Who Do You Sit Next To?

Researchers examined the 25-foot radius around high-performers at a large technology firm and found that these workers boosted coworkers' performance by 15%. That "positive spillover" translated into an estimated $1 million in additional annual profits, according to new research from Dylan Minor, an assistant professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at the Kellogg School.

However, let's not ignore the negative impact of bad neighbours.  Toxic employees can also have a negative spillover – sometimes having twice the magnitude of impact on profits as a positive spillover. 

Why is negative spillover so much more powerful than positive?

Minor believes it aligns with many other psychological studies showing that "negative effects have more magnitude than positive effects." For example, losing $100 is more painful than winning $100, which is joyful.

"Once a toxic person shows up next to you, your risk of becoming toxic yourself has gone up." 

Don't take this as all bad news, though – companies have a potentially very cheap way to boost productivity! You don't need to implement expensive training sessions or focus more on recruiting; you simply need to shift some desks around or have an open desk policy where people can move to where they want to work daily. 

The Spillover

Kellogg has some good and some bad results to consider.

The good news is that having a high-performing neighbour is a bonus for everyone. Employees who ranked high on either speed or quality boosted the performance of those within a 25-foot radius.

The impact was particularly strong on those matched with someone with a complementary skill. In other words, if Bill is rated high for speed and Bob is rated low, Bob's speed will improve when he sits near Bill, more so than if they were both already speedy workers. The same holds true for quality.

And, crucially, Bill's speed will not be dragged down by his slower-moving neighbour.

"The beautiful part of it is that when we put these people together, they're not going to suffer materially in the area of strength," Minor says. "They're only going to improve on their area of weakness."

Minor explains that this idea of matching people with complementary strengths makes sense when the skill in question has a finite upper limit, like speed. However, for other skills, like creativity, where there is no true upper limit, it might make sense to pair people with the same strengths so that their positive spillover keeps nudging the other to do more creative work.

The bad news is that toxic workers are really, really toxic. And they infect their neighbours very quickly.

"Once a toxic person shows up next to you, your risk of becoming toxic yourself has gone up," Minor says. And while positive spillover was limited to about a 25-foot radius, with toxic workers, "you can see their imprint and negative effect across an entire floor."

Keep in mind how narrowly the researchers defined toxic—someone who is fired for their behaviour. Sitting near someone who gets fired means you are more likely to commit an act heinous enough to merit firing.

And this toxic spillover happens almost immediately. The researchers saw neighbours go bad, so to speak, as soon as that toxic neighbour showed up. On the other hand, positive spillovers that boosted speed or quality generally took a month to impact a lower-performing neighbour.

Why is negative spillover so much more powerful than positive? Minor believes it aligns with many other psychological studies showing that "negative effects have more magnitude than positive effects." For example, losing $100 is more painful than winning $100 is joyful.

But even among the toxic, Minor says there is reason to be reassured. "Once they're transferred or fired, your risk immediately subsides." Plus, he adds, "Most people are not toxic."

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/sitting-near-a-high-performer-can-make-you-better-at-your-job

Office layout and collaboration

Office layout has also played a role in overall employee engagement. Plants promote well-being, lighting influences mood, and even paint colour can affect the activities that happen in any given space. 

This is great news for your company!  Swap people around the office and assess the aesthetics to make it a more productive and successful workplace!