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The Why Factor: Why should we work together?

Why should we work together?

08/07/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - The Why Factor, Why should we work together?

Have we become obsessed with the idea of collaboration?

In our hyper-connected, digital and global age, teamwork is seen as the key to success. But is working together really the best way to get things done?

Open plan offices, hot-desking, group brainstorming sessions: collaboration seems to be king in the modern workplace. Recent studies have found that we are spending up to 80% of our working days either in meetings or dealing with requests from our colleagues. But is working together really the best way? Is the idea of collaboration something we’re fetishising at the cost of productivity and creativity, and have we lost sight of the benefits of working alone? 

Nastaran Tavakoli-Far shares her own dislike of the BBC’s open-plan office and asks, in some desperation: why should we work together?

Guests:

Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of Bring Your Brain to Work
Kerstin Sailer, reader in social and spatial networks, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
John Maeda, global head of design at Automattic 

Image: Workers in an open-plan office (Credit: Getty Images)

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