Last week we moved all our tables into one corner of our office, creating a large open space on the other end of the office. Why did we do that? Didn’t we move into our large big new office precisely because we wanted to have more room. Yes, but it turns out that even two more meters between formerly adjacent tables reduce the amount and intensity of communication between those tables.

We are not the only ones who believe proximity improves communication. This graph shows that intensity of communication sharply drops off after even one meter of distance. (Graph taken from Donald Reinertsen’s Book “Managing the Design Factory”).

We have been sitting like that for a week now and I already feel like I am more connected to the “other” half of the team and that we have shorter cycle times for questions and decisions. Plus we now have this great open space in front of our big story board where we can have our stand up meetings every day.