Bonjour. This is Cyril from Work Smarter Live Better.
In this video, I would like to challenge a very simple idea, something that I hear very often. The idea being that more collaboration means better performance.
I work with many large businesses, not only in Australia, but also around the world. Over the last ten years there has been a real shift from people having their own office where they could close the door, to working in open plan and more recently in activity base environment.
Gensler is a global company which helps businesses to design their workspace. A few years ago they published an interesting article on what makes a great place to work based on the feedback of the 90,000 people in their database from 155 companies around the world. They found four key things. To create a great place to work you need to create a place where people can collaborate, focus, socialise and learn.
The unexpected finding of the research was that the most important factor for effectiveness in the workplace is not collaboration. It is focus.
Moreover workplaces that sacrifice focus in the pursuit of collaboration end up by killing both.
So yes, collaboration is very important, and I don’t deny that. But even more important is focus. What are you doing to foster your focus? And as a manager, what are you doing to help your team to be more focused?
Really, really important to think about that. Collaboration is great, but the key factor for performance in the workplace is focus.
This is this week’s Work Smarter Live Better tip.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Have a wonderful Christmas break
Cyril
