Nobody will deny that our society is becoming more and more complex. This increased complexity has led to a higher degree of specialization among professionals, each speaking their own language. Ranging from the elaborate marketing speak to the barely understood language of tax specialists. And to complicate matters even further: today, a dizzying number of people have to work together to get things done. Never before has getting products and services to the marketplace required a larger set of people, organizations, places and processes.

Successful companies are the ones that get their teams to work better together than teams in other companies do. Their degree of collaboration is what sets them apart from their less successful competitors. People working effectively together – whether they are employees, partners or customers – is their secret formula.

The new Holy Grail

Making teams work together, collaborate in a better way, is the new Holy Grail for enterprises.

Alex Pentland, Director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, has conducted some great research on what makes some teams more successful than others. One of his findings is that the most valuable form of communication is face-to-face. Now, most people would probably agree with that statement – but he and his team were actually able to prove it scientifically.

"The next most valuable form of communication is by phone or videoconference, but with a caveat: Those technologies become less effective as more people participate in the call or conference. The least valuable forms of communication are e-mail and texting." (You can read his article "The New Science of Building Great Teams" on HBR.org)

Open or closed workplace?

In an era in which many people are practicing the New Work techniques of telecommuting and dispersed teams, some truly innovative companies are starting to act on Alex Pentland’s insights. Yahoo notoriously revoked mobile work privileges, because many of the best decisions and ideas occur when people are together physically. And Google's new campus – designed to maximize chance encounters and group collaboration – is a shrine to the face-to-face school of thought.

So which direction do we go in?

• The ‘open’ workplace we have been striving for in the last few years, enabling companies to recruit all over the world and give employees the chance to stay in their familiar environment?
• Or the ‘closed’ workplace, with one central campus, to which the employees commute every day?

This is quite a dilemma – and management needs to decide. In both cases, you need very specific technological equipment that enables optimal collaboration.