For what it’s worth I actually don’t buy at all that “colocation is desirable for people & teams that are ‘actually trying’.” I’ve worked with dozens of organizations as a strategy consultant over the past decade, during which time I’ve gotten to see a number of different office configurations ranging from 100% place-based to fully virtual and many gradations in between. While this is anecdata, I personally haven’t noticed any correlation whatsoever between the office setup and the effectiveness of the team. I think there are plenty of people who don’t need to be in an office to do their best work and if you have a team of people like that, then you don’t need an office, period.
(Edited to add: I recognize that organizations can have all sorts of reasons for preferring an in-person presence; I was just objecting to the “actually trying” frame. I’ve seen too many 100% virtual teams accomplish incredible things, especially over the past year, to believe that colocation is more than a minor auxiliary factor in facilitating achievement.)
For what it’s worth I actually don’t buy at all that “colocation is desirable for people & teams that are ‘actually trying’.” I’ve worked with dozens of organizations as a strategy consultant over the past decade, during which time I’ve gotten to see a number of different office configurations ranging from 100% place-based to fully virtual and many gradations in between. While this is anecdata, I personally haven’t noticed any correlation whatsoever between the office setup and the effectiveness of the team. I think there are plenty of people who don’t need to be in an office to do their best work and if you have a team of people like that, then you don’t need an office, period.
(Edited to add: I recognize that organizations can have all sorts of reasons for preferring an in-person presence; I was just objecting to the “actually trying” frame. I’ve seen too many 100% virtual teams accomplish incredible things, especially over the past year, to believe that colocation is more than a minor auxiliary factor in facilitating achievement.)