Does your desk put others in the interviewee position? And, how flat are you?

Almost through discussing Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From.”

Johnson summarizes the importance of physical space to ideas and innovation. Stewart Brand wrote, “How Buildings Learn” and discusses MIT’s Building 20 as an example of a building that learned. Johnson also cites building 99 which was opened in November 2007 by Microsoft.

My staff works in a very large space with about 20 cubicles, 4 feet high. In the middle of the room is a very large conference table. All meetings take place at that conference table, unless they deal with personnel issues or require a speakerphone. This structure and the open meeting concept means that typically 2 or 3 or 5 people sitting having the meeting will be interrupted when somebody pops up from the cubicle and says something like, “if you do that don’t forget then you have to do the other.” We’ve created an environment where such participation is not eavesdropping but rather it’s an expected part of everyone’s indirect participation in formal and informal conversations. We like it.

My office is built around a desk that separates me from anyone who comes in. I moved a round table to my side of the desk, and that’s where I meet with everyone so we can see the computer screen and work together. I worked at a university once where all the offices were built with small meeting tables and large windows so people could look out and in. A handful of faculty removed the tables and covered the windows with posters. Sigh.