The Allen Curve and Hybrid Work

The Allen curve and the Ikea effect (sunk costs increase commitment) suggest why permanent hybrid work models will be tricky and possibly even difficult to sustain. The Allen curve suggests that physical proximity really matters for team building and communications. 

source: WeKnowScreens 

People seated within 10 meters of one another have the highest probability of communication. Employees who sit more than 25 meters apart have a low probability of communication. Team members sitting within the 10-meter to the 25-meter zone are likely to communicate at least once per week.

The issue is how to apply Allen principles to remote workers. 

In his 1977 book, Managing the Flow of Technology, Thomas J. Allen was the first to measure the strong negative correlation between physical distance and frequency of communication. 

The “Allen curve” estimates that we are four times as likely to communicate regularly with someone sitting six feet away from us as with someone 60 feet away, and that we almost never communicate with colleagues on separate floors or in separate buildings.

The Allen curve holds, some argue. In fact, as distance-shrinking technology accelerates, proximity is apparently becoming more important. Studies by Ben Waber show that both face-to-face and digital communications follow the Allen curve.

In one study, engineers who shared a physical office were 20 percent more likely to stay in touch digitally than those who worked elsewhere. And co-located coworkers emailed four times as frequently as colleagues in different locations. 

 

source: Harvard Business Review 

“We do not keep separate sets of people, some of whom we communicate with by one medium and some by another,” Allen said. “The more often we see someone face-to-face, the more likely it is that we will also telephone that person or communicate by another medium.” 

In the hybrid office, where some people are in person and others are remote, working from home has serious implications for being recognized and appreciated and getting bonuses and promotions, the concern might be.