Workspace Winners

Workplace design has an impact on the productivity of workers. Is a "war room" design the way to go?

By Linnea Leaver published May 1, 2001 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016

The "war room" setting, devoid of walls and equipped with central
worktables, appears to encourage communication and collaboration.
University of Michigan researchers compared the productivity of
software-development teams in war room and traditional settings and found
that workers in open offices were twice as productive.

"Although the war room teammates were not looking forward to
working in close quarters, over time they realized the benefits of having
people at hand, for coordination, problem solving and learning," explains
Stephanie Teasley, Ph.D., an assistant research scientist at Michigan
who presented the findings at an Association for
Computing

Note to more traditionally arranged offices:
There must also be some value in knowing you can't slack off when your
every move is being watched by the entire office.