The Truth About Getting the Best from People, Second Edition

Truth 59. Trivial conversations are essential

There are those who will complain that cubicles are counterproductive because they give employees little privacy. They need the chance to lose themselves in thought. To process the ideas that came up in the morning’s meeting. To practice the new software uninterrupted. To call their mortgage broker. To check their bank account online. They don’t need to be overheard or snuck up on. (You know those little mirrors stuck to the frame of monitors throughout your company? Those aren’t vanity mirrors; they’re rearview mirrors. Who would have ever predicted that one day we’d be driving our desktops with the help of rearview mirrors?)

There are still others, though, who will tell you that there’s still too ...