMS, state similar trends.

So what does this particular shift this mean for the Pharma employee [...]

Post the best caption for this photo and win a prize if yours is selected (a gently used HOK thumb drive).   Judges are the DC Advance Strategies team.  We accept bribes.

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In the spirit of the holidays I decided to join millions of Americans this holiday and drive from DC to NY on our beloved N/S highway, I95.  A little backed up merging onto the NJ turnpike, but driving is not so bad considering this is the heaviest traffic day of the year.  After letting my daughter out of the car for a few minutes (she was feeling carsick) we’re comfortably listening to Philly’s NPR station WHYY (home of Terry Gross’ “Fresh Air”). 
This trip strikes me as a wee bit different from other recent trips because for once, I really have everything I need to get work done remotely.  I’ve got my Sprint aircard, my remote connection to the VPN, I’ve got my cell phone to make calls.  To make the trip easier we have a GPS sytem in the car and my husband’s iPhone “traffic” app to help us avaoid traffic.  (For the record, I am not driving).  All that paper sitting on my desk is just there becuase I needed to print something out for a few minutes.  Honestly, I don’t need it, it’s just there for show and to collect dust.  Sorry team, I’m a slob. 
Being away from the office a lot lately has really driven it home for me.  I don’t need an office to work.  I just need it to communicate with my team and colleagues face-to-face  from time to time.  It really is a freeing feeling.  Mobility is good!

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Because of the focus on natural light and ventilation, green buildings are typically more “open” than traditional office space, meaning there are fewer full-height walls and and more flexible open areas instead. Many claim that this general trend has helped reduce energy use and building material consumption, but not necessarily productivity when it comes to acoustics or visual distractions. For more collaborative work, ambient noise or a general “buzz” around the office is good for productivity. However, employees trying to perform tasks that require a high degree of concentration may lose productivity due to noise in their work area.
My own view is that acoustics can be very subjective. For example, my husband likes to fall asleep to the sound of television, whereas I find television too stimulating and cannot go to sleep with it on. Some of my colleagues love to listen to music to drown out background noise… I find that even more distracting than tuning out what is happening around me. Maybe having a 3-year-old helps with this, I’m not sure. In any case, this recent push on companies to become more collaborative and more green has increased the amount of open space and now we’re all finding our limits to what we can tollerate in terms of acoustical distraction.
Interestingly, when employees have some degree of self-control over the noise in their environment, they are less distracted by it (A. Kjellberg, U. Landstrom, M. Tesarz, L. Soderberg, and E. Akerlund “The Effects Of Nonphysical Noise Characteristics, Ongoing Tasks [...]